Beatles '64 Documentary Review

[@doctorrobert1339]

I was also disappointed they didn't show any full performance (with the exception of showing that the Mayles brothers shot of the Washington concert), what's the point of a music documentary if you're not gonna show any of the music being performed??

[@evelynrossetto3143]

I saw the Beatles on Sullivan...I was eleven, All ready smitten!! I sat there crossed-leg right in front of the TV...Changed my life.

[@FiveLiver]

Why were so many watching?

[@teddyfurstman1997]

Fascinating Look into Beatlemaina in America from 64. It’s not The First U.S. Visit or Anthology, but still glad we got new Beatle Docs on Thanksgiving.

[@fran98832]

damn, i thought it was gonna be a documentary of the whole year of 1964, but it still sounds like interesting stuff, thanks for the review man !!

[@Zholobov1]

The stuff actially is not that interesting.

[@Robutube1]

Covering the whole of '64, a monumental year for the Mops, would have been so much better. I was disappointed with what we got.

[@johnalello9233]

I really enjoyed the documentary Beatles '64 Disney plus maybe they needed Peter Jackson to direct and have more input He did do the sound with Giles Martin maybe use more Washington DC concert and Ed Sullivan show and Miami Beach TV show I did like the street interviews in New York City overall it was nice and enjoyed it hopefully Disney plus puts on Anthologies 1-2/3 remixed with cleaned up visuals and audio included Free as a bird and Real love and maybe adda 4th anthology for 30 anniversary! Thanks great review

[@-brackets-]

He’s not mad in the thumbnail, that’s a good start

[@CinnamonGrrlErin1]

I may watch this someday, but I feel like I've already seen all i need to about the early days. I'd love to see a documentary specifically about the filming of their movies though, I think there's a lot of ground to cover there.

[@samuelmath1723]

Well, thank you for describing this new Beatles documentary from Scorsese. Because I really thought it would cover the whole year 1964. I guess that documentary is some sort of "promo-only" for younger generations to remember the Beatles.

[@lenafelipe]

It's not directed by Scorsese though. He only produced it.

[@samuelmath1723]

@@lenafelipe Well, that means he was involved in the production. Nevertheless, I won't go buy a one-month subscription to Disney+ like I did for "Get Back". My favorite footage from that era is "The making of The First US Visit" with Albert Maysles, which is on KZbin. Lots of good explanations from the maker himself making commentary on the documentary.

[@tunesdonebyone3428]

The question for me is if the "never seen before" footage is worth it. Otherwise any Beatles fan has seen this 100x.

[@Robutube1]

I actually don't mind that most of this is already very familiar ("It's the bloody Beatles, shut up"😅); I just think it was a badly made doc and there's no excuse for that - this is an Apple film so they had access to everything they could want.

[@PeteMel1875]

I live in the UK and watched it last night. I ain't seen the other docs before so really enjoyed it. Had a good laugh at your Paul impression, I was shaking my head when he started saying that! 😂 Enjoyed watching the young kids being interviewed, must have been amazing at the time. 👍

[@Robutube1]

I agree about the contemporary interviews with the fans - that footage was great. Too many other talking heads though (Joe Queenan belonged in a parental abuse doc and Terrence Trent Derby didn't belong at all).

[@loganmackenzie5294]

I bet you in the future there will probably be a documentary about the documentary’s of the Beatles.

[@kevinmcinerney1959]

There is a book about the books written about the Beatles... "The Beatles and the Historians: An Analysis of Writings About the Fab Four" by Erin Torkelson Weber. I've written about the book about the books about the Beatles.

[@williamlangan5902]

One very good early documentary was The Compleat Beatles. JT could host the Beatles documentaries documentary!

[@williamlangan5902]

I wouldn’t mind seeing it. But it’s definitely not on my Christmas wish list! Your imitation of Billie Eilish made me laugh! By the way, I hear she’s coming out with a new breakfast cereal! Just kidding about that last part! Til There Was You on the radio?! Great imitation of Sir Paul, too! We love you, Paul, but I like your vocal on I Saw Her Standing There better, too! If your band ever comes to Burlington County, JT, let me know! Good luck with the latest episode of History of Rock!

[@JTCurtisMusic]

Thank you! I was actually in South Jersey last weekend. We’ve been talking about getting out to the shore at some point next year.

