Back to Basics - A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

If you please, allow me one more moment of music and movies coming together. I've been watching a lot of films like this lately with my NXNE immersion, and in that light perhaps its fitting that I cap them off with the grandaddy of them all. This was my selection for 1001 Series, please take a look at my musings on this classic after the jump.

For some, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT might seem like little more than The Beatles getting chased by screaming girls, horsing around, and singing the odd song. This might be how the film plays now, but labelling it as such comes with a lack of perspective.

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is very interested in the price of fame - especially the other worldly fame The Beatles achieved. The frenetic running around is an obvious nod to this, but so too is the restlessness Paul's grandfather exhibits. At first he seems like he's nothing but a troublemaker. However, as he points out, he was brought along for a change of scenery...and what he got was "a train, then a room, then a car, then a room, then a room, and finally another room".

The hitch of course is that we've already seen what happens when they leave these rooms for the scenery grandfather so badly wants. We'd all give our right arm to be a rock star, but we forget that the cost of admission is public bedlam and private boredom.

It's fair to say that this film doesn't have the same appeal to people who aren't fans of The Beatles, but the movie is more than just an extended music video. While it's true that the overall story isn't exactly earth-shattering (mostly just an excuse for The Beatles to lob witticisms around), it has a look and a rhythm that fuses French New Wave and The Keystone Cops. When the lads perform, the camera is never content to hang back for a group shot, nor to zoom in for a mug.

Instead, we watch close cropped detail shots that isolate every single component of their chemistry, and likewise watch them interact and play off each other, exemplifying true camaraderie. What we are watching are some of the artier music videos, decades before arty music videos would even be thought of.

What I think works best about this film, is the handful of moments The Beatles are given to be themselves. For instance, there's a wonderful moment in a cramped corridor where John Lennon meets a woman unsure if he is who she thinks he is. In a scene composed like something out of THE THIRD MAN, Lennon is at his witty best convincing the woman that rumours of she and "him" abound, and likewise that he is not "him". The genius of the scene is the way he ultimately convinces her yet walks away grumpy.

The scene is yet another wink at the nature of fame, and the way we can worship celebrity and not really know them. Traces of this phenomenon can be found in moments where George talks with a trend-setting PR group who seem to want his opinion, and then argue with him about what his opinion should be. Forget about the fact that he's famous - he's the target demo, and yet when he contradicts them, they seem incredulous.

It's these cheeky scenes that elevate the film and allow it to endure. Were it merely a 'get them to the gig' romp, perhaps with a love story thrown in, it wouldn't have any merit beyond the fan base. However, by allowing four clever guys have fun and be mischevious, it feels more natural. That their antics are captured in glorious black and white takes what could have been silliness and turns it into something sublime.

Musically speaking, this film could make a case for having the greatest original soundtrack of all time. We forget these many years later, that many (though not all) of the songs we hear in the film were written for the film. I can't help but think that if a similar film was created for one of today's biggest acts, they might write one or two new tracks...not an entire album's worth. Of course, The Beatles being as gifted as they were, that original soundtrack album was what introduced the world to "I Should Have Known Better", "If I Fell", "And I Love Her", and of course the classic title track which is one of the few songs in music history most can identify needing only one note.

To say "they don't make 'em like this anymore" is cliché, but true. It's difficult to think that a film made about any of today's biggest acts could have this sort of subtlety, class, or charm. Even the best descendants of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT couldn't equal it's artistic merit. Often it's because they are too concerned with shoehorning musicians into a heavy story; other times there just isn't enough story. The way this film gives its actors just enough to work with, and leans on capturing it in a beautiful manner is a formula never again attempted, and ultimately what makes it stand up nearly forty years on.

But Hatter, Is it List-Worthy?... If you know what you're getting into, yes. Don't expect a life-changing story. Instead concentrate on the visuals that almost beg to be seen on mute...and the music that would make even looking at the mute button a punishable offence.