Beatles '64: A Scorsese-Produced Snapshot of Two Weeks That Shook the Culture
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B+
You might rightly wonder whether there’s a need for another documentary about The Beatles and their influence. But Beatles ‘64 — directed by David Tedeschi, with producer Martin Scorsese — makes the case for itself.
Among other things, Beatles ‘64 marks an anniversary. It has been — gulp — 60 years since the Beatles landed in America for the first time, played a few gigs and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to a massive audience.
The culture was never the same. The documentary looks at those two weeks, and without leaning too heavily into analysis, aims to understand why they became an almost instant cultural force.
By the time the Beatles took their first steps on the tarmac in New York in February of 1964, Beatlemania was already a thing in Europe. The single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was a number one record, and American teens had already caught on to the kind of intense fandom that came to characterize the Beatles’ appearances. Excited fans, mostly but not exclusively teen girls, gathered outside the Plaza Hotel trapping the Fab Four inside.
The Beatles’ two weeks in the U.S. saw them play in Washington, D.C. and Florida with three pivotal appearances on Sullivan’s show. Those two weeks were filmed by brothers Albert Maysles and David Maysles, documentarians who would go on to make films like Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. Their beautifully restored black-and-white footage — which includes concert performances, casual conversations in hotel rooms, on airplanes — forms the basis for an intimate look at the band at this particular moment. It’s the centre of a storm with first-person remembrances of some of the people who were there.
The film casts a pretty wide net to look for answers to Beatlemania, starting with the fact that those young, offbeat lighthearted young men landed in America three months after the assassination of President John F, Kennedy, and perhaps were a salve for the deep psychic wound that his death inflicted on the country.
The film gives us a glimpse into the band’s attitude (relaxed and casual) and their easygoing dynamics and relationships, and their very British sense of humour with its slightly satirical flavour. Their press conferences were lively and charming, and created a madcap image that the band would continue to foster as their career grew.
It also makes the case that the Beatles' success wasn’t just an issue of timing, charisma or controversial haircuts.
Smokey Robinson talks about the power of the Beatles’ open embrace of Black music as one of their influences. The band put a cover version of his song “You Really Got a Hold on Me” on their debut album. He notes the impact of that, and musical elements of rhythm and blues the band incorporated in an era of segregation cannot be underestimated
Race relations weren’t the only area where the Beatles were seen as shaking up the culture. The idea of the Beatles representing a new kind of masculinity, previously dominated by the image of Elvis Presley, is intriguingly raised a few times in the film, including by the late pioneering feminist Betty Friedan.
On the surface, though, there was the fun element. The wild energy of the teen fans, screaming, sometimes crying at concerts. (When I was a little kid, after watching Ed Sullivan, I thought the appropriate response to a live rock concert was to scream).
The filmmakers hunted down some of the people who, as teens, gathered outside the Plaza Hotel. Cultural writers and commentators talk about their first reaction to hearing the Beatles on the radio. There’s a sense that American teens were craving something that would be meaningful to them, and differentiate them from the previous generation. The Beatles filled that gap.
Movingly, writer Joe Queenan tears up when he talks about the impact of hearing “She Loves You” on the radio for the first time. Scorsese, who appears in the film talking to Ringo Starr about the band’s wardrobe, of all things, reflects on the first time he heard the song as well. Paul McCartney also appears in the film in new interviews, looking at photographs from those first weeks and offering his memories.
There’s also humour in the film. The late Ronnie Spector, who knew the Beatles from spending time with them in England when she was touring with her group The Ronettes, talks about sneaking the Beatles out of the hotel to have dinner at a restaurant in Spanish Harlem where she was sure that no one recognized them.
The black-and-white footage, which has been lovingly restored by Peter Jackson’s team, gives the film a sense of time and place. Likewise, Jackson's company was able to separate the music tracks, allowing Giles Martin, who has worked on a number of Beatles' album restorations, to do beautiful audio remixes of the live concerts, giving us an experience of the performances that are cleaner than what they would have been at the time.
There are poignant moments for anyone who grew up in this era. Seeing John Lennon and George Harrison, in their early twenties, with their entire career ahead of them, is both lovely and bittersweet. In one of the most deeply affecting comments in the film, British photographer Harry Benson, who travelled with the band from England, talks about how John was worried about gun violence in America and was particularly impacted by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Deceptively easygoing, Beatles ‘64 pulls a lot of threads together. This snapshot of a few heady weeks in the lives of a rock band is now in the rearview mirror. But it set a cultural fire that burns to this day.
Beatles ‘64. Directed by David Tedeschi. With Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Begins streaming on Disney+ November 29.