A Hard Day’s Night (1964) Review
The trailer for the remastered edition of A Hard Day’s Night:
The Beatles. They’re icons in the music industry and still continue to remain popular with fans today. The group made four theatrical films and one TV film, and today I’ll be talking about their first and my personal favorite of their movies: A Hard Day’s Night.
A Hard Day’s Night follows a day in the life of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as they prepare for a TV appearance. And that’s basically it. While several things do happen along the way, the main plotline itself is pretty simple, basically allowing us to see how the Beatles interacted with others and what antics they pulled offstage. Of course, this is all fictional, though there is some truth towards the film’s portrayal of the group. In particular, their wit in this film seems very much like the wit they often had in interviews. The writer, Alun Owen, spent a few days interacting with the Beatles to get an idea of their personalities and he seemed to have captured that faithfully in the writing.
Due to its simple plot, this film has to rely heavily on the characters, which it does very well with, and not just the Beatles either. There’s Norm, who plays a very fatherly-like role to the boys as their manager and while he is portrayed as a buzz-kill in the boys’ eyes, we can actually see that there are a lot of insecurities to him that make him the most relatable character in the whole film. He gets mad at their road manager, Shake, for always being taller than him (both figuratively and literally) and verbally expresses his sadness over Lennon’s clear joy out of seeing him be miserable.
The standout of the supporting actors is Wilfred Brambell as Paul’s “clean” grandfather. A kooky troublemaker that even the Beatles have trouble with, he provides a lot of laughs due to his bizarre behavior, like when he’s escaping from the police station, not realizing that they’re not actually arresting him.
The various events that the Beatles attend are things that you’d expect from a music group. They attend a press conference, wait in a hotel overnight, and are forced to wait while makeup is applied to their faces. These aren’t interesting events themselves, but the Beatles make them work with their sharp wit and one-liners. In the book, The Beatles Anthology, John mentioned that they hated watching the train scenes in particular because their nervousness shines through in their acting. In my opinion, this actuallly helps the film by playing up the more childish aspects to the Beatles as characters.
The closest thing to a conflict that this film has is when Ringo leaves the studio to explore the world towards the end. Having been stuck watching the same location for the second half of the film, this is a very welcome change, allowing us to see some exterior shots. This also eventually leads to a chase involving all four Beatles and a bunch of police officers that is pointless and doesn’t even make all that much sense, but is so energetic and funny that honestly I can’t help but love it.
Then there’s the music. I mean, it is the Beatles we’re talking about. The soundtrack being great is kind of a given. I will say this, though. This was made still fairly early on in their careers, and while it has a few slower love songs, it mainly is made up of songs that are similar in songwriting to early compositions like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” (the latter of which appears at the end). Some fans are not particularly fond of this early style, especially compared to their later work, but personally I love this style just as much as their later work. Both work in their own ways that make them unique, and as I mentioned, it does have songs like “If I Fell,” which show early signs of the sophistication that later compositions would achieve. It should also be noted that some of the songs (notably “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You”) are performed in different keys in the film compared to the album, which in its own way makes the music in the film worth listening to as a way of comparing different interpretations between the film and soundtrack.
Some of the music scenes are shot in a way that make them feel like early music videos, and they could probably play just fine on their own if someone only wanted to watch those scenes, since little context is needed.
A Hard Day’s Night is a very fun way to spend an hour and a half. In the end, your enjoyment will basically stem down to whether you’re a Beatles fan or not. If you’re not, you’ll probably find this a chore to sit through, but if you are, then this will be a good way to make up for your own hard day’s night.
10 out of 10
A Hard Day’s Night follows a day in the life of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as they prepare for a TV appearance. And that’s basically it. While several things do happen along the way, the main plotline itself is pretty simple, basically allowing us to see how the Beatles interacted with others and what antics they pulled offstage. Of course, this is all fictional, though there is some truth towards the film’s portrayal of the group. In particular, their wit in this film seems very much like the wit they often had in interviews. The writer, Alun Owen, spent a few days interacting with the Beatles to get an idea of their personalities and he seemed to have captured that faithfully in the writing.
Due to its simple plot, this film has to rely heavily on the characters, which it does very well with, and not just the Beatles either. There’s Norm, who plays a very fatherly-like role to the boys as their manager and while he is portrayed as a buzz-kill in the boys’ eyes, we can actually see that there are a lot of insecurities to him that make him the most relatable character in the whole film. He gets mad at their road manager, Shake, for always being taller than him (both figuratively and literally) and verbally expresses his sadness over Lennon’s clear joy out of seeing him be miserable.
The standout of the supporting actors is Wilfred Brambell as Paul’s “clean” grandfather. A kooky troublemaker that even the Beatles have trouble with, he provides a lot of laughs due to his bizarre behavior, like when he’s escaping from the police station, not realizing that they’re not actually arresting him.
The various events that the Beatles attend are things that you’d expect from a music group. They attend a press conference, wait in a hotel overnight, and are forced to wait while makeup is applied to their faces. These aren’t interesting events themselves, but the Beatles make them work with their sharp wit and one-liners. In the book, The Beatles Anthology, John mentioned that they hated watching the train scenes in particular because their nervousness shines through in their acting. In my opinion, this actuallly helps the film by playing up the more childish aspects to the Beatles as characters.
The closest thing to a conflict that this film has is when Ringo leaves the studio to explore the world towards the end. Having been stuck watching the same location for the second half of the film, this is a very welcome change, allowing us to see some exterior shots. This also eventually leads to a chase involving all four Beatles and a bunch of police officers that is pointless and doesn’t even make all that much sense, but is so energetic and funny that honestly I can’t help but love it.
Then there’s the music. I mean, it is the Beatles we’re talking about. The soundtrack being great is kind of a given. I will say this, though. This was made still fairly early on in their careers, and while it has a few slower love songs, it mainly is made up of songs that are similar in songwriting to early compositions like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” (the latter of which appears at the end). Some fans are not particularly fond of this early style, especially compared to their later work, but personally I love this style just as much as their later work. Both work in their own ways that make them unique, and as I mentioned, it does have songs like “If I Fell,” which show early signs of the sophistication that later compositions would achieve. It should also be noted that some of the songs (notably “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You”) are performed in different keys in the film compared to the album, which in its own way makes the music in the film worth listening to as a way of comparing different interpretations between the film and soundtrack.
Some of the music scenes are shot in a way that make them feel like early music videos, and they could probably play just fine on their own if someone only wanted to watch those scenes, since little context is needed.
A Hard Day’s Night is a very fun way to spend an hour and a half. In the end, your enjoyment will basically stem down to whether you’re a Beatles fan or not. If you’re not, you’ll probably find this a chore to sit through, but if you are, then this will be a good way to make up for your own hard day’s night.
10 out of 10
My Mom saw this in a movie theater in 1964 and told me girls were screaming in the lobby. No, The Beatles themselves were not there. Shows how insane Beatlemania was. What's incredible about this film is how The Beatles act fairly natural in front of the camera for inexperienced actors. Love the John scene where the woman questions whether it's really John or not...Lennon's natural sarcasm comes through. Amazing how they wrote for their personalities. The "clean old man" running gag is classic, and the music is of course top notch. My favorite of their early albums in general.
ReplyDeleteScreaming in the lobby, huh? People today would get thrown out for that. Goes to show how big the influence of the Beatles was.
DeleteYeah, this is my favorite of their early albums too and, in my opinion, their most consistently good album. Some of their later albums were better, though they all had at least one stinker on them (sorry Sgt. Pepper fans, but I hate “She’s Leaving Home”).