With the Beatles success there are plenty of crazy stories to tell, and this movie accurately portrayed on of these bizarre trips as they avoid hordes of fans and play around with the interviewers. This film takes the viewer through many of the Beatles shenanigans before the show; thus providing a comical musical style of movie. The movie turned out to be a big success even though the budget was small and the director was unknown.
In A Hard Day’s Night the mischievous Beatles get in all kinds of trouble as they try and have a fun time on their two day tour. From escaping out of the fire exit and ending up trespassing on private property to ending up roaming the streets and getting arrested for trying to be nice and failing. This movie has a bunch of random foolery from every member of the Beatles as they lead up to their live performance.
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One of the big surprises about the movie is the fact that it was in black and white even though they had the ability to add color into their movies back then. Even though there was no color people still seemed to flock to the movie as it made around 20,000 dollars in the first week. The sarcastic and playful mood of the whole thing made the lack of colors more than bearable and added a little bit of charm to it. All throughout the movie the Beatles would be giving witty lines that would get a chuckle out of anybody. One example would have to be when one of the Beatles makes fun of the clothes that a stylist offers him; making the stylist kick him out in a fit.
In the beginning when the idea was just stating to sprout about making a movie about the Beatles; the band themselves declined the offer to be in it. The low budget and unknown director originally scared them off and plus there is no actual plot to the movie in the first place. It took some convincing but they eventually they did, which it amazing as the movie was brilliant. The title actually came from the drummer as he had something strange, “a hard day’s night” and the director thought it was what the title should be.
A Hard Day’s Night seems to be an unconventional and a conventional movie. The low budget, black and white, no real plot and unknown director would provide evidence that this film is unconventional but they did have a pretty good cast that definitely helped out this movie. This movie definitely put an interesting twist to the classic musical. The critics and population adored this movie and the reviews on it all seem to say it was amazing.
Even with all the great praise there are some people that say it was just a low budget movie that was used to exploit the Beatles for some of their fame and make as much money as possible. This movie was so well done and thought out that makes it highly unlikely that it was just a quick way to exploit the Beatles.
Hi Zach.
Loved the post, I also watched A Hard Day’s Night and appreciated your interpretation. I noticed how the whole film was in black and white, which seemed odd to me at first as Hollywood hadn’t produced a black and white movie since 1961, three years before this movie was released. Although I agree that it adds to the charm of the film. I learned more in your post about the “shenanigans and foolery” of The Beatles. The tailor scene was definitely a good chuckle and showed the fab four at their most natural. I admired your perception of how The Beatles were exploited to make money and how the film was just another part of the machine to churn out dollars. Great essay!
Hey Zach,
I like that you point out the effect a lack of color has on movies. In my English 4 class in high school we discussed a lot how color can affect the tone of films and I’m looking forward to how we can discuss that in this class. I think the lack of color definitely added a challenge for the producers to be able to set a tone but it seems that they did so very well with the amount of comedy they included. Keep up the great work!
-Will
I really enjoy your interpretation of this movie and I think you gave a good amount of facts for someone who hasn’t yet seen this movie to learn. I think it’s interesting this movie is in all black and white.
Best Regards,
-Blake