Movie: A Hard Day's Night
Not, as I assumed, some sort of concert documentary, but a farce portraying a sort of parody of a day in the life of the Beatles early in their career as they dodge hordes of screaming fans and...
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A Hard Day's Night (1964)

December 8, 2015 12:31 PM - Subscribe

Not, as I assumed, some sort of concert documentary, but a farce portraying a sort of parody of a day in the life of the Beatles early in their career as they dodge hordes of screaming fans and commit shenanigans and hi-jinks on their way to a live TV concert. I found it charming and very funny.

I just watched this with my family and even with it's 99%-fresh tomatometer rating and ranking on various lists of all-time great comedies, I was still surprised at how much I enjoyed it. All four of the Beatles are charming, have great comic delivery, and even do some good bits of physical comedy. John Lennon, in particular, is as funny as any comic actor I've seen in a movie. Wilfrid Brambell is also wonderful as Paul McCartney's mischievous grandfather and got some of the biggest laughs from us.

But I think the director (Richard "Superman III" Lester!) and editor (John "A Fish Called Wanda" Jympson) deserve the most credit for what makes this movie work. It moves quickly and lightly, never stopping long enough for a joke or scene wear thin (with maybe a couple minor exceptions). Several of the best laughs come from perfectly-timed editing.

The music is wonderful, of course. "And I Love Her" in particular captures what a rich, beautiful sound the four of them could make together. And there are a couple scenes of them sitting around and playing "I Should Have Known Better" and "If I Fell" where they seem to be just having a great time making music together. But (especially during the final concert) I kept feeling the need to assure my kids, "No, really, later they wrote lots of more interesting lyrics than these dippy love songs." And we were all a bit appalled at some of the fundamental sexism back then. "Girls" in this movie pretty much only exist to be ogled, flirted with, or to scream ecstatically at the Beatles.

But we all loved the movie and I expect I'll enjoy watching it again soon with the daughter who wasn't with us. It's one of those movies with so many jokes going by so quickly I'm sure I missed several the first time. I definitely recommend this to anyone who previously dismissed it thinking it might seem dated or boring. It's delightful.

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