'A Hard Day's Night' - 50 Years

It's no surprise that the Beatles' music has lasted so long.  It should also come as no surprise that A Hard Day's Night - the first and still the best of the Beatles' movies - has also lasted.

A Hard Day's Night, which opened in the United States fifty years ago today (its world premiere in London was on July 6, 1964), could have been a miserable little film by putting the Beatles in cutesy-pie roles and requiring them to romp about like so many teen idols - including, after awhile, Elvis Presley, alas - before them.  But the movie became a classic by capitalizing on their natural personalities and illuminating their actual lives.  The movie depicts an exaggerated snapshot of how the Beatles lived out their days in 1963 and  1964; constant touring, television appearances, and arduous travel.  It presented them as real people, and it did so with some sly humor.  Screenwriter Alun Owen threw in numerous witticisms and irreverent situations for the Fabs to play upon, from John Lennon's deft handling of questions of the press to Paul McCartney keeping tabs on his mischievous grandfather (played by British TV actor Wilfrid Brambell), a little old man known for his cleanliness . . ..  "He's filthy rich, of course,"  "Oh, I don't know . . . he looks quite clean to me!" :-D

The overall irreverence of the Beatles and the cheek and charm of their music is played out in a sharp, subtle use of black and white film, giving A Hard Day's Night a classy documentary feel.  It features confined photography showing the Beatles' cramped existence and juxtaposing them with expansive scenes of wild abandon where the band escape their confines and burst with energy (such as when they take to an athletic field), along with artistic uses of lighting that include a camera pointed straight into a bright light.  Director Richard Lester adds surreal moments from George Harrison showing Shake how to use a manual razor ("I come from a long line of electricians!") by shaving his mirror image to Ringo Starr strolling down a riverbank and knowing a thing or two about the friends of a boy he's just met.  The film depicts the Beatles as a strong, tightly knit unit that the rest of us - and the film's supporting characters, including the hapless television director (played by Victor Spinetti) - can't quite understand . . . but they (and we) appreciate the phenomenon.

The music is what ultimately makes the Beatles the Beatles, and the build-up to the final concert in the movie, after all the work and preparation they've put into their efforts (and the setbacks they've had to go through) prepares the viewer for an ecstatic release only their music and their chemistry can provide.

I could go on with a lot of academic mumbo-jumbo about what makes A Hard Day's Night so great, but if you want to understand what Beatlemania was about, this movie will depict it personally.  Numerous pop acts have tried to live up to the standard of A Hard Day's Night in their own movies, but their efforts only show how a pop movie like A Hard Day's Night, like the phenomenon of the Beatles themselves, is unlikely to be duplicated or repeated.