Rock 'n' Roll cinema certainly didn't begin with A Hard Day's Night – there's
Jailhouse Rock and Expresso Bongo – but A Hard Day's Night isn’t just a great
rock 'n' roll film, it's a great film without the genre tag; indeed for many, one
of the 100 best films in cinema. A Hard Day's Night doesn't so much begin as it explodes
into existence, that ringing first chord shattering the quiet (?) of the movie
theater as The Beatles, mid-chase, run towards the camera. The film rarely
backs down from this exuberant energy, barreling ahead with a constant
cartoony smile.
There’s not much story to A Hard Day's Night – the band travels to London for a TV
gig and Paul's irascible grandfather causes hi-jinx along
the way – but the looseness of the structure is the key to the film's immense
joy. The Fab Four get to run and jump and mug their way through
barely-connected scenarios, as good at what they were doing as the Marx
Brothers.
It's interesting to
note that, as early as 1964, the Beatles' personalities are in place. John is a
surrealist, a combination of Groucho and Harpo Marx with an edge of darkness.
Paul's suave, laid back cuteness is instantly apparent as he
hides behind a newspaper, the others scrambling away from girls. George
Harrison seems serious, but he's seriously deadpan, and Ringo, the sad clown, the sole Beatle
who openly wept when the band broke up, would come to
define the Beatles throughout the remaining six years of their career.
Director Richard Lester used a handheld camera for much
of the film, giving A Hard Day's Night the aesthetics of a documentary,
blurring the lines between those characters and the real Beatles. That semi-doc
style makes the film's more outrageous moments - John disappearing in the
bathtub, Ringo helping a lady fall into a hole - pack an even bigger punch. The
dialogue balances perfectly between Liverpudlian working class pith and
exquisite wordplay and wit.
The Beatles led the oddest life imaginable - chased
through train stations, limo-driven from one hotel to the next - how could they
not fall back on each other for comfort? More than anything, this film captures
their genuine need for each other. True, Ringo disappears at one point in a
near-silent section that found critics of the day hailing him as the "new
Chaplin," but what’s
wonderful about this movie is how natural its stars are.
And then, of course, there are the songs - "If I Fell," "I
Should Have Known Better," "Things We Said Today;" to these guys, this was
filler! Plus we get the wonder of "Can’t Buy Me Love" and the title track, not to mention George Martin's incidental score, as good as anything from the era, Bacharach and Mancini included. Beatlemania was in full swing when A Hard Day's Night was
released, and had it flopped, had it not been good at all, the future of The
Beatles is less certain. A good film would have kept them on track, but here,
in a great film, a flawless film, The Beatles became iconic.
