Beatles '64
- 2024
- 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
2.8K
YOUR RATING
The capture of the electrifying moment of The Beatles' first visit to the United States.The capture of the electrifying moment of The Beatles' first visit to the United States.The capture of the electrifying moment of The Beatles' first visit to the United States.
- Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys
- 1 win & 5 nominations total
The Beatles
- Themselves
- (archive footage)
John Lennon
- Self
- (archive footage)
George Harrison
- Self
- (archive footage)
Ronnie Spector
- Self - The Ronettes
- (archive footage)
Terence Trent D'Arby
- Self - Artist
- (as Sananda Maitreya)
- …
Featured reviews
Paul and Ringo were listed on the long list of producers to this documentary, and being the last of the Fab Four, provided some modern commentary. They certainly do not need the money, so its puzzling as to what they thought this added to The Beatles history. And that's what it is, just one year, all be it a milestone one in which they 'conquered America'.
Its a bit of a hotch potch of footage and interviews, both of the times and contemporary. Some of the live music performances were effectively used, the sound was good, and they provided short intervals of interest.
One for die hard Beatles fans only.
Its a bit of a hotch potch of footage and interviews, both of the times and contemporary. Some of the live music performances were effectively used, the sound was good, and they provided short intervals of interest.
One for die hard Beatles fans only.
A better title for this latest Beatles-featured movie would really have been "Beatles in America '64" when you consider that in that same year they elsewhere recorded two albums, an EP, and three singles, one of which which contained a non-album A and B-side. Then of course they made the "A Hard Day's Night" movie, toured the UK, Australia and Europe and made various promotional television appearances besides. Most acts today would struggle to do all that in five years I dare say.
The movie makes extensive use of the vérité footage shot by the Maysles Brothers at the time, interspersed with news bulletins and interview inserts with all four Beatles, naturally of the archive variety with John and George accompanying present-day pieces by Paul and Ringo.
Being the dyed-in-the-wool fan that I am I naturally enjoyed every minute of it, but I wouldn't say I saw anything here which really surprised me or didn't seem familiar in some way. The Beatles all come over strongly as individuals but what is clear is the tight collective unit they had already become, an inner circle if you will, which only a precious few got to really invade, people I suppose like Brian Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and George Martin of course, as well as the wives and girlfriends, although apart from a few fleeting glimpses of Cynthia Lennon, none of these people make much of an appearance, if at all.
There are also a predictable number of "talking head" interviews with contemporary artists, reminiscing and philosophising as is their wont, most strangely including the current incarnation of the artist once known as Terence Trent D'arby plus Leonard Bernstein's daughter and future Lennon producer Jack Douglas who at least has an interesting Beatles-related story of his own to tell.
The music is of course vintage moptop magic as you see and hear them perform their superb early repertoire on TV and live in concert, their playing and singing sharp and on point, before the screamers and jellybean throwers spoiled it for them.
It was nice to see now and then interviews with their predominantly young female fanbase which are contrasted at one point with some input from a bunch of cool, young on-the-street black dudes into Miles and Coltrane who respectfully resist any temptation to diss the new white kids on the block.
There were lots of nice moments but like I said not much fresh insight into the whole Beatlemania phenomenon which I guess may have been the point of the movie. The usual readacross is plied that timing was everything, given the band's arrival Stateside in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. The comment that most caught my ear however was from the young McCartney who, when asked by a prescient interviewer if he thought that there was a wider cultural impact the Beatles were having on society, simply smiles and mocks the question, disarmingly stating that all they were doing was just having a laugh.
How wrong he was.
The movie makes extensive use of the vérité footage shot by the Maysles Brothers at the time, interspersed with news bulletins and interview inserts with all four Beatles, naturally of the archive variety with John and George accompanying present-day pieces by Paul and Ringo.
Being the dyed-in-the-wool fan that I am I naturally enjoyed every minute of it, but I wouldn't say I saw anything here which really surprised me or didn't seem familiar in some way. The Beatles all come over strongly as individuals but what is clear is the tight collective unit they had already become, an inner circle if you will, which only a precious few got to really invade, people I suppose like Brian Epstein, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and George Martin of course, as well as the wives and girlfriends, although apart from a few fleeting glimpses of Cynthia Lennon, none of these people make much of an appearance, if at all.
There are also a predictable number of "talking head" interviews with contemporary artists, reminiscing and philosophising as is their wont, most strangely including the current incarnation of the artist once known as Terence Trent D'arby plus Leonard Bernstein's daughter and future Lennon producer Jack Douglas who at least has an interesting Beatles-related story of his own to tell.
The music is of course vintage moptop magic as you see and hear them perform their superb early repertoire on TV and live in concert, their playing and singing sharp and on point, before the screamers and jellybean throwers spoiled it for them.
It was nice to see now and then interviews with their predominantly young female fanbase which are contrasted at one point with some input from a bunch of cool, young on-the-street black dudes into Miles and Coltrane who respectfully resist any temptation to diss the new white kids on the block.
