The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

2016

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

Critics Consensus

We love them, yeah, yeah, yeah -- and with archival footage like that, you know The Beatles: Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years can't be bad.

96%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 101

89%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 7,969
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Movie Info

We all know the moment. February 9th, 1964, 8:12pm EST - after a brief commercial break, four young men from Liverpool step onto the Ed Sullivan stage, changing culture forever. Seventy-three million people watched The Beatles perform that night, the largest audience in television history. It was an event that united a nation and signaled the birth of youth culture as we know it today. But while this single performance introduced The Beatles to America, what the band did next would introduce them to the entire world, permanently transforming the music industry and forever engraining them into the fabric of popular culture... They went on tour. By the time the band quit touring in August of 1966, they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world. The cultural phenomenon their touring helped create, known as "Beatlemania," was something the world had never seen before and, arguably, hasn't since. It was the first time much of the world felt truly unified - bound by aspiration and attitude, rather than divided by race, class, religion or nationality. THE BEATLES LIVE FILM PROJECT will tell the story of the band's exceptional touring years - from the perspectives of the band, its world, the fans, and their world. It will examine the impact of those years on each of The Beatles - the toll that touring took on their relationships and the effect it had on their musical evolution, as well as the colossal boost the tours gave to their lifestyle and fame. But while the band created the spark, it was young people around the world who created the firestorm. The film will also explore the incomparable electricity between performer and audience that turned the music into a movement - a common experience into something sublime.

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Cast

Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
John Lennon
George Harrison

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Critic Reviews for The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

All Critics (101) | Top Critics (26)

  • Unearthed fan footage and gorgeously restored concert clips make this a must-see for Beatles fans.

    Nov 26, 2017 | Full Review…

    Rafer Guzman

    Newsday
    Top Critic

  • The material is uncontroversial to say the least, but hugely enjoyable with some remastered live performances that were previously drowned out by screaming girl fans.

    Oct 10, 2016 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

    Kate Muir

    Times (UK)
    Top Critic

  • [Howard seems] as if he were intent on making a film for anyone who tuned in to The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, fell in love with the four adorable mop tops and regrets all the long-haired plonking about with sitars that came later.

    Sep 22, 2016 | Full Review…

    Tom Shone

    Newsweek
    Top Critic

  • For those of us who can remember, it's a deliriously evocative nostalgia trip, as well as a timely reminder of more spontaneous times.

    Sep 21, 2016 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

    Sandra Hall

    Sydney Morning Herald
    Top Critic

  • The Beatles now belong to an honored past, stuck there like an obelisk, and yet here they are, alive-busting out all over, time and time again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    Sep 19, 2016 | Full Review…

    Anthony Lane

    New Yorker
    Top Critic

  • 90 percent familiar and a bit hagiographic as well, but just try watching it without smiling.

    Sep 15, 2016 | Full Review…

    Neil Genzlinger

    New York Times
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (101)

Audience Reviews for The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

  • Mar 02, 2017
    http://cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-beatles-eight-days-week-touring.html
    Anthony L Super Reviewer
  • Oct 24, 2016
    A neat work of editing gives fans a fresh experience with the Beatles. Lotsa concert footage. Good stuff.
    Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
  • Sep 20, 2016
    When you have the resources of Ron Howard and the producers working on this doc you can insert interviews with famous Beatles fans and access astounding archival footage from news sources, concerts, in depth interviews with John and George before they died, and more candid material. Focusing on the BUSY touring years from 1963 to '66 when the boys from Liverpool were getting along, this film is loaded with their great music and reveals their personalities, which those of us who didn't live during that time probably only have a vague understanding of. The digital remastering of the songs is stellar and the taped concert footage is crisp, clear, and well synched. Their cheeky jokes with the press put a smile on my face and I learned that the Fab Four refused to perform at Southern stadiums and concert venues that had segregated seating. They forced change through their popularity here in America by only agreeing to give a concert if blacks and whites in the audience were free to sit wherever they chose. Like doing the work of eight days in a seven day week this documentary packs so many details about a short three year period into its two hour and seventeen minute runtime. I recommend you watch it on Hulu.
    Byron B Super Reviewer
  • Sep 18, 2016
    It is a delight to witness now all that Beatlemania hysteria and the members' cheeky sense of humor in a lot of priceless archive footage combined with welcome interviews, but this nice doc is also a bit too unpretentious and doesn't offer much new insight about the band and their touring years.
    Carlos M Super Reviewer
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