Eight Days a Week

Want to enjoy a great evening - go see this movie!  I took in the film a few weeks ago with my daughter Kelly at the Cinema Capitol in Rome.  Makes me feel pretty good that she and I share this musical itch!

The evening reminded me of the saying it's not how someone makes you think it's how they make you feel. I remember how the Beatles made me feel as a 11-year-old kid and wanted to see if this film would bring back those feelings (it did!).   The excitement just waiting for the film to start reminded me of standing in line at the Uptown Theater in Utica with my brother and cousins.   The joy of seeing and hearing the music!   I also wondered if  Kelly would  feel some of the same excitement that I felt on the Beatles first arrived in the US (yeah, a little of it) There's been nothing like it since.

I had high expectations for this movie and they were exceeded at every level. The music was brilliant and way better than I had expected.  The live recordings were crisp and it was amazing how they  synced the music with the images.  Every song had me tapping my foot  and as I sat in the back row I noticed most of the audience was doing the same.  No one was quiet during a Beatles concert back in the 60s and it was not quiet in the theater either.  Many of the  folks there were sharing their experiences from the old days and were expressing amazement at  the performance they were seeing. Some of the young folks there were seeing the real Beatles in action for the first time in a way that's never been presented before.

We all knew the Beatles were tight but watching the Shea stadium performance at the end of the movie shows just how tight a band this was.   With the sound scrubbed of the screaming, you could see that the Beatles were nearly perfect in their timing with excellent  harmonies and made few minor mistakes.  And as we know the decibel level and at Shea Stadium that day was similar to a jet plane taking off so it was clear that the Beatles could barely hear each other while performing.  But they delivered a performance for the ages.  Beyond that though just watching them interact on stage and react to each other's signals and moves showed how  connected to each other they were!  Yes it brought back the joy!

It's rare that a movie brings you back to a time that you thought you would never experience again but Eight Days A Week does it.  I think I can watch this movie 100 times and never get tired of it.