It's questionable whether or not The Beatles will ever be matched as a pop culture phenomena. As they returned from their first ground-breaking tour of America, BBC television covered live their arrival home to Britain. The Saturday afternoon sports show Grandstand was jettisoned, its long-standing presenter David Coleman dispatched to Heathrow to interview the group fresh off the plane. It's difficult to imagine such coverage for any band ever occurring again.
Snippets of the broadcast were shown at the beginning of Ron Howard's documentary which promised a story we didn't know.
Taking a chronological stance the film proceeded to tell the tale of the pleasantly naïve, mop-topped heart throbs transforming into more cynical businessmen touring solely for the wealth it brought them, their record contract giving them only scant royalties. Sadly, as the Fab Four tired of the constant demands of touring and its lack of artistic integrity, the film tired with it.
Most of the footage shown seemed pretty familiar and the film failed to bring many fresh insights into the band or its culture. Some celebrity interviews interspersed throughout the film proved to be a mixed bag. Those telling contemporary tales of how they remembered the tours were more relevant than later era artists putting their hearsay opinions forward.
Ron Howard is all too often an under-rated director but on this occasion, his work does come across as a little slapdash and superficial. It's difficult not to compare with Martin Scorsese's far superior, and much longer, doco, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Scorsese's film, which was clearly a labour of love for him, was filled with interesting vignettes, treating its subject matter with respect but never falling into hagiography.
The Beatles, quite rightly, occupy a hallowed place in the history of British culture. Their importance exceeds that of Kipling and Elgar, surely on a par with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. This inconsequential film is pleasant viewing and the music always toe- tapping but it is far from being definitive and lacks gravitas.
Snippets of the broadcast were shown at the beginning of Ron Howard's documentary which promised a story we didn't know.
Taking a chronological stance the film proceeded to tell the tale of the pleasantly naïve, mop-topped heart throbs transforming into more cynical businessmen touring solely for the wealth it brought them, their record contract giving them only scant royalties. Sadly, as the Fab Four tired of the constant demands of touring and its lack of artistic integrity, the film tired with it.
Most of the footage shown seemed pretty familiar and the film failed to bring many fresh insights into the band or its culture. Some celebrity interviews interspersed throughout the film proved to be a mixed bag. Those telling contemporary tales of how they remembered the tours were more relevant than later era artists putting their hearsay opinions forward.
Ron Howard is all too often an under-rated director but on this occasion, his work does come across as a little slapdash and superficial. It's difficult not to compare with Martin Scorsese's far superior, and much longer, doco, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Scorsese's film, which was clearly a labour of love for him, was filled with interesting vignettes, treating its subject matter with respect but never falling into hagiography.
The Beatles, quite rightly, occupy a hallowed place in the history of British culture. Their importance exceeds that of Kipling and Elgar, surely on a par with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. This inconsequential film is pleasant viewing and the music always toe- tapping but it is far from being definitive and lacks gravitas.