EIGHT DAYS A WEEK-THE TOURING YEARS
Directed by Ron Howard
We saw the film at 10:30 am on a Monday morning. It had quite a large audience in the mid-sized multiplex theater–all people over sixty. People who remember the Beatles and people who were free at that time of day.
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK looks at the first years of the BEATLES. Mostly the time between 1963 and 1966-the years when they toured. After 1966, they only did one additional concert and it was on the roof of their recording studio. The chaos was simply too great at the stadiums where their last concerts played. Scene after scene records the near escapes of the Beatles, the fans, the police.
Although a lot of the footage was familiar, a lot of it wasn’t. You couldn’t help but try to nail what it was about the Beatles that so incited teenage girls. Yes, their songs were different than what was currently on the charts. But more than that, it was their youth, their good looks, their innocence. They seemed like the kind of boy a girl would be safe with. And their songs spoke to the most innocent pleasures. One after the other, the songs addressed the thoughts of the average fifteen year old. Later their music increased in sophistication and their inaccessibility made them a different sort of phenomena.
Also impressive was how close the foursome was in this period. They seemed to think, act, sing, talk with a single point of view. Later, of course, it all changed. As did we.
A very enjoyable movie.
Patti Abbott
