‘Beatles ’64’ takes you back to where it all began
If you were alive on Feb. 9, 1964, and watching “The Ed Sullivan Show,” you’ve likely never forgotten your first encounter with The Beatles. From the opening chords of “All My Loving,” America’s youth were forever changed. Left drowning in their mop-top wake were no less than Elvis Presley and the lingering memories of the J.F.K. assassination a mere 11 weeks earlier. It has since become a cultural touchstone witnessed live by a whopping 74 million on TV and a few hundred very lucky people – mostly teen girls – in attendance at the now legendary Ed Sullivan Theater.
I remember that night nearly 61 years ago like it was yesterday, making me the target audience for “Beatles ’64,” the Martin Scorsese-produced music documentary that presents the phenomenon from the perspective of the lads from Liverpool. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. Nor are there any revelations or profound pontifications, unless you count the clips of Marshall McLuhan discussing the Brits’ impact on the mass media. But for nostalgia’s sake, it’s irresistible, particularly the pristinely restored footage shot by groundbreakiing documentarians Albert and David Maysles (“Gimme Shelter”) while they were embedded with the Fab Four for the duration of the group’s first trip across the pond.
Seeing it in 4K is breathtaking. And what I noticed most was how closely their black-and-white footage resembled the prefabricated scenes from “A Hard Day’s Night.” And what’s revealed are four distinct personalities with a shared charm that was as infectious as their game-changing music. It was clear from the get-go that John was the intellectual, Paul the naive pretty boy, Ringo the resident Marx Brother, and George the quiet sage utterly unphased by the chaos surrounding him and his mates. Then there are the performances on Sullivan, at Carnegie Hall and in Washington, D.C., all perfectly restored in stereophonic bliss.
Being a film geek, I found it impossible not to appreciate the Maysles as much as The Beatles. They didn’t know it then, but they were revolutionizing the medium with their vérité style. There are a few moments when the lads tease the brothers, looking straight into the cameras. But for the most part, they – and you – forget the Maysles are even there. If anyone is spoiling the party it’s the obnoxious New York rock jock Murray the K, who infiltrates the band’s bunker inside the Plaza Hotel seeking to stroke his enormous ego by scoring exclusive interviews.
Other guests stop by, most notably Ronnie Spector, whose sister was dating George at the time. Knowing the guys were seeking an oasis from the crazed crowds, she and the Ronnettes whisk them off to a nondescript eatery in Harlem, where the mostly Black and brown clientele didn’t know The Beatles from Adam. While they snacked anonymously, the Maysles headed outside for some on-the-street interviews with the locals, all of them Black and mostly unimpressed by their famous visitors.
One African-American who was awed was Smokey Robinson, who is effusive in his recounting the thrill of having his “You Really Got a Hold on Me” covered by the pop sensations on their album, “With the Beatles.” He’s just one of the folks director David Tedeschi interviews in the present. Others include folks as diverse as David Lynch and Jamie Bernstein, daughter of Leonard, both forever changed by what they heard during The Beatles’ first visit to the States.
Less intriguing are the pontifications by relative unknowns such as writers Jane Tompkins and Joe Queenan, who is a bit melodramatic, tearing up while thinking about his first encounter with The Beatles, which he says “Was like the light came on.” They along with a couple of die-hards in Vickie Brenna-Costa and music producer Jack Douglas, both of whom went to extraordinary lengths just to get a glimpse at their heroes, add a splash of color but not much else.
As for The Beatles, we hear from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr contemporarily, and the deceased John Lennon and George Harrison via archival interviews recorded years after the fact. Some of their hindsight recollections are interesting, but mostly they’re a distraction from what we crave: more of the jaw-dropping moments the Maysles captured for the BBC documentary, “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.”
Tedeschi seeks to weave the old and new but it is edited inconsistently, lacking a common thread. It feels more like a hodgepodge than a well-thought-out representation of the origins of Beatlemania. But if you look past the lame attempts to render the film current, “Beatles ’64” is a real treasure, an opened time capsule that instantly takes you back to your youth.
Well, it will if you’re 65 or older. If you’re on the other side of that divide, I doubt the film will resonate as deeply. But it will give the members of Gen X, Y and Z a sample of how nutty their parents and grandparents behaved at the onset of the British Invasion. Not only did it forever change music, it changed a nation shrouded in grief, teaching us to live, laugh and love again, one “yeah, yeah, yeah” at a time.
Movie review
Beatles ’64
Rated: Not rated
Featuring: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Ronnie Spector, Smoky Robinson, David Lynch, Jamie Bernstein, Joe Queenan, Vickie Brenna-Costa, Jack Douglas and Jane Tompkins
Director: David Tedeschi
Runtime: 106 minutes
Where: Premieres Nov. 29 on Disney+
Grade: B
