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A Hard Day's Night
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Beatles
EAN: 9780788818318
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0788818317
Label: Miramax Entertainment
Manufacturer: Miramax Entertainment
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Miramax Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2002-09-24
Running Time: 87
Studio: Miramax Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1964-08-11
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: HARD to believe- NIGHT and DAY
Comment: I saw the 1982 re-issue of this film at CARNEGIE HALL's cinema in NYC--the sound on that presentation was HORRENDOUS--screechy and tinny--like a bad DRIVE-IN theatre speaker! This DVD is just a shambles too--similar poor dynamic range,flat,compressed,lifeless sound. THE BEATLES sounding like THIS? I'll take other reviewers words regarding chopped-off cropping of the picture as well (I don't own the previous AHDN video editions to do my own A/B comparison). I'm shocked this was allowed to happen on such a high profile project.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good enough for me at this price!
Comment: Good quality film and acceptable sound on the first disc.
As for the second disc, the interviews with various tangiential players is for the most part fascinating, above all that with George Martin, although he comes off a bit snobbish. Among other pieces of knowledge he imparts, he explains the significance of "Can't Buy Me Love" and its twelve-bar blue structure. It's a bit surprising how little he thinks of some of the other hits, such as "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You."
Two particularly fascinating bits of trivia for me: the truant "Southerner" boy in the Ringo scene turns out later to have been a regular supporting cast member in the "Keeping Up Appearances" UK TV sitcom, one I've frequently watched. And it's finally made clear why Paul's grandfather is "very clean" (it has to to with Wilfrid Brambell's prior role as the father in Britain's predecessor to our "Sanford & Son": "Steptoe and Son").
We also gain insight into the photography and lighting of the film, and most interestingly, into the groundbreaking directing style of Richard Lester. What is it about HDN that made it so special? Not worrying too much about the directing, the rehearsing... just going with the flow. The very natural and yet unusual camera angles. Many cinematographic techniques first showcased in this film are still used today. I found Lester's reasoning behind inserting early in the film surreal frames like the boys inexplicably running alongside the train in order to prepare the viewer later for the dreamlike, surreal quality of the "I Should've Known Better" sequence fascinating.
Though the bonus features might be considered dry and of marginal interest to some, this edition offers a lot for the buck. I was happy to replace my old worn-out VHS home-recorded copy with this nice DVD package.
Customer Rating:
Summary: For Beatles Fans and Lovers of Pop Music
Comment: A Hard Day's Night is not a "movie" in the conventional sense. It doesn't really have a plot. It allows viewers to tag along at the height of the Beatles' early popularity and get a real sense of the power and charm of their music. No one had ever had such an impact on music and youth culture before them, and probably no one since. This film gives a glimpse of how they regarded their phenomenal fame: whimsically and with humorous irreverence. They just set out to make music and have fun and accidentally changed everything that followed, from hair and fashion to music and social consciousness. If you want to understand pop music in the late 20th century, this may not be the starting point, but it is a "don't miss" stop on the journey. Do remember, though, that this is not the whole story of the Beatles: this is their early phase, and they continued to create, evolve, and experiment at a breathtaking pace for several years after this film was shot.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pure nostalgic joy and dreamlike pleasure
Comment: When you are dealing with a myth you have to look for what was new at the time when that myth appeared. And the Beatles are such a myth. This film reveals the fabric the myth is made of. Pure cinematographic and even photographic silk. The four boys have to be running because at the time everything young and new was on the run since it was chased by the establishment in order to be pilloried and exposed. But it also had to show how these four young men had to be able to capture the attention of other people and bring them into the running, first of all young people, particularly girls, and second the best representatives of the establishment, coppers. The film also had to be in black and white to be out of time, eternal because looking old, even odd or oddly even. Then and but their music did not have to convince their audience. It was new, fresh, lively, light, slightly rocky and rather smoothly rolly, with some drums but not too much, and a lot of harmony and melody, but the main attraction was the use of simple catch phrases to express love, freedom, desire, alienation and yet liberation in a mellow and sweet wrapping, like the cute title of the film taken from one of the songs. Finally the film had to satisfy the audience on the lifestyle of the Beatles and on their surrealistic reality. That is done with a plot based on their real life as musicians, etc, and at the same time with constant reference to impossible, at times absurd, breaches in this realism into some impossible meaningless or humoristic pranks. In one word the film is so real that it reaches beyond reality and even the virtuality of a life imagined as being out of logic.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just a lot of fun!!!
Comment: Just a lot of fun to watch and listen to the fab four in those early years.
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Editorial Reviews:
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In 1964, the Beatles had just recently exploded onto the American scene with their debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The group's first feature, the Academy Award-nominated "A Hard Day's Night," offered fans their first peek into a day in the life of the Beatles and served to establish the Fab Four on the silver screen, as well as to inspire the music video format. Songs: I'll Cry Instead, A Hard Day's Night, I Should've Known Better, Can't Buy Me Love, If I Fell, And I Love Her, I'm Happy Just to Dance with You, Ringo's Theme (This Boy), Tell Me Why, Don't Bother Me, I Wanna Be Your Man, All My Lovin', She Loves You.
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