Richard Lester, The Beatles, and the Rock Musical Revised

The Beatles films defied genre conventions in many ways and because of that, or in spite of it, they were also reviewed positively. Beyond their success at the box office and with the press, the films’ popularity with fans and musicians influenced many subsequent rock musicals, television shows, and music videos with regard to style and content.

Somewhat surprisingly, Lester’s films with the Beatles were well received by the critics, especially A Hard Day’s Night. Andrew Sarris, in the August 27, 1964 Village Voice, called the film “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals” (Brackett 175). Bosley Crowther said in his review in the New York Times: “it’s a wonderfully lively and good-natured spoof of the juvenile madness called ‘Beatlemania,’ the current spreading craze of otherwise healthy young people for the four British lads with the shaggy hair.” Crowther’s review of Help! called it: “90 crowded minutes of good, clean insanity.” Sight and Sound said of A Hard Day’s Night: “works on a level at which most British films…don’t manage to get going at all” (Rolston 5). It appears that the critics were able to recognize the fresh and divergent path the films took from rock musicals at the time they were released, even if those breaks were not articulated in the reviews.

One way to test if a film is revisionist is to research its influence on subsequent films in the same genre. In spite of the Beatles films’ success, personality rock musicals such as the Elvis films did not change much, if at all, after 1964 as a result of the Beatles films. There were fewer of them, though. Perhaps the Beatles helped to kill this type of musical in Britain as Cliff Richard made only one more personality rock musical after 1964, Finders Keepers (1966, dir. Sidney Hayers). The ensemble rock musicals also appeared to die out somewhat after the Beatles success as executives sought to cash in on films about single groups, rather than bunching several together in one film. The breaks the Beatles and Lester made with convention became the norm and their films were also highly influential in terms of style on subsequent generations of rock musicals and music videos.

Lorraine Rolston and Andy Murray point out that after A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, a number of rock bands released films that were more similar to the Beatles films than films featuring musicians prior to 1964. Immediately after the Beatles films, the Dave Clark Five starred in their own feature, Catch Us If You Can (1966, dir. John Boorman), and Gerry and the Pacemakers were featured in Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965, dir. Jeremy Summers) (65). Other examples of subsequent rock and roll musicals included The Who’s (much darker) Tommy (1975, dir. Ken Russell), the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus (1968, dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg), and The Ramones’ Rock and Roll High School (1975, dir. Allan Arkush). These films were centered on a single artist or group (except for Rock and Roll Circus), did not necessarily heed classical Hollywood techniques, let alone the conventions of rock musicals prior to 1964. Lester’s films even more directly influenced “The Monkees” television series (1966-1968). This particular show was a huge hit in the United States, and the Monkees themselves were manufactured American imitations of the Beatles set to capitalize on Beatlemania (Rolston 65-66). The surrealism and experimental techniques used in this television series, such as speeding up the film and jump cuts, are clearly lifted from the Lester’s work. The series also uses non-diegetic music that provides no narrative function. The musical performances also mimic Lester’s style in that they often do not privilege the singer with regard to shot selection, and each of the Monkees sang several songs.

A case can be made that Lester’s work with the Beatles has had an influence on more recent films. Rolston and Murray argue that British pop quintet, the Spice Girls, released their film Spice World (1997, dir. Bob Spiers) with more than a slight nod to A Hard Day’s Night. The film features the girls’ misadventures leading up to a very important concert, all the while highlighting the group’s humor (68). Glynn asserts that 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery closely copies the opening of A Hard Day’s Night by having “the eponymous celebrity spy run from his screaming fans down a narrow car-lined pavement, then sport a false beard and hide behind a magazine and in a telephone box” (94). Most recently Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (2009, dir. Bruce Hendricks) was released featuring a concert by the Jonas Brothers and “documentary” footage of their backstage lives. A few scenes in the film appear to directly quote A Hard Day’s Night as the boys negotiate swarms of screaming girls. The fact that the members of the group dress alike, look alike, and make girls scream lends itself to comparisons with the Beatles. The film owes some of its look to the iconic imagery Lester created in his films with the Beatles.

The cinema verite style of A Hard Day’s Night can be found in another recent musical film with a more serious plot entitled Once (2006, dir. John Carney). This independent film is about two struggling, but talented musicians. The grainy, digital recording reminiscent of black and white 16mm film, hand-held camera shots, and the location-only shooting are very similar to the cinematography in A Hard Day’s Night. In another nod to Lester’s influence, some of the music in the film is non-diegetic. When pop musicians are portrayed in musicals today, their films seem to consciously, or possibly unconsciously, tip their hat to the Beatles films, if only because Lester’s redefinition of the genre was so powerful.

