Arguably more a faux documentary-comedy-movie-musical than a traditional concert film, A Hard Day’s Night captures a band just as it began to wow the world back in 1964, as evidenced by the unbridled joy in every frame of director Richard Lester’s love letter to the Fab Four. And while there are traditional band-on-the-road sequences (Ringo going AWOL, an opening scene in which the band is mobbed attempting to board a train), the climax of A Hard Day’s Night‘s in the end, is a concert. When the hordes of teenage girls in attendance scream along with “She Loves You” — some with tears streaming down their face — it’s a reminder of how, even in their early innocence, the Beatles were a force to be reckoned with.
TIME’s take: “It’s a surprise the picture isn’t a mess and a miracle it’s so funny, expert and joyous.”
Perhaps in keeping with the vibe of the festival — which, as everyone’s parents has by now told them, took place over three days in the summer of 1969 at a farm in upstate New York, attracting 400,000 people — director Michael Wadleigh managed to miss some of the event’s key performances, including sets by the Grateful Dead, the Incredible String Band and Ravi Shankar. But when he did train his cameras on the protagonists, some of them came up with stirring contributions: Sly and the Family Stone; Crosby, Stills and Nash; and Jimi Hendrix, whose guitar solo of the national anthem remains one of the most indelible moments of the decade. But of course, if you can remember it, you weren’t really there.
TIME’s take: “Purely as a piece of cinema, it is one of the finest documentaries ever made in the U.S.”
Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes” and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show “Family Feud” has died. He was 79.
As we prepare for the Game of Thrones finale, we recognize Joffrey and nine other baddies who showed us that terrible, horrible things can come in small packages
