A Hard Day’s Bomb
By Murray Bourne, 18 Dec 2004
Feeling that I needed a dose of nostalgia, we watched The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" yesterday.
When I first watched it (in my pre-teen days) it was when Beatlemania was in full flight - and they could have produced a terrible movie about the Beatles and we would have loved it.
Well, they did and we did.
The scenes I remember most vividly were the opening with the Beatles running to escape screaming teenagers and the wacky outdoor scene at the sportsground to "Can't Buy Me Love". All the rest was so forgettable - especially (the ghastly) Wilfrid Brambell.
Watching the movie was unsettling, I guess. It was way ahead of its time and broke a lot of new ground. But if they had just spent 20 minutes on the script instead of 10, it would have been a lot better...
Of course, the important thing was the music and George Martin's recollections (in the "Supplementary Materials' DVD) were interesting. They recorded "A Hard Day's Night" album in less than 24 hours - no multi-tracking, no overdubs; what you see is what you get. All those interviewed remarked how 'nice', 'polite' and 'unaffected' the Boys were with all the fame. So why did the writers decide to present them as unpleasant yobs?
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