The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016)

A compilation of found footage featuring music, interviews, and stories of The Beatles' 250 concerts from 1963 to 1966.

Director:

Ron Howard

Writers:

Mark Monroe, P.G. Morgan (story consultant)

Stars:

The Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison

Won 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 3 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
The Beatles	...	Themselves (archive footage)
John Lennon	...	Himself (archive footage)
George Harrison	...	Himself (archive footage)
Paul McCartney	...	Himself
Ringo Starr	...	Himself
Richard Curtis	...	Himself - Writer, Director
Frank Phillips	...	Himself - BBC Radio Newsreader (voice) (archive footage)
Leonard Parkin	...	Himself - BBC Radio Newsreader (voice) (archive footage)
Carroll James	...	Himself - WWDC Disc Jockey (voice) (archive footage)
Marsha Albert	...	Herself (voice) (archive footage)
Eddie Izzard	...	Himself
Ed Sullivan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Herself
Neil Aspinall	...	Himself - Beatles touring manager 1962-1970
Brian Epstein	...	Himself - Beatles Manager (archive footage)

Storyline

In the 1960s, the Beatles exploded on to the public scene, seemingly out of nowhere as the band's formative years of constant performing at home and in Hamburg, and Brian Epstein's grooming, finally paid off beyond their wildest dreams. Accompanying new interviews of the remaining Beatles, their associates and fans as well as archival interviews of the late ones, this film features footage of the heady concert years of 1963 to 66 when the band became a worldwide cultural phenomena topping them all. Furthermore, it also follows how the Fab Four began to change and grow while the excitement of Beatlemania began to sour their lives into an intolerable slog they needed to escape from to become more than what their fans wanted.

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Plot Keywords:

the beatles | beatlemania | rock band | reference to muhammad ali | cheering crowd | 

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Taglines:

The band you know. The story you don't.

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Beatles Live

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$615,632, 16 September 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,930,414, 6 January 2017

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$12,283,800, 8 January 2017

Company Credits

Production Co:

Apple Corps, Apple Corps, Diamond Docs

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min 206 min (2016 DELUXE DVD)

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage) Color (digitally colored)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ron Howard wins best music film Grammy for 'The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - the Touring Years' Feburary 12, 2017. The director and former child actor earned the Grammy for Music Film for "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years," his detailed ode to the band's early years. Also earning trophies for the film are producers Brian Grazer, Scott Pascucci and Nigel Sinclair.

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Goofs

After Brian Epstein was introduced in the film, his interview said he first saw them at the Cavern Club. They showed a picture of The Beatles at the Cavern Club with Ringo Starr. When Mr. Epstein first saw the Beatles, Pete Best was the drummer.

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Quotes

Ringo Starr: Y'know, like, I can talk like I'm from Liverpool,
[points to the camera]
Ringo Starr: fuck you, I'm tellin' you, don't give me any hard time.

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Connections

Features Help! (1965)

User Reviews

Good for the casual fan.

I must say that following all the media publicity about discovering an untold story about the band we all know and love, I was disappointed by the lack of revelation and unseen footage that this movie contains. I am a hardcore fan and have probably read too many books and watched too many documentaries about the band, so I found it mildly interesting. That is not to say that the film is badly put together and many will find it interesting, not only there are footage of their touring but also some snippets of studio banter and early takes that I have never heard before. I rather enjoyed the Shea Stadium concert (that I probably had watched dozens of times before!), nice to watch on a big screen with a remastered sound (although most of the music has been overdubbed later in the studio, due to the poor recording quality but hey in 1965 it was quite a challenge to put a Beatles concert on tape with 50000 screaming girls in the background!). If you are not a hardcore Beatlemaniac you might enjoy this movie. The Beatles First Visit was far more interesting as regarding the life on the road.