Movies - A Hard Day's Night

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	Movies - A Hard Day's Night

The film A Hard Day's Night (1964) is a mockumentary written by Alun Owen and starring The Beatles during the height of Beatlemania. The director was Richard Lester, the producer Walter Shenson and the director of photography Gilbert Taylor. In addition to the Beatles, cast members included Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Lionel Blair, Victor Spinetti and Derek Nimmo. The soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night was the Beatles' third. The film premiered on July 6, 1964.

Background

The film was shot for United Artists using a cinéma vérité style in black and white and produced over a period of 16 weeks in the spring of 1964. Black and white was chosen for its lower cost, and the short timescale was because the studio was convinced that Beatlemania would not last beyond the summer of '64. (Their primary interest in making the movie, in fact, were the potential sales from licensing a soundtrack album.) The film also used the innovative technique of cutting the images to the beat of the music, and because of this many see the film as playing a major role in development of modern music videos, especially the "Can't Buy Me Love" segment, which featured creative camera work, and the band running and jumping around in a field.

The film's director, Richard Lester, also directed the Beatles' 1965 film, Help!
. He went on to direct several popular motion pictures of the 1970s and 1980s, including The Three Musketeers
and Superman II
.

Two extras would become famous in their own right. Phil Collins was an extra in the concert sequence and later became the drummer for Genesis. Pattie Boyd later married both George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

Plot

Unlike the standard rock and roll movies of the early 1960s, which tended to lack a plot, A Hard Day's Night had a solid, well-written script at the insistence of the Beatles and manager Brian Epstein. Screenwriter Alun Owen was chosen because they were familiar with his play No Trams to Lime Street, and Owen had a knack for Liverpudlian dialogue.

The film chronicles in a mock documentary-style the Beatles arriving at a theatre, rehearsing, and finally performing in a television special. Owen spent several days with the group, who told him their lives were like "a room and a car and a room and a car and a room and car". He realized by 1964 the Beatles were prisoners of their own fame, and their schedule of performances and studio work by that time was extremely punishing, and wrote it into the script. As such the film is one of the best depictions of Beatlemania. In various places, the Beatles comment cheekily on their own fame: for instance, at one point a fan takes John Lennon for John Lennon; he demurs, saying his face isn't quite right. The fan eventually agrees.

Reception

New York Times film critic Bosely Crowther noted the film is also a subtle satire on the image of rock-and-roll music (and the Beatles in particular) as a source of youth rebellion and defiance of authority. In the film, the Beatles are portrayed as likeable young lads who are constantly amazed at the attention they receive and who want nothing more than run around and have a good time; however, they have to deal with screaming crowds, idiot journalists who ask nonsense questions, and authority figures who constantly look down upon them. The biggest troublemaker in the film is an elderly senior citizen, Paul McCartney's "clean" grandfather (played by Wilfrid Brambell).

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Movies - A Hard Day's Night

Background

Plot

Reception

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