The Compleat Beatles (Documentary 1982)

[Walter Hale 4]

Hey, anyone here remember seeing this vintage 1982 documentary?

This was a high qual insightful documentary for it's time that still holds up well today!


Certainly a great find at the right time as we get closer to the new Beatles "final" song

[Walter Hale 4]

The Compleat Beatles

Directed by Patrick Montgomery
Documentary, Music
1h 59m


''THE COMPLEAT BEATLES,'' a two-hour documentary on the group's thrilling rise and subsequent evolution, is surprising on at least two scores. For one thing, the fact that this film, which opens today at the Festival Theater, has previously been available on video cassette would seem to indicate that it might be stale or negligible. It's not.

For another, if the tidal wave of nostalgia surrounding the 20th anniversary of the band's American debut engenders the feeling that nothing about the Beatles remains to be said, ''The Compleat Beatles'' proves otherwise. A third surprise, in addition to the film's merit and its relative novelty, is the fact that it makes the the group's now-familiar story so very moving.

As directed by Patrick Montgomery, ''The Compleat Beatles'' manages to avoid almost all the visual cliches that have come to accompany the band's story. The film does not, for instance, bother with footage of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, ''Toast of the Town,'' nor does it indulge in any jazzy editing reminiscent of Richard Lester's ''Hard Day's Night'' style. What it does, with the help of impressive research and some unusual interview material, is trace the Beatles' career from the very beginning, capturing the Horatio Algerish aspects of their success, the charm that constitued the heart of their vast appeal, the strong personalities that emerged within the group and the weariness that brought on its breakup. No matter how much you know about the Beatles' history, some of this material is bound to strike you as new, even if it's only the street scene of a fan explaining her painting, which is titled ''A Sprout of a New Generation.'' It's a picture of Paul McCartney, growing out of a landscape.

A great deal of the film concentrates on the early days, when the Beatles were the Quarrymen, and Paul still had a part in his hair. Mr. Montgomery has come up with an extensive array of still photographs and even a little newsreel material to illustrate this early part of the story. Gerry Marsden, of Gerry and the Pacemakers, explains what skiffle music meant to young would-be rockers. And Tony Sheridan, whose record of ''My Bonnie'' is the first on which the Beatles played, talks about the importance of the band's Hamburg days. Interspersed with these interviews are some remarkable snapshots, taken long before the Beatles learned to guard their expressions and think about their stage images. These photographs cast immeasurable light on the self-consciousness of some of their subsequent poses.

The key interview subject here is George Martin, the Beatles' record producer, who coolly and thoughtfully describes his work with the band. Mr. Martin, a debonair figure who seems to have been remarkably immune to the fads and fashions that the Beatles engendered, describes recording sessions (some of which are actually seen here, among them the session for the Beatles' first album) and explains how certain specific effects were achieved - ''the most overpowering sound you ever heard in your life,'' for instance, which is what he says John Lennon requested for the ending of ''A Day in the Life.'' Mr. Martin also talks of editing two cuts together to produce ''Strawberry Fields Forever'' and tells of the reluctance of Capitol Records to issue Beatle singles in the pre-''I Wanna Hold Your Hand'' days. Of ''Please Please Me,'' at the time when it was a hit in England, Mr. Martin recalls a Capitol executive saying, ''Sorry, it wouldn't mean anything in this country.''

The Beatles themselves are glimpsed in moments of unusual candor. As the excellent narration (provided by Malcolm McDowell) explains how unprepared the band was for such overwhelming success, we see footage of George Harrison driving a convertible, trying to pick up Ringo Starr outside Ringo's row house in Liverpool while hordes of teen-agers storm the car. Mr. Montgomery avoids much of the flippant interview material that usually accompanies descriptions of the band's first American tour, opting instead for clips in which the group members speculate quietly about their future. Ringo says he's hoping to ''make a few bob and then open a hairdressing salon.'' George hopes their success will last four years. John thinks 10 years would be nice, but three months would be more realistic.

Mr. Montgomery isn't averse to using unflattering footage, like the television appearance, on a gaudy turquoise and orange set, in which the Beatles perform woefully inadequate versions of ''Nowhere Man,'' ''Yesterday'' and ''If I Needed Someone''; his point here, ably illustrated, is that the group's studio techniques had become too sophisticated for live performance.

