Beatlemania On Screen: The Essential Film Guide For New Fans

Oh, darling, with four biopics centering on John, Paul, George, and Ringo on the horizon, now is definitely the perfect time to dive into one of, if not the, most influential and iconic bands across the universe. Over the decades, we’ve seen movies inspired by The Beatles, such as Yesterday, which imagines a world where The Beatles never existed, and Across The Universe, a jukebox musical romantic drama centered on their music.

But we’re here to focus on the films starring the Fab Four, from fictionalized versions of themselves to insightful documentaries and a trippy animated adventure. With a little help from your friends at Billboard Philippines, here are the essential films and documentaries to watch as worthy starting points for anyone wanting to learn more about the Fab Four.

A Hard Day’s Night

W’re kicking it off with the one that started it all. Released during the peak of Beatlemania in the early-to-mid-’60s, A Hard Day’s Night follows the Fab Four’s 36 hours leading up to a television performance. With such youthful vigor and charm, the film captures the four as they bring all the chaos, humor, and energy that made the Beatles a global phenomenon.

It’s also a revelation that, beyond their singing, each of the Beatles shows off their magnetic personality as they try to avoid wild fans and deal with their heightened fame. It’s part mockumentary, part musical, with a soundtrack album that’s packed with bangers.

Help!

After the success of A Hard Day’s Night, the four got themselves mixed up in a fusion between slapstick comedy and music, as Help! finds drummer Ringo Starr in trouble with an Eastern cult and mad scientists who are obsessed with taking a mysterious gem sent to him by a fan. The boys travel the world, performing music and just showing more of their silly personas on-screen.

This surrealist comedy may be a bit of an acquired taste for many. In hindsight, Help! goes all-out with all the wacky, weird, and obscure screenplay that it can bring, featuring The Beatles. Just like A Hard Day’s Night, this film puts more Ringo into the spotlight than you may believe, so that’s definitely a win.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years

Director Ron Howard breezes through a comprehensive history, from the band’s humble beginnings playing at the Cavern Club in Liverpool to their final concert performance in San Francisco in 1966. The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years goes knee-deep in the know-how.

This documentary strikes a balance between being informative and capturing the essence of what made Beatlemania — and the Beatles’ early music — resonate with overzealous fans.

The Beatles: Get Back

Acting as a more extensive and supplementary viewing for 1970’s Let It Be, which featured the iconic rooftop gig that turned out to be the Beatles’ final performance together, The Beatles: Get Back has all the ingredients of a well-put-together burger that doesn’t quite leave out the pickles and onions. Under Peter Jackson’s direction and production, you know you’re truly getting an extensive look into the band’s final moments of recording songs.

This three-part documentary miniseries offers a glimpse into the band’s recording sessions for the Let It Be album and shows that things didn’t turn out as tumultuous or hectic as expected — they were having fun, and the friendship was still there, despite the impending breakup.

The Beatles Anthology

If you have enough time to spare (approximately 10 hours) then this is your sign to breeze through a huge chunk of Beatles history with the eight-part, hour-long miniseries The Beatles Anthology. Through archival footage and interviews, this docuseries pretty much covers everything: from their early years in Liverpool and their iconic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to their adventures in India and their innovative songwriting in the mid-to-late 1960s.

Additionally, there’s a heartwarming touch when the surviving Beatles at the time, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, reminisce about their glory days.

Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine was way ahead of its time when it came out, as it proved that the animated art form wasn’t just a children’s medium but something that could also be enjoyed by adults. It takes us to the fictional setting of Pepperland, where a group of music-hating creatures — the Blue Meanies — have taken away all the music and color. The Beatles are recruited by the Lord Mayor of Pepperland and ride a yellow submarine to defend the land through the power of music.