[@Robutube1]

It's got the Beatles in it so it's got to be worth a watch, but I'd have it playing while doing other stuff if I was you. Got Back it ain't.

[@beatnik111]

I haven't seen the documentary yet so I can't really talk about that but what I can say though I think they're early stuff to 63 to 64 is very good actually and I don't think a lot of people give their earlier stuff a lot of credit at least nowadays

[@daryllawrick976]

I think you’re missing the high quality restoration of the film and the soundtrack. Amazing. Crystal clear. Makes it worthwhile

[@kahnlives]

In a few years the restoration will probably be criticized. As amazing as Peter Jackson work on Get Back was it has been taken to task for being to perfect. We’re spoiled brats now.😢

[@Zholobov1]

​@@kahnlivesPeter Jackson's restoration was not perfect at all.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

To be honest I didn’t find it all the remarkable. As a filmmaker, yes I can appreciate the cleanup job they did, but to the untrained eye, nobody is going to see any difference from the First US Visit DVD. Audiowise, the Ed Sullivan show and Coliseum performances still suffer from the same primitive mixes (which is understandable for the time) and even then, why not include the entire performance in this newly restored film? Peter Jackson was wise to include the entire Rooftop Concert with multiple camera angles, it was a joy to watch! Why not do the same here?

[@daryllawrick976]

@@JTCurtisMusic I was amazed by the crystal clear sharpness of the Washington concert. Always been grainy and hard to see. Ringo was super clear and a joy to watch. Cold make out amazing detail. Just my opinion...

[@SuburbusGuitarTechnique]

Any know why most the new Beatles stuff is only on Disney +?

[@JTCurtisMusic]

Because Disney is buying EVERYTHING!

[@freaky_rawk_lobstuh]

@@JTCurtisMusic fr lol

[@donniemoder1466]

Even the new interview clips shot recently for the movie repeat stories told before in old interviews in documentaries.

[@julesotis13]

since I don't have these paid streaming services appreciate this extra as I go down the brother JT Curtis rabbit hole a bit and in the interest of promoting you deservedly I'll add we can promote your many awesome doings and talk about em and much more this coming Sunday Dec 8 on community radio and it's interwebs so you're fans can tune in Sunday afternoon to hear JT in all his free spirited awesome glory more...and thanks. SJOCR

[@billdowney1487]

Thx for the review --- esp the "i've seen all this before" ===

[@ThePhudD]

I agree with everything you say, I felt the same way. I’ve got the Maisles Bros doc on dvd and on that you get all the Ed Sullivan appearances plus all the music, it’s a much better doc

[@-brackets-]

I see it as a better version of First US Visit; spotted fish. Also, will the Chuck Berry playlist be out before or after History of Rock 2010s

[@JTCurtisMusic]

After

[@buttercup1765]

I liked it. I don't need to watch it again though. Too many talking heads. Not enough Beatles music. And why aren't Paul and Ringo ever interviewed together anymore lol? Even now and then video they weren't in the same place.

[@Robutube1]

After you posted this, Ringo joined Paul on stage for one of his London gigs - ain't that always the way😅.

[@buttercup1765]

​@@Robutube1 I was so happy to see them on stage together!!🎉

[@Robutube1]

@@buttercup1765 Lovely job!☺

[@KevinMooretoons]

I started watching Beatles '64 on the day it was released and made it about 10 minutes in before my granddaughter, age 7, said she didn't like it because it's in black and white. Ah, kids. I will take it up later on a date night with my girlfriend. The Kennedy opening is interesting, and given that Scorsese is producer, I got my hopes up that there might be a little cultural analysis in how The Beatles as a cultural phenomenon mixed with larger social trends and historical events. But it seems like it's more "everyone was bummed by the assassination, then four lads from Liverpool lifted our spirits." Okay, cool, I guess.

[@mrmidget44698]

One thing your not taking into account is the MAL audio system being used on the footage. A big selling point of this documentary is that for the first time you can hear a properly mixed audio of their performances shown in the documentary and even just better more isolated audio of their interview clips

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@mrmidget44698 great, so why didn’t they include full performances of songs? What’s the point of remixing the footage if you’re not gonna show the footage?

[@cesarmadero05]

If they really wanted to make a use of the different outclash of cultures of US and Britain during the Beatlemania. The US should have been about this and there should be one about Britain where they talk about the young girls that are always going around The Beatles homes and offices. About the fanclubs and the Apple Scruffs.

