BBC journalist Samira Ahmed's BFI Film Classics study of "A Hard Day's Night" must be good because it immediately made me want to watch the film again.
Her description of key scenes in what Andrew Sarris memorably called the "'Citizen Kane' of jukebox movies" reminded me of how wonderfully entertaining the Beatles' first film is, and not just because it features the band.
As Ahmed details, there's a lot of playful social commentary going as the young, irreverent and free-spirited Beatles confront different elements of the British establishment: The uptight, bowler-hatted Man from the City on the train; the assembled members of the press during the news conference; the neurotic director in charge of their upcoming TV appearance; the cynical ad man seeking to exploit George; the police who arrest Ringo.
The film captures a period of change in Britain — led in part by the Beatles, themselves — that saw working class voices and emboldened post-war youth challenging the nation's status quo. Ahmed relays how Alun Owen's screenplay captured the voices and personalities of the band members, while Richard Lester's direction celebrated the Beatles' antic playfulness and chaos and the absurdity of everything swirling around them.
The film's black-and-white cinematography and spot-on depiction of a key period of time in our culture give it the air of a cinema "classic," which it is, yet it's more than just an artifact of the 1960s and of the Beatles' career. It holds up and it's still fun to watch because all of us want to shake off the demands and expectations of society and be free, a desire that the film captures perfectly in the still-exhilarating scene where the Beatles leap and scamper and play in a field after escaping from the confines of the TV studio.
As Lester later put it: "The general aim of the film was to present what was apparently becoming a social phenomenon in this country. Anarchy is too strong a word, but the quality of confidence that the boys exuded! Confidence that they could dress as they liked, speak as they liked, talk to the Queen as they liked, talk to the people on the train who 'fought the war for them' as they liked. ... [Everything was] still based on privilege—privilege by schooling, privilege by birth, privilege by accent, privilege by speech. The Beatles were the first people to attack this... they said if you want something, do it. You can do it. Forget all this talk about talent or ability or money or speech. Just do it."
Ahmed's small, slim book does a great job of describing the film's impact at the time of its release and its legacy. She also includes details about its production and distribution, and the other films it inspired, and has continued to inspire. And, movingly, she describes the film's personal impact on her life, growing up in England as the daughter of immigrants.
Watching "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" as a girl, she "met John, Paul, George and Ringo — 'the gang to end all gangs, self-sufficient, witty and all-inclusive,' who made me feel welcome," she writes.
As a white kid seeing the films while growing up in conservative, small-town Montana during the 1970s, I, in my own way, can relate, as I think, so can we all: The Beatles make us feel welcome.
Paperback, 128 pages.
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