The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit

Critical misgivings about The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit are almost a moot point, since for a certain age group (myself included), footage of Ringo picking his nose will hold viewers transfixed. Culled from scads of footage shot during the Fab Four's first tour stateside, The Beatles portends to be the flip- or natural- side of the motion picture A Hard Day's Night. But if Night was informed by a comic and artfully controlled chaos, this documentary comes across as rather self-indulgent serendipity. Ostensibly a chronicle of the group's series of Ed Sullivan performances and their Washington, D.C. concert, the musical performances (13 in all, including all of the early hits: "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "She Loves You," "Please, Please Me," etc.) are separated by scenes of The Beatles in their limos, hotel rooms, and on the train. What's clear from the footage is that while the group enjoys mugging for the camera, there's also a lot of strain involved in being "on" all the time. But viewers who hope to see the band let down it's hair, so to speak, and act naturally, will be sorely disappointed. The mask rarely cracks. Still, for Beatle fans there are wonderful moments: John, idly playing in a hotel room, happens on a series of notes that sound eerily familiar (they will later comprise the opening to "Strawberry Fields Forever"); Lennon again, singing in D.C.-solo, it turns out, since McCartney's mike is accidentally turned off during one song; a pair of groupies who determinedly make it to the correct floor, if not the room, of The Beatles before being escorted back downstairs. For all its faults then, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is still The Beatles, with new and never-before-seen footage. Even as we admit the pointlessness of what we're watching, we still watch, because when all is said and done The Beatles were perhaps the closest thing to magic the modern age has known (now there's a fan's as opposed to a critic's comment), besides being the greatest rock 'n roll band the world has ever seen. Highly recommended. (Available from most distributors.)