[@tylerhackner9731]

I quite liked this documentary

[@richbailey8174]

My wife and I watched it the other night....we thought it was a big nothing. They just mixed up the expanded version of the Beatles First Visit to the US with the Washington DC show film which was already available. Mixed in were old clips from the Anthology film and the now obligatory "Head shot" interviews. Some of those were interesting. Each segment used from the "First Visit" was too long and many of them weren't any good. They show at least 2-3 scenes of girls trying to get into the hotel where they were staying. There were many odd and out of place clips, like the one with Leonard Bernstein "conducting" a tape of "She Said She Said". There didn't seem to be a guiding "theme". It was more like they took a bunch of random stuff from KZbin and mashed them together at random by a high school AV class!

[@jasonlochary9656]

I just finished watching the Documentary. It was just ok. I think I was spoiled having watched GET BACK a few years ago. I think you are right… I think it’s the order you watch the Beatles Documentaries that would make you appreciate them. Love your Paul imitation by the way.

[@johnpownall7720]

We also had, of course, Eight days a week not so long ago, a much more interesting film. Some of the inclusions were just boring, for example the extended bit about the American guy who landed in Liverpool. Paul was as unilluminating as ever in his interviews, and the contemporary talking heads were less than compelling. My favourite bits were the footage of them dancing in the club, the performance of This Boy - John, Paul and George harmonising, and some of the shots of Paul ( who looked like he was loving every second of the limelight) and John ( quite the opposite). 7 out of ten for me.

[@GodThunderGaming]

the good part about these documentaries are the never seen footages

[@Zholobov1]

Which we've already seem anyway

[@danielfuentes3226]

I did enjoy the documentary Beatles 64, I remember when they to USA in 1964 being nine years by the time.I can't say is their best documentary but it does some unseen details.

[@andrewfyfe8986]

Good review. Sums up how I feel

[@knoober3756]

It also just seems very much like Paul trying to once again mythologize the Beatles instead of telling it how it was. It’s also my least favorite part of their career. I get it was thier formative years but the whole beatlemainia thing is just blown way out of proportion considering that they ended up doing their best work after all of that. On top of that, it’s made even clearly that these women didn’t really care for the music and wanted to get with them. It genuinely felt like propaganda to me

[@staralotzka5586]

It should have been 2 hours

[@julesotis13]

thanks brother JT meow

[@freaky_rawk_lobstuh]

Meow

[@thedancingalien7766]

I’ll Watch It For The Fit Screaming Girls Who Are All Grandmothers Now 😮😮😮

[@daemonspudguy]

You went to New Jersey? My condolences.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@daemonspudguy I was born in New Jersey 😅

[@daemonspudguy]

@JTCurtisMusic oh no that's even worse. /lh /j

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@daemonspudguy now it all makes sense…

[@thomasbrzezina8206]

This is not a film about the Beatles it's about Beatlemania. As such, it wasn't that interesting to me.

[@catmando7262]

I watched it the other day. It was all right but nothing that special. Bits and pieces and overlong without full performances. Watched the restored Let It Be as well. Better than I remembered. Get Disney+ for that.

[@kjeldpedersen666]

Redundant. Scraping the barrel. Nothing wrong with watching Beatlemania, giving me the shivers every time. But it seems like it’s just a matter of finding a thematic scheme for using all the old film strips and bits of interviews, collecting it all for a new, “interesting” movie… The Beatles was the greatest musical and maybe even cultural revolution in the 20’th century. But we have what we have…

[@geoffharris9396]

We heard Kennedy talking about putting a man on the moon! What's that got to do with the Beatles? We heard a man outside of a hotel telling two girls " I think it's disgusting" and he said it three times.. Why was this negativity included? The ending showed Harrison singing "roll over beethoven" which wasn't even written by the Beatles ! If you have the earlier documentary you don't need this. It could and should have been much better than this.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@geoffharris9396 to be fair, even I brought up Kennedy in my History of Rock 60s doc.

[@kahnlives]

Unfortunately most reviewers seem to echo the same sentiments. Shame I was looking forward to this.

[@BrendanJSmith]

A better title would've been America Meets The Beatles.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

I mean "First U.S. Visit" was a perfectly fine title to begin with but yeah that would have been a more accurate title.

