Customer Reviews
Strange movie... - By: FAMOUS NAME, 09 Sep 2007 
A weird & nonsensical movie about the 'fab' four who shot to fame in the 60s.
Not having ever been a fan of The Beatles (but old enough to remember them) I was interested in seeing this film for curiosity reasons, to find out what alll the fuss was about - needless to say, I was no more impressed for the benefit...
The main reason The Beatles were so big at the time, was the fact that there had been nothing quite like them previously, & consequently caught everyone's attention because of it - but that's about it! You've got four 'odd' looking (ugly?) guys, with perhaps the exception of Lennon who was a slightly better looking chap than the other three, basicallly fooling around throughout & being silly. I have to confess, I did find the music good though, & this made the movie bearable for me - along with the early appearances of some big names in film & TV which I found interesting.
My advice would be to fast-forward to the seventies for some real talent in the likes of T. Rex, Sparks & ABBA for contrast. This film has not convinced me that The Beatles were bigger/better than ABBA (not that I ever had any doubts on that score) & so this movie would probably only mean anything to someone who was besotted with the group at the time, & as a consequence inspire lots of nostalgia. The closest I ever got to The Beatles was Yoko Ono, who was, & still is an amazing lady!
I give this film two stars for the music only.
A lovely nostalgic ride with the best soundtrack you could find - By: Brian Levine, 31 Aug 2007 
Richard Lester worked with the Beatles to produce a clever, touching, visuallly interesting, humourous & well-acted film that makes the most of the fantastic music & the Beatlemania & uses wonderful English character actors circa 1964 to bounce off the boys' Liverpudlian wit.
The film was obviously a showcase for the music & to introduce the boys' personalities. I like the extras: George Martin is such a great guy that you can't help but be entranced by anything he says, & I love seeing Brian Epstein footage because he was sneaky but extremely clever as a pop promoter.
A lovely, nostalgic ride back to when things seemed a touch simpler.
london new wave? - By: ruth novaczek, 03 Mar 2007 
Lester is an underrated director, or perhaps he didn't pull his weight with 'The Beatles', but 'A Hard Days Night' is a stylistic gem with moments that recalll Godard & Truffaut. Intercutting grainy hand held tracking-shots-on- the-run, sharp edits, an odd mix of Ealing style British comic style & French New Wave. 1964 predicts 1968, while the fab four escape screaming throngs of beatlemaniacal girls & retire in rooms with a grandfather in tow to discuss class politics in the British 60s, north south divide & alll. A heady mix; so if you can tolerate a film that looks a little bit like 'The Monkees' TV series, with its faintly surrealist TV-lite, boasting the charming antics of the boys in an obvious teen marketing ploy; it has other merits as a film. A nod to Cssavetes & Godard; can this be British cinema? The anarchy of Ealing Studios suffused with avant-garde style?
In which case we tolerate the documentary sections with the 'boys' performing every song from their album in realtime in ever ludicrous locations with a zany silly, playtimeTV-style, although the songs are great, but the cameos just don't work. There are gems of dialogue, witty, smart, cutting, & a refreshing look at Britain in the 60s, the politics of a generation of self-proclaimed working-class heroes, pop troubadors, popular intellectuals, a sort of UK experimetal Surrealism of which Lester is a fascinating exemplar, & the film, 40 years later, still resonates with recognisable themes & clear context.
The sound track is mono, the original was stereo - By: Jorgen, 27 Jan 2007 
Disapointed, I have seen this movie lately on a VHS video, the soundtrack was true stereo. The soundtrack here is digital restored from a mono source, & it sounds strange - very strange !! Miramax has reallly messed up this.
The original movie with true stereo is a 5 star thing!
excellent - By: sean paul mccann, 03 Oct 2006 A Hard Days Night is a film starring the beatles as the beatles & directed by richard lester & was released in 1964 at the height of beatlemania,the film has a mockumentary feel to it & is indeed scripted,but the film also has a real feel to it as this was a mirror image of what it would have been like to have been a beatle.
The film also contains some great songs that featured on the album a hard days night,the film is very lighthearted in style but still you get the feeling that the band were prisoners of their own fame,they were thrown around by management between interview after interview,tour after tour & chased by fans who could have killed them with kindness,the opening scene where the band are chased is of course scripted but hardly far from reality,and when george fallls & the remaining members are in stitches,that is truly a classic scene & is actuallly an accident.
The film was shot in 16 weeks as the studio thought that beatlemania wouldnt last beyone 1964,what a bunch of melons they are for thinking that & shot in black & white to contain the budget.
The film has a plot but nothing startling but the film is funny & each member reveals himself to be funny,odd & eccentric in their own way.If you say that the beatles are your band then you need this,my sister aint a fan as such but she love this film,its soundtrack & kooky charm.