There were lots of nice moments but like I said not much fresh insight into the whole Beatlemania phenomenon which I guess may have been the point of the movie. The usual readacross is plied that timing was everything, given the band's arrival Stateside in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. The comment that most caught my ear however was from the young McCartney who, when asked by a prescient interviewer if he thought that there was a wider cultural impact the Beatles were having on society, simply smiles and mocks the question, disarmingly stating that all they were doing was just having a laugh.
How wrong he was.
It provided a fantastic insight into what was going on during the US visit. The film showcased how the Beatles acted on and off stage, as well as providing information about what happened when they arrived in America and the impact their music had on the people. The quality of the archive footage was excellent. The soundtrack of the movie was outstanding and the interviews were interesting.
What it lacks is narration, but I believe they were trying for a "stock footage" approach and enabling you, the audience, to put it together. There was some storytelling in text form, but it wasn't enough for me, and it felt slightly "missing something".
Overall, the film is an 8 but I gave it a 9 cause I am a fan of the band.
What it lacks is narration, but I believe they were trying for a "stock footage" approach and enabling you, the audience, to put it together. There was some storytelling in text form, but it wasn't enough for me, and it felt slightly "missing something".
Overall, the film is an 8 but I gave it a 9 cause I am a fan of the band.
Since this documentary was produced for the Disney streaming channel you should probably assume that it's not for the super hardcore fans who are always grumpy and impossible to please. It's much more for the casual fan. And for young people (under 40 let's say) who know very little about The Beatles.
There are lots of "talking heads" interviews which are okay, but not really all that exciting to watch. Some are more interesting than others.
The old footage of The Beatles performing and not performing is the most enjoyable to watch. I saw quite a bit of footage that I had never seen before and there are some wonderful moments.
There are also some ugly moments, too. There's one moment when a New York City cop threatens to throw two teenage girls down a flight of stairs just because they aren't staying at the hotel. Yikes! Talk about police brutality! The girls were very peaceful and didn't deserve that.
There's also an ugly moment when some random male adult is telling young teenage girls that their love of The Beatles is "psycho-sexual" and that they are "sick". That guy seemed totally perverted! He was the one who was "sick". What a weirdo.
The musical performances sounded really good, especially listening with headphones.
Anyway, overall I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend watching it.
There are lots of "talking heads" interviews which are okay, but not really all that exciting to watch. Some are more interesting than others.
The old footage of The Beatles performing and not performing is the most enjoyable to watch. I saw quite a bit of footage that I had never seen before and there are some wonderful moments.
There are also some ugly moments, too. There's one moment when a New York City cop threatens to throw two teenage girls down a flight of stairs just because they aren't staying at the hotel. Yikes! Talk about police brutality! The girls were very peaceful and didn't deserve that.
There's also an ugly moment when some random male adult is telling young teenage girls that their love of The Beatles is "psycho-sexual" and that they are "sick". That guy seemed totally perverted! He was the one who was "sick". What a weirdo.
The musical performances sounded really good, especially listening with headphones.
Anyway, overall I enjoyed it quite a bit and would recommend watching it.
In the wake of Peter Jackson's excellent GET BACK we seem to be getting a lot more films dealing with The Beatles; as a fan of the Fab Four that's no bad thing for me and the four new biopics currently in production sound pretty interesting too. BEATLES '64 is, by comparison, fairly straightforward, an ordinary clip compilation of footage assembled from the breakout year for the performers. Obviously with Martin Scorsese producting a lot of this is American-centric, but it all works very nicely and there's plenty of music too which helps. Nice to see Paul and Ringo making appearances too! A reasonable effort.
Did you know
- TriviaIn a 2024 interview with Variety, David Tedeschi spoke about some of the previously unseen footage and one interview in particular that surprised him: "That Harlem footage had never been seen before. So you have various reactions from young, black teenage girls and boys, and a few older people, and of course you have these young men in the record store. The one guy says, 'It's just disgusting the way they play that music over and over again. I like Miles Davis. I like John Coltrane.' But it was sort of interesting the way the teenage girls in Harlem just loved The Beatles, loved their hair, loved their music. That to me was a surprising thing, because of course the civil rights movement was going on. Of course I knew that later on when they actually toured the States, they refused to play before segregated audiences. But when we decided to interview Smokey Robinson, I didn't expect him to say everything that he said. One of the things was that the Beatles were the first white artist of their magnitude that said they loved and learned from black music and sang black music. We have several people, from David Lynch to Smokey, talking about the power of music, I thought in a very beautiful way. And when Smokey says in regards to the audiences being desegregated, that it gave kids a common love and that it was the power of music that literally overcame the barrier that was set up between the white audience and the black audience, I thought that was really a wonderful thing for him to say, and unexpected."
- Quotes
Self - Writer: It was so visceral, the reaction to The Beatles' music. You know, something we couldn't explain in words. That's why we screamed, because it was just coming out of some non-verbal place.
- ConnectionsFeatures The Ed Sullivan Show: Meet The Beatles (1964)
- SoundtracksShe Loves You
Performed By The Beatles
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 46m(106 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD
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