For me, this was The Beatles at their absolute height of COOLNESS. "A Hard Day's Night" was great, but there's something about "Help!" that always keeps me coming back to it. I love the banter from ALL of the cast members. If you don't pay attention, you'll miss some very Pythonesque humour. The songs from the film are also some of my absolute favorite Beatle tracks. I remember watching this as a VERY little kid in the late 60s and thinking how cool they were and I played the absolute CRAP out of "Help!" (the US lp version with all the film score symphonic stuff and just the 7 (?) actual Beatle tracks), which I begged off of an older kid in my neighborhood.
Even The Beatles said "We got a bit lost in that one" and "We were extras in our own film" but it was still a great movie for them. They'd JUST discovered grass and hadn't gone off the deep end as in their next film "Magical Mystery Tour" (which was terrible) and "Let it Be" which, to me, showed them at their worst as a band. "Yellow Submarine" was also a magical movie, especially for kids, but the real Beatles were only in it for about 5 minutes at the end. For me, the quintisential Beatles film will always be "Help!"
The opening scene with them playing the title song is also some of my favorite 3 minutes of film ever. Before they redid the soundtrack for CD and DVD, the actual Theatre Version had a different version of "Help!". A completely different recording that had a much more 'live' and raw sound to it. That has since vanished. Pay close attention to John Lennon in this one. He's actually very good as an actor. McCartney, who, is just freaking God to me, is NOT a strong actor (as shown in all of the Beatle films and also his own "Give My Regards to Broad Street") but does an ok job here. Ringo is good throughout. George does get a bit lost in it. He was better in 'A Hard Day's Night' where he really was a natural actor. In "Help!", he doesn't get as much screen time. Even in his performance of "I Need You", he only gets a few closeups. Rent it. Buy it.
Even The Beatles said "We got a bit lost in that one" and "We were extras in our own film" but it was still a great movie for them. They'd JUST discovered grass and hadn't gone off the deep end as in their next film "Magical Mystery Tour" (which was terrible) and "Let it Be" which, to me, showed them at their worst as a band. "Yellow Submarine" was also a magical movie, especially for kids, but the real Beatles were only in it for about 5 minutes at the end. For me, the quintisential Beatles film will always be "Help!"
The opening scene with them playing the title song is also some of my favorite 3 minutes of film ever. Before they redid the soundtrack for CD and DVD, the actual Theatre Version had a different version of "Help!". A completely different recording that had a much more 'live' and raw sound to it. That has since vanished. Pay close attention to John Lennon in this one. He's actually very good as an actor. McCartney, who, is just freaking God to me, is NOT a strong actor (as shown in all of the Beatle films and also his own "Give My Regards to Broad Street") but does an ok job here. Ringo is good throughout. George does get a bit lost in it. He was better in 'A Hard Day's Night' where he really was a natural actor. In "Help!", he doesn't get as much screen time. Even in his performance of "I Need You", he only gets a few closeups. Rent it. Buy it.