Beatles ‘64
In 1964, The Beatles head for New York and discover that the whole world is watching…
A ticket to ride: Paul, George, Ringo and John
Image courtesy of Disney+.
When John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world, he allegedly replied, “let’s face it, he wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles.” If Lennon were alive today, he might have said that Beatles ’64 wasn’t even the best Beatles documentary of the decade. Immediately after the film ends on Disney+, the viewer is invited to watch Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back. Then there’s Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let it Be, and then the six-part series McCartney 1,2,3 with Rick Rubin… – and that’s just one streaming platform. Of course, The Beatles provide a rich source of material and the hyperbole doesn’t come much thicker than in David Tedeschi’s Beatles ’64, a chronicle of the Fab Four’s trip to America. On the verge of tears, the satirist and critic Joe Queenan says, “it’s like the light came on. It’s like total darkness, and then the light comes on. It was, ‘Oh, my God – this sounds good.’ [It was] something for us. They could have been from Mars.” The darkness came in the wake of the assassination of John F.K. in November of 1963 and America was in desperate need of a fresh jolt of optimism. The timing was perfect.
David Tedeschi’s documentary is unusual in that it’s a documentary within a documentary, drawing considerably on the footage captured by the late Albert and David Maysles in their 1964 film What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. Since then, the Maysles’ film has been restored and Martin Scorsese, director of George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), has included scenes that were previously excised and has tacked on a series of interviews with musicians, commentators, writer and fans to attest to the orgasmic tsunami of adulation. One beautiful fan is stopped in the street and asked what she likes about The Beatles, whereupon she is distorted into a Munchian demon, screaming, “everything!” Placards in the street scream even louder: “Ringo for President!” The director David Lynch talks of “the palpable energy and the joy – that’s my church.” More self-effacingly, Paul McCartney dismisses one question: “It’s not culture, it’s a good time.” And, boy, do John, Paul, George and Ringo have a good time. And their joyfulness is infectious.
After navigating the hordes of fans in New York, The Beatles await the moment of their deification – when they appear on The Ed Sullivan Show at 8pm on 9 February (alongside Georgia Brown and Tessie O’Shea) and are watched by millions; 73 million to be exact. America, it seems, was never the same again. Much of what we see here is old news, yet much of it is previously unseen footage, and with Scorsese himself interviewing Paul and Ringo, there is a freshness to the proceedings that is invigorating. This is history, albeit wrapped in popular culture, but history nonetheless: a documentary of New York, of the decade’s racism, the classism of the British empire (shame on the British Embassy in Washington!) and, finally, the group’s concluding pitstop at Miami Beach. Long before the cynicism of the late 1960s set in, it’s a pleasure to re-visit the witty bonhomie of these talented, fresh-faced singer-songwriters, who no doubt still have a whole symphony of documentaries in them.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Joe Queenan, Vickie Brenna-Costa, Martin Scorsese, Jamie Bernstein, Ronnie Spector, Jack Douglas, Terence Trent D'Arby (as Sananda Maitreya), Jane Tompkins, Smokey Robinson, Harry Benson, David Lynch, Ronald Isley, Murray the K, Betty Friedan.
Dir David Tedeschi, Pro Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Jonathan Clyde and Mikaela Beardsley, Ex Pro Rick Yorn, Ph Ellen Kuras, Ed Mariah Rehmet.
Apple Corps/Sikelia Productions-Disney+.
107 mins. UK/USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 29 November 2024. Cert. 16+.
