Full disclosure: I don't like the Beatles, and in fact will go out of my way to avoid them. Nothing personal to their millions of fans, but I see nothing there that's the least bit appealing. To give you an idea exactly how much I know about popular music, though: for years I thought that was Mick Jagger singing lead for the FVB
silly me; it's Steven Tyler. Oops.
I don't like fantasy. Nor do I like the Bee Gees well, maybe more specifically, I don't like disco and I still resent having it shoved down my throat every day of my life when I was in high school. The Brothers Gibb actually sound okay when they sing, as long as it's something other than disco nice harmonies.
You might as well add George Burns to the things I don't like, as long as we're at it, and seeing as he's here.
During my most recent viewing, it finally occurred to me that perhaps Beatles fans actually see this kind of thing in their minds when they listen to the original music perhaps they understand the odd lyrics and find meaning in them independently. Perhaps that meaning is even different for each listener. My own imagination can't find that kind of meaning in nonsensical things like walruses and strawberry fields and yellow submarines, but when it's all laid out for me as a story I can follow, even in an awkwardly cobbled-together effort like this one, I do like it. It's weird, exploitive, poorly acted by many (I'm looking at you, Mr. Frampton), over-long, grotesque in places (now I'm looking at Mr. Howerd and Mr. Martin) and very much a crass pop-culture money-making effort with questionable staying power yet I'm entertained by it. I've probably seen it a half-dozen times. Sometimes I don't know why I'm watching it but I still watch it, all the way to the end. I don't really 'get it', necessarily, but I enjoy it on some level.
Beatles fans probably universally dislike this production, and I don't blame them. I'd dislike it if I was a fan of the source material, but since I'm not, I approach this film on a whole different level and it works for me.
I don't like fantasy. Nor do I like the Bee Gees well, maybe more specifically, I don't like disco and I still resent having it shoved down my throat every day of my life when I was in high school. The Brothers Gibb actually sound okay when they sing, as long as it's something other than disco nice harmonies.
You might as well add George Burns to the things I don't like, as long as we're at it, and seeing as he's here.
During my most recent viewing, it finally occurred to me that perhaps Beatles fans actually see this kind of thing in their minds when they listen to the original music perhaps they understand the odd lyrics and find meaning in them independently. Perhaps that meaning is even different for each listener. My own imagination can't find that kind of meaning in nonsensical things like walruses and strawberry fields and yellow submarines, but when it's all laid out for me as a story I can follow, even in an awkwardly cobbled-together effort like this one, I do like it. It's weird, exploitive, poorly acted by many (I'm looking at you, Mr. Frampton), over-long, grotesque in places (now I'm looking at Mr. Howerd and Mr. Martin) and very much a crass pop-culture money-making effort with questionable staying power yet I'm entertained by it. I've probably seen it a half-dozen times. Sometimes I don't know why I'm watching it but I still watch it, all the way to the end. I don't really 'get it', necessarily, but I enjoy it on some level.
Beatles fans probably universally dislike this production, and I don't blame them. I'd dislike it if I was a fan of the source material, but since I'm not, I approach this film on a whole different level and it works for me.