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Musicians in Film – Starring The Beatles in ‘Help!’
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Posted by Dan Stasiewski on Feb 13, 2008 in Movie Comment | 0 comments

Most fun in the world: watching a Beatles movie. No, I’m not referring to Across the Universe. I’m talking about the zany Richard Lester film Help!. Sure the comedic timing isn’t perfect and it’s absolutely, off-the-wall silly, but Help! can’t help but indulge the Fab Four’s tendency toward spirited farce.

I wasn’t alive when the Beatles were around, but the high-profile DVD releases (also for A Hard Day’s Night) certainly indicate a phenomenon the hasn’t died yet. The Beatles and Elvis and good knows who else I’m missing have impressive filmographies when compared to the pop stars of our day. What do we get? From Justin to Kelly.

There are also the direct-to-DVD movies starring Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson, but one has to wonder what has changed, culturally-speaking, to result in such blunders from our current chart toppers to result in misfires across the board. Remember the much-hyped Outkast musical. Neither do I.

Of course, looking back, even a movie like Help! had it’s detractors. Here’s how the New York Times film critic at the time described the film: The boys themselves are exuberant and uninhibited in their own genial way. They just become awfully redundant and—dare I say it?—dull. Too true, especially when compared to the Beatles’ iconic A Hard Day’s Night.

Yet, endearing cinematic turns for The Beatles or Elvis, music artists who worked with directors like Lester or Richard Thorpe come once in a blue moon these days. The last artist to make the successful jump from music icon to on-screen success story was Eminem in 8 Mile, directed by Curtis Hanson. Love him or hate him, Eminem’s standing in popular culture cannot be denied, if only because he succeeded where so many other – 50 Cent, Vanilla Ice, Britney Spears – have failed.

Is Hanna Montana the closest thing we can get to a major superstar leap to the big screen? Maybe. The still mass marketable demographic that is the tween audience certainly makes it easier for an artist, real or fake, to realize his or her cinematic potential. Stars like Andre Benjamin, Ludacris, Chris Brown and Alicia Keyes are still going to show up in movies now and then, but I’m eagerly awaiting the next music artist to dominate our culture and deliver a great movie experience. When you watch a movie like Help!, how could you not?

Diamond

Jailhouse Rock (Elvis)
A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles)