Help!

Starring: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr Directed by: Richard Lester Runtime: 90 min. Rated: G DVD Release date: October 30, 2007 - More Info
READER RATINGS:
6.7 OVERALL	Smart . . . . . . . . 6 Sexy . . . . . . . . . 8 Funny . . . . . . . . 6

The Nerve Review

Chances are, you have a soft spot for or warm childhood memory of a Beatles movie, maybe A Hard Day's Night or Yellow Submarine. Maybe even Magical Mystery Tour, but probably not Help!. It's the weakest one, but that's not to deny its pleasures, which you can experience for the first time on DVD via a spectacular Apple remaster. The problem with Help! is that director Richard Lester clamps a silly faux-Bond plot around the Beatles's shenanigans. Having directed A Hard Day's Night, Lester should've known better than anyone that no plot was necessary to have a good time with those four men.

Help! finds the lads just after their breakthrough success. Their neighbors coo over how they've managed to keep stardom from going to their heads, while in their apartment, the Beatles enact a hilarious burlesque of fame madness (Paul plays an unhinged piano melody off a music stand full of comic books). But trouble (for the Beatles and their movie) arrives quickly, in the form of a cult seeking to recover a sacred ring from Ringo. These guys, and a mad scientist played by Beatles-movie regular Victor Spinetti, periodically hijack the movie, never to any particular effect. Every time Lester cuts away from the Beatles, you wonder what he was thinking. The supporting cast members were stars of British comedy, but the Beatles's charisma makes them irrelevant.

Oh, those Beatles! They didn't much like the movie ("partly," John said later, "because we were smoking marijuana for breakfast during that period"), but they stole it anyway. Besides contributing some of their best early songs (the title track, "Ticket to Ride," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"), their presence gives Help! a joyfulness and absurd wit that make it fun to watch to this day — and turn bittersweet when you remember how quickly they were gone. — Peter Smith

Your Reviews

The music in "Help" is today infrequently played by radio stations, even those still giving significant exposure to Beatle tunes. However, it is--like all of the groups' music--terrific. "Another Girl, Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride," etc.

See "Help" again (or for the first time), listen to the music carefully and compare it to the garbage being aired today, and you'll realize why the Beatles are the best all-around popular group there's ever been, and most likely will ever be.

The movie's plot is secondary.

posted by jerrylevinson on 11/2/2007 7:55:04 PM
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