16 September, 2016

Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years

I'm going to do my best to write a review on this glorious documentary that I was blessed enough to see yesterday on the big screen, but I fear I was too mesmerized to take it all in.

***There will be spoilers!

If I had to pick five major things that I was hoping would be included, they all were included. (I wouldn't expect anything less from Ron Howard, but I also know that it's hard to squeeze everything into 99 minutes.)


  • I wanted the actual mania of Beatlemania to be represented fairly. That was most definitely portrayed, hahaha.
  • I was hoping that it would mention their anti-segregation requirements within their contract(s).
  • I was hoping it would make a big deal about the record-breaking and history-making appearance at Shea.
  • I was hoping it would tell the real reasons behind the end of their touring: mostly the disaster in Manila and John's controversial misunderstood quote.
  • I was hoping the documentary, which is dedicated to their touring years, wouldn't just end with "and that's the end of their touring years, so that's the end of this documentary now." They did a good job summarizing what happened afterward and more importantly, it didn't really slow down until after Sgt. Pepper! It carried it further before summarizing the rest of their story.


It did a good job presenting the story. There was lots of great footage and visuals beyond my expectations. The interviews that were included were amazing, although I wish there could have been more. I was particularly sad to not see Meryl Streep, but alas she's a busy lady. (They could have at least shown her clip like they did Sigourney Weaver, though.)

I was impressed that he was permitted to use Anthology material and Christmas Album material. I was glad that they used interviews from J&G just as they had interviews from P&R to help tell their story. I was thrilled that they rewarded all of the super-fanatics that went to see theater premieres with Shea in its completion. (We're still waiting for a DVD of it, by the way! We've been asking for how long...?)

If I think of more details to mention, I'll add to this entry in a comment. However, I will say that I often found tears in my eyes. (Of course, I had tears in my eyes the whole day.) There were many times when I felt the documentary was meeting my expectations and hopes perfectly, but other times it clearly exceeded them.

I did think it was weird how they mentioned the lads demanding to go to the Bahamas during the filming of "Help!" without mentioning that they also demanded the Swiss Alps too. However, you won't hear me say that anything disappointed me at all whatsoever! WATCH IT! I think novice fans will enjoy it just as fanatics like me did!

I can already see how disorganized this review sounds, but my mind just can't get any clearer right now. All I know is that it was exhilarating and I want everyone to watch it at least once in its entirety.