An Important Work

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2002)

Along with Michael Wadleigh's `Woodstock: Three Days Of Peace & Love' and Dennis Hopper's `Easy Rider', Richard Lester's `A Hard Day's Night' seem to personify the `right place at the right time' merging of film and music in the Sixties. `A Hard Day's Night' is probably the most important of these films, coming as it does with Beatlemania still swelling to uncharted heights and Lester capturing it in a verite style that lends an immediacy to what at the time could still be construed as merely a happy accident. Lester's innovation is assisted by Alun Owen's snappy screenplay (apart from some flights of fancy, it's remarkably realistic), the gracious charm of the Beatles themselves and John Jympson's tight, sophisticated editing. This film is the blueprint for the music video genre and is a spectacular piece of work that refuses to ever get tiresome.