Quatre Garçons dans le vent

Excellent production, script, acting and what BRILLIANT music composed under the duress of filming and touring! John Lennon's tour-de-force (he wrote 11 1/2 songs on the album, Paul McCartney wrote half of "And I Love Her" and all of "Things We Said Today"). The script captures perfectly the joys and draining madness of Beatlmania. The Beatles prove in this film that they are deserving of the fame and adulation.

"A Hard Days Night" has got to be one of the funniest movies of all time, firmly holding its place with such classics as "Annie Hall" and "Duck Soup". It is also one of my top five favorite films of all time. The film proved that the Beatles could not only write and perform incredible songs, but that they could act as well. They are assisted in no small part by the extraordinary screenplay by Alun Owen. His dialogue is so unreasonable witty that even Groucho Marx himself would be impressed. In "A Hard Days Night", we not only see the Beatles as great characters, but we also get some other outstanding characters, such as Paul's mischevious grandfather (Wilfred Brambell) and the dim-witted Norm and Shake (Norman Rossington and John Junkin). This is a great film with great music and a great screenplay. I recommend this not only to avid Beatles fans, but to movie fans in general.

If anyone wants to witness the phenomenon that was "Beatlemania" in the 1960s, all they have to do is view "A Hard Day's Night". Although it's a fictional account of two days in the life of the rock group on tour, it captures the essence of what their life on the road was actually like. It also served to enhance their "personalities" as individuals, as well as show their spirit of fun-loving lads as a group. And as a bonus... the music throughout is superb! Sprinkled with Beatles' hits, Richard Lester's film almost serves as a blueprint for the music video form that took over the airwaves in the 1980s. Filmed with humor, great tunes and fast-paced editing, "A Hard Day's Night" usually never fails in delivering smiles and pleasure. If you're a music fan, and a rock and roll buff, the film is a must!

Classic cinema verite has the Fab Four going hither and thither, accompanied by Paul's "very clean" grandfather John (Wilfrid Brambell). Naturally, it wouldn't be a Beatles movie without their music. And the music always fits the scene (unlike so many musicals). My favorite scene was on the train where John, Paul, George and Ringo meet a middle-aged man, and...well, let's just say that it did a really funny job showing the generation gap. In short, you can always count on the Beatles to do something great, as every one of their songs showed. They may have had a "hard" time making this movie, but they would have to agree that it was worth it; people could easily spend "days" and "nights" watching it.