Data
Title: A Hard Day's Night
Year: 1964
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Richard Lester
Writer: Alun Owen
Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
With: Wilfrid Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti
Music: John Lennon & Paul McCartney (songs); George Martin (musical director)
Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor
Editing: John Jympson
Oscars: nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Score
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), a few days ago
Synopsis: a day in the life of the Beatles
My reaction
Concept: 1/4 (Bad). Never has my love for a band made me think, "Gee, this music's fine, but why aren't they starring in their own movies?"
Story: 1/4 (Bad). No story. It would have been difficult to come up with a story that works at all, though, so it's probably best that there's no story.
Characters: 3/4 (Good)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 4/4 (Great). There's a remarkable amount of texture in the photography. Thanks to that and the faux-documentary style, no matter how dumb the movie gets, there's always something interesting to look at.
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). It's very easy to overlook this aspect, having grown up long after this movie's time. Everything is so damn iconic that I couldn't help taking it all for granted while I was watching it.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay, 2/4). A Marx Brothers movie, minus the wit (not that there's no wit - just relative to a Marx Brothers movie), crossed with a concert film, shot like an art film. I was only vaguely entertained while watching it, but after some reflection, there really is a lot to appreciate about it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)
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