[@keriford54]

This was damning with faint praise. I felt much the same, pleasant to watch, i didn't turn it off but I wasn't riveted to the screen. This is not a definitive documentary of that tour, it doesn't immerse you in the time. A missed opportunity, I can't see it exciting a new generation or satisfying the old fans, but it's ok.

[@willswalkingwest7267]

This was a cash grab for the Disney company, they're hurting horribly bad right now, anything Beatles is a guaranteed money maker. The film was going to be okay by Martin. For people like us that have seen, read, listened to EVERYTHING...it just wasn't going to be anything extraordinary. Because nothing extraordinary exists anymore. We've seen it all. That said, for the new Beatles fans, it will get a lot of leg. Meaning Disney makes money. For me, I'm glad the Beatles are still getting the attention they deserve. I die inside every time I see an AI narrated video with so much wrong, or an AI manuscript under pictures on Facebook with so much wrong information. So with Martin at the helm, and as rehashed as the footage might be, at least this documentary will be mostly historically accurate. Unlike that horrible Brian Epstein biopic.

[@julesotis13]

I love your Ed Sullivan and other impersonations...wonder how you'd do Monty Python on the fly too hmmmmmm?

[@jeremykeens3905]

Too many unexplained talking heads - eg L Bernstein daughter not revealed immediately. Yes - not enough music Little context for a lot of stuff - Murray the K a strange inclusion to people who don’t know the history. Yes - got D+ for other stuff so happy to watch. But couldn’t see what it was trying to say. (Obvious tie-in with Paul’s photo book. ) And Paul trotting out the same old stories (yeah/dad/yes). Plus the bit you beautifully presented with eg me to you (that trope of his could do with some analysis of whether the Beatles were any different to any other band.

[@tijnonline6807]

What a disappointment that Beatles '64 documentary ! It goes all over the place, and very little music and performances. I also can miss the talking heads about how they have experienced that time. The dvd The Beatles First US Visit is SO much better ! 🙂

[@musopleb]

Important historical context I think (still very important today) is that the Beatles definitely did not like "Black Music". They liked "Music". They didn't care (and often did not know) the background of the artists they liked, and were basically colour-blind in their regards to it. They refused segregation at the US concerts - not because they were politically active and working for the Civil Rights movement - but because it was (and is) stupid. It is unfortunately a deep-rooted US perspective that everything must be framed as whether it is "white" or "black" culture, which seems to have got worse in the recent decades (from both the Right and Left).

[@JTCurtisMusic]

Well unfortunately segregation happened, the black artists who started the genera were unfortunately pushed back from being on segregated radio (Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, many artists have discussed this including those interviewed in this documentary) and it set a tone for the rock & roll music market for pretty much it's entirety even in more subtle ways with indirectly defining rock radio as white and R&B as black (see David Bowie's comments on early MTV). In a perfect world, yes this would be indistinguishable and there would be no reason to define either or and props to The Beatles for refusing to play to segregated audiences, regardless of their political affiliation, but to not discuss this very real part of American History means people are doomed to repeat it and perpetuate it. I can understand that there are times in these discussions where people go off on tangents but in my opinion, they balanced this discussion rather well in Beatles '64 documentary without stepping too far away from The Beatles' story.

[@musopleb]

@@JTCurtisMusic Yeah - I'm not disputing the history, or your/the film's analysis of it. Just think the best way to defeat it is to just stop calling stuff "black" music or "white" music and be colour-blind.. and how the Beatles early love of all RocknRoll, R&B, Country, Soul, Girl Groups etc etc is a really good example of that.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@musopleb I appreciate the sentiment, but unfortunately being “colorblind“ can be just as detrimental with people using it as an excuse to turn a blind eye to very real issues of racism in the US. I assume you do not live in the US, based on how you spelled “colour” but I can assure you that this country is still feeling the effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws with institutional racism (redlining, economic inequality that affects people of color, racial profiling, mass incarceration, even in the music business black artists are exploited) and politicians and lawmakers justify this by “Not seeing color“ or more recently calling this ideology “Woke.” As far as The Beatles are concerned, I don’t necessarily agree that they were colorblind either. Refusing to play for segregated audiences, while it may seem so obvious by today’s standards, was a BIG deal back then! And even later, Paul wrote Blackbird, John donated to the Black Panther party, I think they were much more interested in civil rights than history would have you believe. I can certainly understand the hesitation to define music as black-and-white, to me Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Elvis are all unique artists with their own distinct styles and impact on rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s also undeniable that one of those three artists was far more popular than the other two for a very specific reason. That’s why these black artists are very serious about how important it was that the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many other UK groups were very vocal about their admiration for “ Black music“ or whatever you want to call it. It legitimized the music they were making to the young kids who idolized The Beatles. And unfortunately, there are still people who don’t know this history or dispute it (believe me I see these comments all the time on my videos). Again your point means well, but there is a reason people in the Black community, the gay community, the Jewish community want to be known for their contributions to culture in the face of discrimination.

