With the growing excitement overSam Mendes’ upcoming quartet ofBeatlesbiopics (which we now knowwill featureGladiator II’sPaul Mescal), as well as the new documentary filmBeatles ’64wowing critics,interest in the Beatles’ film output is once again skyrocketing. It’s easy to forget the Fab Four released no less than five movies during their time together, includingA Hard Day’s Night(1964),Help!(1965), and the concert filmThe Beatles at Shea Stadium(1966). Those first three were acclaimed to varying degrees, butthe winning streak was well and truly broken by 1967’sMagical Mystery Tour.
It’s generally thought that, aside from the uniformly great soundtrack, the film itself is a hot mess. Broadcast by the BBC during Christmas 1967, the corporation received thousands of complaints from nonplussed viewers, and evenPaul McCartneyadmitted to a newspaper reporter the day after the premiere thatthe band had “boobed” in making the film. Taken on its own terms, however,Magical Mystery Tourdoes have its charms and holds up as a better Beatles film than many give it credit for.
‘Magical Mystery Tour’s Plotting Is a Feature, Not a Bug
By the middle of 1967, the Beatles were at the height of their creative powers. The previous year had seen the release of their critically acclaimed albumRevolver, which was followed by the seminalSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Nevertheless, several members were beginning to look away from the band to other pursuits.John Lennonwas spending increasing amounts of time investigating avant-garde art alongside an as-yet unknown artist,Yoko Ono, whileGeorge Harrisonwas immersing himself in Indian culture and spirituality. McCartney, meanwhile, was beginning a decades-long interest in orchestral work, having collaborated with Beatles producerGeorge Martinto record an award-winning soundtrack to the kitchen-sink dramaThe Family Wayearlier in the year, prefiguringhis later career.
If the sense of the members’ interests being elsewhere did not augur well, the death of the group’s long-time managerBrian Epstein(recently immortalized in theJoe StephensonfilmMidas Man) from a drug overdose in August 1967 was disastrous, robbing the band of a source of stability. Ever the most invested of the quartet in the band’s output, McCartney began to act as an unofficial leader, winning over his reluctant bandmates to theMagical Mystery Tourproject. To say the film was a chaotic production is an understatement – filming took place on a disused RAF airbase using not a script, butwhat was jokingly called a “scrupt”– a waggish way of admitting the cast had no lines to learn. It’s hardly surprising that the film which resulted was wayward in the extreme.
Yet, when looking at the finished film, this turned out to be a feature, not a bug. Compared with its acid-drenched late 1960s contemporaries,Magical Mystery Tourholds up surprisingly well when taken on its own terms. Those looking for a story, characters, and conventional plot will be badly disappointed – after all, the bus on which the Beatles embark never actually arrives anywhere in particular. But then again, as anyone immersed in psychedelia at the time would have told you, the journey is never about the destination.
Ringo Starr: Drummer, Beatle, Actor
If there’s one thing critics agree on, it’s that the Beatles’ talents mostly lay in music, not acting. ThroughoutMagical Mystery Tour, their limited abilities are painfully apparent. McCartney’s acting is studious, but uninspired, and George Harrison merely looks bored throughout. Meanwhile, John Lennon hams it up, mugging into the camera at every opportunity.
The one exception to this isRingo Starr. As withHelp!, the film is loosely focused on Starr, who appears here as a version of himself, going on the tour with his aunt (Jessie Robins). The pair’s back-and-forths on the bus provide much amusement. Throughout, Starr’s naturalistic line readings, his intuitive understanding of emotional dynamics, and his nonchalant air mark him out from his more self-conscious bandmates.
Starr’s talent would hold him in good stead in years to come. Work alongside triple Academy Award nomineePeter Sellersin the now forgotten period pieceThe Magic Christian(1969), a starring role in theSpaghetti WesternBlindman(1971), and a collaboration with controversial directorKen RussellinLisztomania(1975) all speak to acting talent that would have yielded a full-fledged acting career had Starr had the inclination. Instead, Starr spent most of the 1970s concentrating on his solo work, bagging a Number One hit in America with “Photograph” in 1973 and enjoying chart success with the albumsRingo(1973) andGoodnight Vienna(1974).
The Cursed History of The Beatles and Robert Zemeckis’ CGI ‘Yellow Submarine’ Movie
The remake of the 1968 Beatles movie was stopped dead in its tracks, leaving only little pieces behind.
‘Magical Mystery Tour’: The Beginning of Music Videos?
ButMagical Mystery Touris also worth watching for the musical elements it contains, which in many ways prefigure the music video. Of course, the music video was already beginning to appear as a format. The Beatles themselves had pioneered the format in 1965 withthe video to the song “Paperback Writer,”but, aside from its setting in the grounds of a stately home outside London, the result was essentially performance-oriented, with precious little thought given to exploiting the wider creative possibilities the new format offered. All this changed withMagical Mystery Tour. A raft of new songs feature in the film, all of them presented in new and challenging ways.
For proof, we could head in the direction of the cracking title track. (It’s no wonder the makers ofA Minecraft Movieused itfor their recent trailer). But the quintessential example is “I Am The Walrus.” To watch it is to see the now commonplace visual language of the music video being made up on the spot. Initially resembling a conventional performance — albeit one in the open air — the footage segues to images of the Beatles in animal costumes, policemen gently swaying to the music on top of concrete blocks, and various other non sequiturs. On the technical side, meanwhile, we get split screen effects, juxtapositions of color and black and white sequences, and far-out color grading.
To be sure, the Beatles weren’t the only band pushing at this door in 1967: Procol Harum’s video for “A Whiter Shade of Pale” trod similar ground. ButMagical Mystery Tour’s BBC broadcast made sure its innovative approaches to setting rock music to motion were disseminated far and wide. Within weeks, members of Pink Floyd were playing imaginary cricket with their guitars for the music video to “See Emily Play,” and dozens of bands followed suit in the following months and years. MTV and its generation-defining mix of music vidsand dramatic contentmay have been more than a decade away, but the music video had well and truly arrived – and the Beatles were instrumental in creating it withMagical Mystery Tour.
