The Scene: The Denver Post
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- The Beatles changed pop music forever. Everybody knows that. But they also changed the movies forever, because of 1964's "A Hard Day's Night," which is being rereleased today in its original version with digitally restored sound. It continues to be as much of a big-screen revelation today as it was when it first appeared. Much of the music, too, hasn't dated.

"A Hard Day's Night's" enduring greatness isn't solely due to The Beatles' presence. The director, a Philadelphian named Richard Lester who had moved to Britain, had apparently been influenced by the French New Wave as well as still-new cinema verite techniques. With the Beatles, he was able to use his loose, jazzy style on a film that was guaranteed a major international audience. His black-and-white movie uses hand-held camera, location shooting that makes the city of London a major character, and sometimes-surreal visual humor and editing. All of that helps match Alun Owen's witty screenplay to the Beatles' personalities.

Its sense of freedom and playfulness, as well as that of another 1964 movie made in England by an American, "Dr. Strangelove," came to represent swinging-1960s London as much as The Beatles' songs and Mary Quant's miniskirts. After "Hard Day's Night" came "Georgie Girl," "Morgan!," "BlowUp," Lester's own "The Knack," and a slew of other hip British films whose impact helped American movies turn on and tune in to changing times.

But I don't think an audience would have accepted Lester's stylistic verve and radicalism without the Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. One of the first things you notice, watching the film now, is how much the bounce and swing of the film's editing and hand-held cinematography is a visual companion to the beat of their rock 'n' roll.

It's like dancing - which is exactly why the audience at the time got it. That bounce also corresponds to the exhilarating liberation that was Beatlemania - not just the music, but the excitement of having something culturally new to care about. The film begins with the opening notes of the song "A Hard Day's Night," which has a sound of a Tibetan monk's growling chant. There are also great sequences scored to "I Should Have Known Better" and "Can't Buy Me Love."

So it is very much a rock 'n' roll film - a Beatles concert with screaming fans closes the movie. But it also is a witty, influential comedy. My favorite moment occurs on a train, when the Beatles are mocking an uptight passenger. He won't let them relax and, when they complain, says he fought the war for them. The Beatles snap back that they bet he's sorry he won - that sums up the changin' times as well as any Dylan song. Then they playfully mock him, one moment running along outside the train and the next right back in. Musically, "A Hard Day's Night" caught the Beatles at a critical moment. They were still very much the group that enjoyed the simple, catchy rock of "Tell Me Why" and "She Loves You" (both featured in the film). But the group (especially Lennon) was also developing a musically ambitious, introspective side that resulted in imaginative songs that were rousing with a touch of melancholy - the title tune, "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You." They were becoming great songwriters, and we can watch it happen in this film.

Another thing you notice is that the London of this film is still relatively drab and dank. In a few years, the London of movies (and pop culture) would be one of Carnaby Street and rock groups smashing guitars in hip clubs. The Beatles changed all that, and "A Hard Day's Night" captures it. Really, it captures almost everything good about its time.