In February 1964, as America was still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, The Beatles arrived in the U.S. for the first time and took the country by storm. Their debut appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” drew more than 73 million viewers, and they created a media frenzy everywhere they went, a situation playfully recreated in Richard Lester‘s classic musical comedy “A Hard Day’s Night,” which went into production right after The Beatles returned to England after their two week trip.
Before Lester’s film, however, legendary documentarians Albert and David Maysles — then at the beginning of their careers — documented the Beatles’ U.S. sojourn in footage that has barely been seen since it was shot due to a variety of clearance issues (not to mention the fact that United Artists didn’t really want the material in general release where it could dilute the appeal of “A Hard Day’s Night”). Now, the Maysles’ intimate footage forms the center of director David Tedeschi‘s “Beatles ’64,” a riveting documentary that conveys what that February in 1964 felt like both for The Beatles and the country that was rocked by their arrival.
Tedeschi, who as a director and editor has been responsible for several of the best documentaries of the last 10 years (“The 50 Year Argument,” “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” “Rolling Thunder Revue”), isn’t the only heavy hitter involved with “Beatles ’64”; the film is produced by Tedeschi’s frequent collaborators Martin Scorsese and Margaret Bodde, and the archival footage has been restored by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production using technology previously applied to great effect in another Beatles documentary, Jackson’s “Get Back.”
That restoration work is key to the greatest strength of “Beatles ’64,” which is how viscerally it affects the viewer; the footage looks and sounds like it was shot yesterday, and the immediacy that this creates allows audiences unfamiliar with The Beatles or their impact to understand exactly what all the fuss was about. “We wanted it to look pristine because we felt that would make it more accessible,” Tedeschi told IndieWire. “We want to appeal to people who don’t necessarily know who The Beatles are. You might laugh at that, but a lot of young people aren’t really aware of their music.”
The music in “Beatles ’64” sounds spectacular thanks to the MAL source separation technology developed by Jackson’s WingNut Films and utilized by mixer Giles Martin, whose father George was The Beatles’ longtime producer. The software allowed Martin to take mono source recordings from early TV appearances and concerts and separate the elements so that they could be demixed and then remixed into new stereo recordings that have the same impact on modern audiences that The Beatles’ songs would have had on fans in 1964. This, combined with the cleaned-up images, gives the viewer a front-row seat to some of the most iconic, historically significant performances in the history of rock and roll.
Tedeschi credits Park Road with heroic work on the Maysles footage, which was delivered to them in various stages of deterioration. “Some of the reels had vinegar syndrome, which destroys the film,” Tedeschi said, noting that even the material in decent shape was wildly disorganized. “Park Road took these boxes and boxes of film and rebuilt the dailies in chronological order.” This work took three years before Tedeschi even came on board the project, as Park Road pieced together footage marred by broken splices, severe shrinkage, torn sprockets, and even film that was literally falling apart.
Although the archival footage in “Beatles ’64” comes from a multitude of sources — in addition to the Maysles material, there are scenes and individual shots sourced from private collectors, television networks, and elsewhere — the final product is seamless thanks to the work of Park Road’s film handlers, editors, restoration artists, and colorists. “Everyone was very determined and painstaking about it,” Tedeschi said. “Time was the enemy, but we made it in time — it got out to the platform.”
That platform is Disney+, where “Beatles ’64” can be viewed (and listened to) in all its glory; above, IndieWire has an exclusive clip of The Beatles singing “She Loves You” that provides a look at the film’s miraculous restoration work.
