Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour was the first project by the Beatles after the death of their manager and it shows. This film is disorganized, cluttered, plotless, psychadelic, over the top, and represents perfectly what the Beatles were living through at that present time.

And that's what film is all about.

Like "A Hard Day's Night" a mere three years earlier which captured a day in the life of the Beatles, this film shows what the Beatles were living and experiencing then. Imagine it: you're a famous British rock star who captured the world with Beatlemania, you're on your own now, you're watching and helping shape pop culture around the world, you're sampling the sexual, drug, and youth revolutions of 1967, and you want to capture it on film.

The Beatles tried to do that with this film and it's hit and miss. But where else will you see a performance of "I Am The Walrus"? You can see where each of the Beatles were heading: John wrote the spaghetti dream sequence and was in real life deeply into surrealism. George plays "Blue Jay Way" and his Indian mysticism comes through. Paul contributes "The Fool On The Hill" and supervised the film shoot. Ringo is giving the acting job in the film and went on to star in other 1960s films such as "Candy" and "The Magic Christian".

Many people have dismissed this film as a failure and a mess. Watch through the eyes of the Beatles and it's not so bad after all. When I first screened this movie, I watched it at least six times trying to find out the plot, etc. I failed but had fun watching it. And that's the whole point.