The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, whose title comes from a 1964 song from the album Beatles for Sale, is a documentary chronicling the band's 250 concerts between 1963 and 1966 as well as the cultural revolution that occurred in large part due to their rise to fame. The film, expertly directed and produced by Hollywood vet Ron Howard, contains an incredible amount of touring footage and an obviously great soundtrack, but ultimately lacks the engaging storytelling to be anything more than a well-made love letter to the band John Lennon (perhaps accurately) once called “more popular than Jesus.”
The main selling point behind this documentary, by a significant margin, is the fantastic production value that brings the story of The Beatles’ stardom to life far more than any narrator could. Much of the concert footage, including the thirty minute Shea Stadium performance by the band featured directly after the film, was remastered with full color in beautiful 4K resolution, and the high quality soundtrack was edited flawlessly into the action. Ron Howard, through Oscar and Golden Globe recognized films such as A Beautiful Mind, Frost-Nixon and Rush, has built a reputation as one of the most consistent and reliable directors in Hollywood, and his status with this film was upheld without question.
While not impeding on the high standard set by the film’s technical successes, the storytelling of Eight Days a Week did not bring anything particularly groundbreaking to the table and serves as the its biggest weakness. The essentials to a well-told story — informative and charismatic interviewees (including the two surviving Beatles, Paul and Ringo), a keen understanding of the band’s vast cultural impact across the world, a plethora of footage of the band both in concert and in interviews — are readily present, but the film generally lacks the dramatic elements and stylistic punch necessary to engage viewers with little prior knowledge regarding the band, limiting its potential target audience significantly. For a long time fan looking simply for nostalgic fanfare the issue is essentially nonexistent, but that does not eliminate the fact that Howard and Co. could have put forth a better effort in capturing the imagination of younger generations.
Eight Days a Week, while not a particularly groundbreaking work or much more than a couple hour trip down memory lane, is an incredibly well-made piece of cinema that is well worth the time and money for any fan of the most influential band of all time.
Three and one half stars (out of five).
