The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit

This is essentially a re-edit of the Maysles brothers' documentary about the Beatles' first visit to the US. About 20 minutes from the TV movie version ("What's Happening! The Beatles in the U. S. A.") have been dropped and live footage from their Ed Sullivan Show appearances and their concert at the Washington Coliseum have been inserted.

So, here's the thing. This isn't like most Maysles projects in that they only had a small window to film the band, so the Beatles are constantly aware of and playing to the camera. To be frank, their incessant capering started to get on my nerves, and coupled with the nearly constant sound of young women shrieking at them made this a pretty tough watch. It's an invaluable document, but not one I really enjoyed.