The Compleat Beatles [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of The Compleat Beatles [VHS]
Movie Review: a true gem - even if the recording and source quality is uneven
Summary: 5 Stars
The Compleat Beatles is one of the most enjoyable films for repeat viewings. Malcolm McDowell's narration is the key element - his voice is both melodious and passionate. The film stock is uneven in quality - but that hardly matters. The audio quality throughout is exceptional on the 1991 HiFi stereo NTSC VHS which I recently bought second hand via Amazon (August 2007) - the cover boasts "digitally duplicated Videophonic Sound". I can't compare it to the analogue audio of my LaserDisc version because "laser rot" rendered those discs unplayable several years ago. Unfortunately the VHS has unpleasantly bright, overly contrasted video with poor colour - whereas my recollection of the LaserDisc was that it looked great.
This film is almost as enjoyable as audio only, so the video problem isn't too critical.
Movie Review: A bit of a compact version of the Beatles' success story
Summary: 5 Stars
Narrated by the great Malcolm McDowell, this is a must see documentary that manages to do a pretty great job of telling the band's story in just under two hours. As in any band bio, the beginnings are uplifting and exciting and then the break up is hard to watch but as in the Beatles' case, you feel that it's inevitable. The amazing thing that you get from this movie is that it all happened within such a short time. Required viewing for any young rock musician. Check out "The Rutles" immediately afterwards.Movie Review: Now THIS is a Beatles documentary!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I LOVE this documentary! It was one of the first that I ever watched about The Beatles and it remains a treasure of my small VHS/DVD collection.
Credit was given where it was due and the influential were given a prominent role here (as it should be). There were interviews from Allan Williams (the boys' first manager), George Martin (who crafted and refined their sound for the masses), the late Derek Taylor (who would also show up in the autobiographical "Anthology" mega-documentary), Bill Harry (editor of Mersey Beat), etc. And there are plenty of sound and video clips to fascinate you (I got a bit ticked, though, when the clip for "Strawberry Fields Forever" was interrupted).
If "Anthology," at a running time of between 8-10 hours, is too much for you, check this tape out. It's a great primer and refresher for Beatles novices and experts alike.
Two thumbs up ... and then some!
Movie Review: Best documentary at its time.
Summary: 5 Stars
My mom introduced me to the Beatles at a ripe age of four, she was a big time Beatles fan, but I'm a bigger one, too bad I wasn't around in the 60's, I missed out on some good happenings. Anyways, we rented this video back in 1984 when it first came out, and I was hooked. Even before that, I loved the Beatles, and use to plug in the headphones and listen to their old records my mom had and this just added to my taste. You see my mom didn't have all their albums, but I ended up getting them all on vinyl before they discontinued them back in the mid 80's (the capitol albums). Anyways, what I'm getting at here, if you like the Beatles, and you don't know much about them, this will discribe it pretty good, considering it's narrarated, and it's before Anthology, and it's 1984, so they did a good recap on their lives without them really telling it themselves. It's got interesting things on their childhood, into getting interested in rock and roll, since it was born when they were teenagers, to the skiffle band John Lennon formed in 1956 called the Quarrymen, to their time in Hamburg with Stu and Pete, to kicking out Pete and getting Ringo. It's all here, from rags to riches, to fame and fortune, to calm to madness. People will remember the Beatles even hundreds years from now, and I'm not the only one who believes that. But anyways, young and old, prescious and delicate, if you like the Beatles, this should be in your collection, along with its big brother which came out about a decade later Anthology.Movie Review: I Can't Believe This Isn't on DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
Back in the middle 1980s, if you were a Beatles fan this was one of your few choices in full-length home video. The misleadingly titled 'Compleat Beatles' was one of the first direct-to-video rockumentaries to later be broadcast on PBS and cable TV, and it was accompanied by a two-volume set of books containing sheet music. (The books were available separately.)
Nostalgia aside, there isn't much here that isn't covered in more depth in 'The Beatles Anthology.' Evidentally, the film makers couldn't acquire the rights to use actual film footage from either 'Magical Mystery Tour' or 'Help!' and so these films are represented by movie stills. Very little concert footage remains, and most of that consists of audience reaction shots. It's maddening how, after Ed Sullivan introduces the Beatles we are shown only reaction shots and hear a remixed studio recording of 'All My Loving' instead of the live version. There are no interviews with the Beatles themselves, save for old footage taped during the group's heyday. And few, if any songs appear without narration or some other intrusion.
On the positive side (and perhaps I am being generous here) are some first-rate interviews with the Beatles' original manager, George Martin, Gerry from Gerry and the Pacemakers, Marianne Faithful, and Billy Preston (among others). To my knowledge, these interviews were originally intended for 'The Long And Winding Road,' which would have been a rockumentary similar to 'Anthology' except completed in the late 1970s. Indeed, it seems that 'The Compleat Beatles' was made solely to salvage the hard work already done on 'The Long and Winding Road.'
I would like to see this film issued on DVD anyway, because there's a chance that more of these exclusive interviews might make their way onto the disc as extras. 'The Compleat Beatles' may not be as memorable a rockumentary as 'Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!' but it doesn't deserve its out-of-print status either.