What? The Beatles were totally movie stars!
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Music & Musicals, Awards, Newsstand
Variety has just put out a special issue commemorating the Top 100 Icons of the past century, and the number one slot goes to those four fab Liverpudlians otherwise known as The Beatles. John, Paul, George and Ringo, like pop stars from Billie Holliday to Frank Sinatra before them, also made films; though most of them have some merit, their first, A Hard Day's Night, is an undisputed classic. No discussion of The Beatles-as-icons could be complete without heavy reference to Richard Lester's day-in-the-life comedy; to borrow a line that George uses to talk about Ringo's relationship with his drums, A Hard Day's Night "looms large in [their] legend." Coincidentally, Lester's accidental masterpiece happens to be screening tonight at midnight at the IFC Center here in New York, as part of their Waverly Midnights series of rock films. Lester went on to direct the only successful filmic adaptation of a Stephen Sondheim musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and he also infamously replaced Richard Donner on Superman II. Hard Day's is the furthest thing from an auteur effort, but it's a perfect, early example of the cheeky wit and infectious energy that ran rampant through Lester's best films.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-22-2005 @ 6:25PM
George Myers said...
Sir Paul McCartney was "chuffed" that Liverpool was recently selected as a "world class cultural city". I'm sure "the lads" had something to do with it. Sorry George and John didn't get to see it, though there is a statue of John at the airport. Back in the 19th century those that earned their livlihood on the sea used to have an expression "See you in Liverpool" as invariably many ships landed there and people crossed paths, some started from the "Black Ball" line, run by the Quakers, out of the port of New York, carrying mail and cotton for the looms there, through Liverpool, England. The H.M.S. Titanic's homeport was Liverpool, sorry she never "made" New York. In some ways the Beatles films were all some of us had connected to those, people in our lives, who were still or lost at sea. Also, East Liverpool, Ohio was an important ceramic artists center for many of the ceramics kiln-fired in the United States before American mass produced ceramics overwhelmed it, lately there a fight over a PCB incinerator next to a school.
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10-23-2005 @ 2:33AM
Aaron said...
To be fair to Sondheim, not many of his musicals have actually been adapted into films, and he was only the lyricist on Forum. If just being the lyricist qualifies, then I think it's a little hard pressed to say that neither West Side Story nor Gypsy were successful film adaptations -- especially the former. There hasn't yet been really any adaptation, I don't think, of any show for which Sondheim also composed the music -- lots of stage productions taped for TV though. I would love to see some great filmmaker tackle Sweeney Todd though. It probably would be the (relatively) easiest one of his shows to do, and along with Company, it's his best.
I'll throw out a name that would be fascinating -- not sure if it would be a good movie, but a Tim Burton-directed Sweeney Todd has be intrigued. Hmmm ....
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10-23-2005 @ 3:16AM
karina said...
Aaron, you're totally right - I was under the mistaken impression that "Forum" was all Sondheim ... BUT - Sam Mendes is supposedly working on a feature of Sweeney Todd. We'll see...
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10-23-2005 @ 9:59PM
gwen said...
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Sondheim.
He's my favourite Broadway composer.
But he is NOT an icon of the 20th century.
The Beatles absolutely changed the world.
Overnight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
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