© Apple Corps
THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK – THE TOURING YEARS
Director:
Ron Howard
Premiere:
London (September 2015)
About:
A look back at the heyday of Beatlemania.
Taking on an iconic band about which virtually everything already has been uncovered and dissected in countless books, articles, films, and television programs, Ron Howard inevitably will not please all viewers. As clearly signaled by its title, his film is limited in scope to a few short years, 1962-1966, which saw the Fab Four move beyond the UK and take America, and the rest of the world, by storm, until the chaotic nature of their live performances proved to be too much for the band. As an official Apple Corps project, Howard benefits by being able to use notoriously difficult to license music and footage, but also understandably avoids any real controversy with which die-hard Beatles fans – the primary, nostalgic audience here – are already very familiar anyway. What the film does, and does well, is serve as an engaging and enjoyable reminder of the scale of Beatlemania and its unprecedented impact on popular culture.
what (not) to doc 