Stubs - Beatles ' 64

Beatles ’64 (2024) starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. Directed by David Tedeschi, Produced by Martin Scorsese, Margaret Bodde Run time: 106 minutes. Black and White. U.S./United Kingdom. Documentary.

Every Beatles anniversary gets some sort of celebration, whether it’s the 50^th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper getting a box set and a remix, or as with 2024, the 60^th anniversary of The Beatles arrival in the U.S. To celebrate this occasion, there have been several releases during the year, including a Mega block set that re-enacted their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, two separate Record Store Day releases, including 3-inch singles of all the songs they sang on that first show, a collection of vinyl mono releases from 1964, and now Beatles ’64, a “new” documentary that premiered on November 29, 2024 on the Disney+ streaming platform.

New is a bit of a misnomer, since much of the footage was taken from a previous documentary, What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (1964) by Albert and David Maysles. There are new elements, including more recent interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as older interviews with both John Lennon and George Harrison.

Beatles ’64 doesn’t seem to know what kind of documentary it wants to be, as it jumps around from topic to topic while trying to tell the events that happens. However, while 1964 is the focus, we are treated to events that take place years later, like Smokey Robinson singing “Yesterday” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968, after the singer discusses the group’s admitted influence of Black musicians. Not sure how that has any relevance to The Beatles coming to America.

The documentary makes a lot about how The Beatles' visit came a little over two months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas and was something the country could get excited about following that event. This is brought up more than once during the film. I hate to say it, but while that was an historical event, I doubt that the Kennedy assassination was what motivated preadolescent girls to scream whenever they saw the group. The explanation sounded like something parents would have come up with at the time.

The documentary also gets a little esoteric with people like Marshall McLuhan and Betty Freidan weighing in on The Beatles in ways that are somewhat highbrow and unnecessary.

While the film heralds itself as placing “audiences directly into an unforgettable flashpoint in cultural history,” there are still moments that are seem superfluous at best, as we follow two girls trying to sneak in to see the group, but not getting too close, as a policeman forces them to leave the floor.

We do get to see The Beatles ensconced in their hotel room before they appear on Ed Sullivan with disc jockey Murray the K hanging out with them. The Beatles, whom George in a later interview admits didn’t know why the DJ was there, are accommodating and play along.

The Beatles frolic for the cameras in Central Park before The Ed Sullivan Show.

We also learn from singer Ronnie Spector that she and the Ronettes snuck the boys out of their hotel and took them to Harlem and treated them to barbecue. It is somewhat refreshing to hear that they were sponges trying to soak up as much about America as they could and were happy when they were not recognized.

There are also some recollections of the fans who were there, including Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of maestro Leonard Bernstein, who talked about how she forced her parents to let her watch them on Ed Sullivan even during dinner, and filmmaker David Lynch, who attended their Washington D.C. concert.

Ringo doesn't know if he's in New York or Washington D.C.

Some of the best moments are when they are performing, including on Sullivan, but also bits of the live performance at the Washington Coliseum in the nation’s capital, which is perhaps the closest America got to seeing them really perform the way they probably did before touring got to be a 30-minute closing act.

However, soon after that high point, the group was subjected to ridicule by the staff of the British Embassy, who looked down on the mop-topped musicians from blue-collar backgrounds.

There is also some footage of the boys in Miami, which provided them with a reprise in what must have seemed like paradise to the four English lads.

The film ends with The Beatles' triumphant return to England and then, during the credits, perhaps the most interesting item of all, an interview in Paris before they came over. This might have been a better way to start the documentary than hearing Elaine Kim singing “All My Loving.”

Beatles ’64 is another example of a noted filmmaker getting credit for using pre-existing footage to make a documentary about the group. Eight Days a Week (1999) has historical footage directed by Ron Howard and Get Back (2021) had Peter Jackson directing footage shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg during the making of the album that would be called Let It Be. Here, Martin Scorsese gets a producer’s credit for mostly film shot by the Maysles brothers.

The film also has a very American slant to it, as did Eight Days a Week, which seemed to concentrate on their U.S. tours. Not sure how important their coming to the U.S. was to their British fans, not to mention fans worldwide. While it was a significant cultural event for U.S. Baby-boomers, not sure if fans in the UK would feel the same way about it, since they were already in the throes of Beatlemania at the time.

The Beatles came to America when this single hit #1 in the U.S. charts.

While the documentary is somewhat of a hodge-podge, it does still star The Beatles and it is best when they are on screen. If you’re a Beatles fan, you’ll definitely want to see it, but you will probably come away with wanting more of them and less of the sequences of people trying to explain them. I would have happily watched more of them performing in Washington D.C. and less of the adults analyzing them.