Lester’s work on the Beatles films has another lasting resonance in the form of the music video. These short films promoting songs and their artists have had a huge impact on the shape of popular music. Many music videos have paid direct homage to the Beatles films. Nirvana, for instance, with the video for “In Bloom” (1992) does a send up of the Beatles’ early television performances and their performance at the end of A Hard Day’s Night. Hip-hop duo Outkast does the exact same thing with their video for “Hey Ya” (2003), complete with screaming girls in a television studio set. Numerous music videos employ surreal images and sequences, also. For example, the White Stripes’ music videos directed by Michel Gondry are famous for this. Many music videos from the early 1980s to today often either directly quote Lester’s images from the Beatles films, or they make use of the filmmaking techniques employed in those films.

Lester’s Beatles films are still widely praised today. Numerous books on the Beatles and their films continue to be published. Roger Ebert gives A Hard Day’s Night top marks in a review from 1996: “After more than three decades, it has not aged and is not dated; it stands outside its time, its genre and even rock. It is one of the great life-affirming landmarks of the movies.” Help! is widely viewed as the lesser of the two films, but still excellent.

Many of Lester’s images, and the music that goes with those images, are still part of the collective conscious, as shown by recent works that borrow from those iconic images or closely replicate them. While nearly everyone is familiar with the iconography created by Richard Lester in his films with the Beatles, Lester himself remains nowhere near as well-known as the Beatles or many other film directors. This is unfortunate because nearly every rock musical and music video since 1964 owes a debt to Lester’s innovation and influence stemming from his films with the Beatles.

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Works Cited

A Hard Day’s Night. Dir. Richard Lester. Perf. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. 1964. DVD. Miramax, 2002.

Betrock, Alan. The I Was A Teenage Juvenile Delinquent Rock ’n’ Roll Horror Beach Party Movie Book: A Complete Guide to the Teen Exploitation Film, 1954-1969. New York: St. Martin’s, 1986.

Crowther, Bosley. “Screen: The Four Beatles in ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’” New York Times 12 August 1964, 41.

Crowther, Bosley. “Singers Romp Through Comic Adventures.” New York Times 24 August 1965, 25.

Ebert, Roger. Review of A Hard Day’s Night. Oct. 27, 1996. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/>. Accessed 10 Apr. 2009.

Expresso Bongo. Dir. Val Guest. Perf. Cliff Richard, Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Sims. 1959. DVD. Kino Video, 2001.

Glynn, Stephen. Turner Classic Movie British Film Guide: A Hard Day’s Night. New York: I.B. Taurus & Co Ltd, 2005.

Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (Second Edition). New York: Routledge, 2000.

Help!. Dir. Richard Lester. Perf. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. 1965. DVD. Capitol, 2007.

Jailhouse Rock. Dir. Richard Thorpe. Perf. Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Dean Jones. 1957. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2007.

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. Dir. Bruce Hendricks. Perf. Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas. 2009. Disney.

Love Me Tender. Dir. Robert D. Webb. Perf. Elvis Presley, Richard Egan, Debra Paget. 1956. DVD. 20^th Centruy Fox, 2006.

Loving You. Dir. Hal Kanter. Perf. Elvis Presley, Kenneth Becker, Wendell Corey. 1957. DVD. Lions Gate, 2003.

Once. Dir. John Carney. Perf. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. 2006. DVD. 20^th Century Fox, 2007.

Rolston, Lorraine and Andy Murray. A Hard Day’s Night. London: York Press, 2001.

Sarris, Andrew. “Bravo Beatles!” Rev. of A Hard Day’s Night. “Village Voice.” Aug. 27, 1964, p. 13. Reprinted in The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader. Ed. David Brackett. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. 174-176.

Sinyard, Neil. The Films of Richard Lester. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble Books, 1985.

Spice World. Dir. Bob Spiers. Perf. Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Geri

Halliwell, and Victoria Beckham. 1997. DVD. Sony Pictures, 1998.

Summer Holiday. Dir. Peter Yates. Perf. Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, Melvyn Hayes. 1963. DVD. Starz/Anchor Bay, 2002.

The Girl Can’t Help It. Dir. Frank Tashlin. Perf. Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell. 1956. DVD. 20^th Century Fox, 2006.

The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film. Dir. Richard Lester and Peter Sellers. Perf. Peter Sellers, Leo McKern. 1960. VHS. MPI, 1995.

* Additionally, extensive use of the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) was used for date and name checking.