To fault him (though only slightly), he's also willing to manipulate some of the material to bear out notions of what the Beatles' mood must have been. For instance, early, ecstatic scenes of the group arriving at airports are contrasted with a later glimpse of their arriving somewhere on a raw and windy day, with a bass note on the soundtrack for accompaniment. As wearying as the group's touring must have become, Mr. Montgomery needn't have underscored the point quite so obtrusively.


Historical View THE COMPLEAT BEATLES, a documentary directed by Patrick Montgomery; written by David Silver; narrated by Malcolm McDowell; edited by Pamela Page; produced by Mr. Montgomery and Stephanie Bennett; a Teleculture Films Release of a Delilah Film Production in association with MGA/UA Home Video.

At the Festival, Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Running time: 120 minutes. This film has no rating.


The Compleat Beatles

Director
Patrick Montgomery
Writer
David Silver
Stars
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Malcolm McDowell

Running Time
1h 59m
Genres
Documentary, Music



By Janet Maslin,
The New York Times

Feb. 10, 1984

[Walter Hale 4]

Now here's another take ...


Incompleat 'Beatles'


By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Archive

February 15, 1984


It's probably a first: a made-for-video project winding its way to the big screen. In this age of VCRs, it's usually the other way around, but "The Compleat Beatles," a year-old, two-hour compilation documentary, opened Friday at the K-B Cerberus after becoming the biggest-selling original video of all time.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come close to living up to its title. The two-volume book set that inspired this package did contain all the Beatles sheet music and a host of fascinating articles, but that's a book.

This audio-visual version depended on getting the rights to important film and video footage, and producers Stephanie Bennett and Jeannie Sakol have been only partially successful. Just how "compleat" can it be when it shows no Ed Sullivan clips (just his introduction), no clips from "A Hard Day's Night," "Help," "Yellow Submarine" or the famous rooftop concert from "Let It Be." On the other hand, there is a long sequence from the first American concert here in Washington (with Paul hitting the worst high note of all time) and the famous royal command performance scene in which John Lennon said "those of you in the expensive seats, just rattle your jewelry." Director Patrick Montgomery keeps things moving with a narration by Malcolm McDowell that happily doesn't go overboard.


The film starts out with a wonderful mix of musical history and social context. In a long exposition of the Beatles' early days, one can sense the myriad influences that led them to their jolly inventiveness: school-day dreams, American rock 'n' roll, the skiffle boom, Liverpool, Hamburg, the "London Palladium Show" that did to England what the Sullivan show would to America a mere four months later. It's funny how terrible they sounded and how angelic they looked in those earliest days, yet knowing that those rough noises would jell into the most impressive body of music produced in the '60s subtly smooths the jagged aural edges. There's so much rare footage here that it's worth the price of admission by itself.

But just at the moment the Beatles abandon their concert-giving, the film abandons its portrayal of their influence on and relationship with a society still very much affected by their music and actions. Director Patrick Montgomery suddenly opts for a strictly musical viewpoint and, fascinating as it is (mostly because producer George Martin makes a very strong case for himself as the fifth Beatle), "Compleat Beatles" loses its initial impact.

For those who have taken Beatles music for granted, Martin's recollections of how particular songs and effects came about is priceless. The recording studio shots, particularly from the gargantuan "All You Need Is Love" and "Hey Jude" sessions, are revealing, as are shots of Beatlemaniacs in their well-remembered overreactions.


Sadly, there are no interviews with any of the former Beatles, as the filmmakers opt for Gerry Marsden, Marianne Faithfull, Lenny Kaye and a few others whose comments are mercifully brief. More interesting are Alan Williams, the group's first manager, and Bill Harry, ex-editor of Mersey Beat: along with Martin, they help move the film toward "compleatness."

You walk away from "The Compleat Beatles" half-fulfilled, remembering perhaps a bit more clearly what it was all about, though the film does little to explain why. Mostly you remember just how neat John and Paul and George and Ringo were yesterday and how things were when we were waiting for their moment to arrive.

[Walter Hale 4]

My family didn't have a VCR back in 1982, so I had to wait for this film to hit theaters in 1984. I loved it then,despite none of the Fabs agreeing to be interviewed for it. These days, I prefer the Beatles telling the story themselves in the Anthology.

That would be because there was a pre-anthology already made or in the process of origianlly called The Long & Winding Road, wasn't it?

I recall seeing this the first time being played in our school lunch hour over two days in 1984.