Producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi (THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT) have created something rather wonderful in this slice of history carefully contextualised and constructed. They begin with archive footage from the legendary Maysles brothers who were present at the peak of Beatlemania when the lads landed in JFK and played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. We see them at press conferences, and follow them into their hotel suite, hostages to the screaming fans outside. We follow them to a US Embassy reception where John is pissed off by the snobbery. And we see the contemporary fans interviewed in all their teenage hysteria, or casual indifference as is the case of some jazz loving black teenagers in Harlem.
It's fascinating to see how the surviving Beatles interpret the footage that the Maysles took. McCartney claims that America needed to let off steam and have some fun in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. That sounds about right. But when he claims that they didn't give a proverbial about the embassy snobbery, that sounds like defensiveness, and the archive insult closer to the truth.
We also get valuable context from eminent interviewees - whether the Ronnettes, Smokey Robinson or David Lynch. Robinson is particularly fascinating as he speaks to the racial politics of the time, and the balance between the Beatles appropriating black rock'n'roll but also crediting it - something no other white artists had bothered to do.
But perhaps the most fascinating part of the documentary is pairing contemporary footage of hysterical teens with their now middle-aged selves looking back on their feelings and actions in 1964. They still seem passionate about the Beatles, and pairing both sets of interviews take us somewhat closer to understanding the nature of pop-culture mania.
Overall, this is a surprisingly moving and immersive film-watching experience. I felt that had lived through this weird little bubble in pop culture history - its teenagers not distant relics but revivified as excited, hopeful, giddy. This is documentary-making at its best.
BEATLES '64 has a running time of 105 minutes and was released on Disney+ last month.
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