Summary

A Hard Day’s Night revolutionized the rock musical film genre and practically invented the music video format, standing apart from previous films with its creative freedom and inventiveness. The documentary approach in the film captures the Beatles with intimate and spontaneous moments, giving audiences a glimpse into the band’s gag-filled interactions and improvisation. The film defined the essential persona of the Beatles and established them as four distinctive individuals, capturing the band at a fateful moment before fame could spoil them, showcasing their talent and authenticity.

While the popularity of the Beatles had steadily grown within the United Kingdom throughout 1963, in October 1963, the British press attached the term “Beatlemania” to band members George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. By early 1964, the Beatle’s concerts were accompanied by mass hysteria.

International superstardom for the Beatles came in February 1964, when the band made its North American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which resulted in immediate domination for the band on the American music sales charts. In March 1964, the Beatles began filming the groundbreaking musical comedy film A Hard Day’s Night, which was primarily intended to be a promotional tool for the upcoming album of the same name.

However, the film, which was released virtually in tandem with the album in July 1964, eventually transcended the cynical commercial motivation that inspired it. A Hard Day’s Night redefined the rock musical genre, which had previously been most clearly identified with Elvis Presley, whose insipid stream of comedy musical film vehicles in the late 1950s and 1960s were primarily interesting for how increasingly unhappy Elvis seemed to be to have to star in these films.

With A Hard Day’s Night, director Richard Lester merged the continually evolving Beatles phenomenon with various stylistic and technical innovations to create a joyous, original rock musical film that forever altered how musical performances were filmed.

Of course, A Hard Day’s Night also represents a poignant document of the unbridled exuberance of four indescribably talented musicians who were then simply enjoying being at the height of their creative and physical powers, oblivious to the dark times ahead.

A New Cinematic Language
United Artists

Nearly sixty years after its initial release, A Hard Day’s Night seems ageless. It has transcended both the rock musical film genre that it galvanized and the music video format that it essentially invented.

From an opening electric guitar riff from the film’s titular song, A Hard Day’s Night begins to stand apart from all previous rock musical films. As “A Hard Day’s Night” plays, the film opens with the Beatles’ quartet being chased by a horde of screaming fans, mostly girls, while trying to board a train for London, where they are scheduled to make a televised concert appearance.

Related: The Best Movies Involving the Beatles, Ranked

While the blending of action and music in A Hard Day’s Night wasn’t unique to the film, the frenzied energy generated in this opening scene establishes a tone of creative freedom and inventiveness that extends throughout the rest of the film. Through the blending of action and music, this scene, like others in the film, takes the form of a short film.

Moreover, through black-and-white photography, close-up shots of the musical performances and cutaway shots of the audience, handheld and multi-camera filming techniques, jump cuts, and seemingly random bursts of absurdist humor, A Hard Day’s Night captures the Beatles with a level of intimacy and spontaneity that’s typically reserved for documentary films.

Indeed, the documentary approach in A Hard Day’s Night makes it seem like the film is an omniscient observer of the band’s gag-filled, rapid-fire interactions, which have the feel and tone of improvisation.

Springtime for the Beatles

The period of relative peace and innocence celebrated in A Hard Day’s Night is especially poignant when considering how the inexorable pressures of fame and life conspired to splinter the Beatles over the ensuing decade.

After manager Brian Epstein’s untimely death in 1967, the band formally dissolved in 1970. Later, of course, the cruel forces of circumstance and fate intervened with the 1980 murder of John Lennon and the 2001 death of George Harrison.

However, despite these events, and maybe because of them, A Hard Day’s Night remains an infectiously enjoyable and undeniably influential cinematic and pop culture landmark, which is rightfully regarded as being one of the greatest films ever made.

Related: The 10 Best Documentaries about the Beatles, Ranked

A Hard Day’s Night Changed the World

While A Hard Day’s Night is deservedly praised for the film’s rampant creativity and technical excellence, perhaps the most consequential aspect of A Hard Day’s Night, specifically in terms of the legacy of the Beatles, is how the film defined the essential persona of the Beatles and established the band members as four distinctive individuals.

Indeed, as the Beatles were essentially introduced, both in the film and within their musical careers, as virtual clones with matching clothes and hairstyles, this is an impressive achievement. The band members were purposefully given small amounts of dialogue in the film in case their lack of acting experience endangered the film. Regardless, the band members are clearly distinguishable in the film as George, John, Paul, and Ringo, the band’s unofficial practical joker.

Moreover, A Hard Day’s Night captures the Beatles at a fateful moment in time in which the band members were coming to terms with the fact that they were poised to become the best band in the world, if not the greatest band in history, assuming that the Beatles hadn’t already reached this pinnacle during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night.

A Hard Day’s Night shows the Beatles dealing with this astonishing realization as well as can be expected. Fame hasn’t yet spoiled them. They haven’t become too cynical. They don’t seem to be under the influence of alcohol and drugs. They’re simply having fun. They were the real deal.