[@richardmckrell4899]

DEI Disney ruined another movie.

[@onlysleeping8934]

You're about the 3rd Beatles KZbinr who has said "if you're an older Beatles fan, there's not much new footage". Yeah, I don't feel like I'm missing anything because I've seen the Beatles First US Visit a few hundred times. A big miss for Apple. GIVE US RUBBER SOUL BOX ALREADY! Grrrrrrrrrr New subscriber here. Seems like a cool channel

[@lenafelipe]

They should've of just done with The First U.S Visit what they did to the Let It Be documentary with Get Back. I found the documentary to be liminal.

[@adrianmist6681]

This is probably one of the better reviews. I think this film was a shambles, porely put together with no continuity and no story. It would make more sense if they had used most of the Maysles brothers footage and included all the live performances and maybe some of the more interesting interviews. To leave out the Ed Sullivan show makes no sense, surely that's the whole point of the story!

[@GerarddeSouza-yt3fc]

I have not seen it yet. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan footage is owned by SOFA entertainment, not Apple, so I imagine it’s a rights issue & $ to show it. Sure, White American artists here & there acknowledged their Black influences but it was an “othered” reference. As foreigners, The Beatles acknowledged and offered back their Black influences to America as an American influence. They helped us see Black music is American music. When you say a certain song is missing, etc., access to Beatles media is so ubiquitous these days, perhaps that is what the producers are relying on; the viewer can look up these things immediately. From the clips I’ve seen, I think it’s interesting that they seem to have used AI to enhance dialogue from old footage in noisy places, as on the train. That aspect, it’s cool to hear what they’re saying. I hope to see it.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@GerarddeSouza-yt3fc yeah, but they still showed clips of it. I would imagine if they’re buying the rights to the Ed Sullivan show they would fork over whatever money they need to show full performances. This is more of a general trend that I see in documentaries where maybe directors think if they show too much of a song the audience will get bored.

[@gringo557]

Tedeschi is not much of a director and an even worse editor. Living In The Material World feels like it was edited with a butcher's knife. Beatles '64 could have used more concert footage and less (beautifully restored) footage of The Beatles sitting around a table. And, I believe the actual film restoration was done by Peter Jackson . . . so there you have it. Film restoration: A+ Direction and Editing: C+

[@julesotis13]

I was gonna add before you said you like doing your Paul please do that on our zoom chat I love it

[@Robutube1]

For sure, every time the Mops are on screen they light up the screen. However, in general this is a wasted opportunity with too many non-additive talking heads (Ronnie is obviously an exception), not enough music and it is littered with poor editing decisions. Who is the target audience for this I wonder?

[@Beatletuesday8296]

Very disappointed I’ve seen all of this if you want to see a better version the US First Visit was Far Better!

[@fletcherrhoden]

He Was a Friend of Mine was written by Bob Dylan, then covered by The Byrds. Big loss of credibility here.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@fletcherrhoden no it was not written by Dylan, it’s an old folk song (which Dylan did cover) but Jim McGuinn rewrote the words as a tribute to Kennedy.

[@fletcherrhoden]

@@JTCurtisMusic I sit corrected, but the way you phrased it sounded like you were inferring that it was a Beatles tune.

[@JTCurtisMusic]

@@fletcherrhoden 7:15 “I think in my documentary I used He Was a Friend of mine from THE BYRDS.”

[@jeffzimmerman9928]

Bad movie Bad reviewer.

[@freaky_rawk_lobstuh]

Dudeeeee what the heck

[@danielfuentes3226]

I did enjoy the documentary Beatles 64, I remember when they to USA in 1964 being nine years by the time.I can't say is their best documentary but it does some unseen details.

[@danielfuentes3226]

I did enjoy the documentary Beatles 64, I remember when they to USA in 1964 being nine years by the time.I can't say is their best documentary but it does some unseen details.