A Hard Day’s Night (1964; Richard Lester) is a black and white British musical comedy presented as a mockumentary that was released at the height of Beatlemania by United Artists with a sequel releasing 1 year later called HELP! The film centres around The Fab Four, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (played by themselves) as they prepare for a live TV performance in front of an erratic audience. It’s mostly filmed in a way as if the audience is watching an over-the-top day in the life of The Beatles. The film starts as John, George and Ringo are chased around Liverpool by hypo fans with that iconic guitar riff catching you off guard from the song A Hard Day’s Night causing George then Ringo to accidentally trip over to immediately ‘get back’ up as they make their way from Lime Street Station to London with Paul’s clean-shaven grandfather and managers Norm and Shake. Here we see them trying to have fun on their own only to be forced by Norm to go to a press interview where they give ridiculous answers to formulaic questions (some based on actual questions they were asked) and simply also try not to get into any mischief before the live show.
This film wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for the line delivery from The Beatles since they had already proven to be quite funny with each other due to the cheeky and relatable style of sense of humour making this one of the most charming, yet deadpan films you could ever see. I can’t help but smirk when Norm (CU) asks Ringo “what he’s up to” and he replies back “page 8” so casually as we cut to an MLS of Ringo reading a magazine. The acting as well from The Beatles is quite good considering they only had 7 weeks to film as well as this being their first acting role. However, the first 15 minutes may be off-putting for both new and old viewers since they were the first scenes to be filmed meaning this is where the acting is at its most stiff and awkwardly bad at times.
The film itself has been credited by many including MTV for being the film to popularise the music video of all things. This is because The Beatles had to record 7 new tracks at EMI Studios (Abbey Road Studios) to be released alongside the film onto the A-Side of the LP that shares the same name with the title track, and the film. These 7 new tracks as well as other already released tracks from their discography were lip-synced to as they were being filmed. At the time, this would have been for most the first time these tracks were ever heard by many and were used perfectly to distract the audience from the narrative and just listen to them do what they do best, sing. The way these scenes were filmed too is unbelievable since actual thought was put into how they were filmed. One example of this is during the And I Love Her scene which is around 2:36 minutes long. Here The Beatles are rehearsing for their concert that same day and the camera during this scene moves very moderately and uses many slow dissolves which perfectly matches the gentle, lullaby atmosphere of the song and McCartney’s soothing, comforting voice. Compare this to the Can’t Buy Me Love scene which is around 2:14 minutes long. This time The Beatles are free for the first time and use this chance to play schoolyard games and just have time with themselves. The camera here feels more handheld, and the cuts are more rapid, which matches the more energetic, jazzy track. Another thing I like about this scene is the use of a crane shot to show the open space they are surrounded by which implies this is the first time throughout the film they finally have freedom, which is ironic since they escape through an exit door.
The only real issue aside from the acting in the beginning is how the forced the 3rd act drama feels as Grandad causes Ringo to storm out and explore life instead of a reader (makes sense if you watch it). In a way this feels like something he would do and whilst some of the scenes to come out of this are enjoyable and even sorry for Ringo (probably because he was hung-over during the filming of these scenes), it just feels like the producers needed an extra 15 minutes of film to make it to the 1hr 30mins line exactly.
Overall, this is without a doubt one of my favourite films and I feel as though people should watch this to see how far we have come in exploiting icons. Where this feels like effort was put into making an adequate film, these methods nowadays feel like a way of exploiting young stars simply for big profits such as Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling or every TikTok star who appear in every Netflix rom/com even if they can’t act. I also feel as though people should watch it to see how far the production of music videos have come with many including larger budgets with special effects and paid extras.
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