DVD Review: A Hard Day's Night
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this is a great way to introduce your kids to the Beatles -- or just enjoy their glory days together as a family. Aside from some Paul's naughty grandfather and some brief drug-related humor, there's very little iffy content here, so just focus on singing along with the soundtrack.
- Families can talk about the nature of fads and the problems created by success.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is a surrealistic day in the life of the most overwhelmingly popular rock group of all time. It studies the Fab Four through a typical 36 hours as they ostensibly are trying to get to the Big Show on time. Along the way are gags, character vignettes, and musical setpieces.
The documentary-style of this movie masks its tight construction, clever script, and sublime anarchy second only to the Marx brothers. It portrays the Beatles sympathetically -- like the heroine of "It Happened One Night," they are constantly told what to do and smothered by all they have. Part of the humor of this movie is that it is not the members of the Beatles but Paul's "clean" grandfather who causes most of the trouble. Musical numbers include "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Should Have Known Better" as well as the title song, its title taken from Ringo's warped syntax after a long recording session.
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