Cards on the table I am a big Beatles fan so this movie depicting their formative years before they hit the big time was bound to appeal to me. Filmed in a gritty, realistic manner as befits the group's early stamping grounds of their native Liverpool and then in particular the fleshpots of Hamburg, it well conveys the sheer slog that the band had to put in to build up not only the stamina to play for hours on end, but also in the end, the best dynamic for the group itself, as inept musician Stuart Sutcliffe either jumps or is pushed out of the band just before they achieve their initial success.
Some Beatles historians might point out that the replacement of Pete Best on drums by Ringo Starr was every bit as important in the group's development but you wouldn't know that here. Ringo does get a token look-in near the end but Best barely gets a line to speak throughout the whole movie, as he again falls through the cracks in the band's well documented history.
Messrs McCartney and Harrison are very much peripheral players too as the film concentrates on the triangle of John Lennon, Sutcliffe and his German born girlfriend Astrid Kirchner to provide the dramatic arc in the narrative. Lennon is portrayed as the archetypal angry young man although we're told nothing about his troubled background or how he came to be this way. Significantly too, no clue is given that the band's success actually came from the songwriting partnership and indeed burgeoning friendship of Lennon and McCartney which had started by this time.
Instead the narrative plays up the friendship of Lennon with his fellow art student Sutcliffe with the former forgiving the latter's musical deficiencies out of friendship and misguided loyalty. Sutcliffe's true talent lay in art and it takes a chance meeting with the charismatic Miss Kirchner, herself a talented photographer often credited with helping establish the Beatles mop-top look, for him to recognise that his place wasn't playing faltering bass in the band but expressing himself with his art.
Tragically, just when it seemed as if he too, like the band, was making headway in his chosen field of expression, he was struck down by a brain aneurysm at only 21 years of age. As is usual in many Beatles biographies, McCartney is portrayed as something of the heavy in demanding Sutcliffe leave the band while Lennon is lionised as the tortured leader of the band torn between loyalty to his soulmate and his ambition for the group.
I suspect that the film would appeal mostly to Beatles completists like myself rather than to the wider public. The soundtrack comprises their then repertoire of rock 'n' roll classics and these are put over with almost punk like energy. Of course the rough edges would be smoothed out as the group transitioned to success swapping the jeans and leathers for Cuban heels and Savile Row suits.
The actors' resemblances to their real life counterparts are satisfactory and the performances too are reasonably convincing. Still, throughout, I wondered if the background story was strong enough to carry the whole movie which may imply some criticism of the sometimes downbeat direction of the material.
Nevertheless, it can't have been too easy to bring alive another, on the face of it, clichéd story of a band trying to make it, even if that band was the Beatles and I appreciated the clear intent to bathe the unfortunate Sutcliffe in deflected rather than reflected glory.
Some Beatles historians might point out that the replacement of Pete Best on drums by Ringo Starr was every bit as important in the group's development but you wouldn't know that here. Ringo does get a token look-in near the end but Best barely gets a line to speak throughout the whole movie, as he again falls through the cracks in the band's well documented history.
Messrs McCartney and Harrison are very much peripheral players too as the film concentrates on the triangle of John Lennon, Sutcliffe and his German born girlfriend Astrid Kirchner to provide the dramatic arc in the narrative. Lennon is portrayed as the archetypal angry young man although we're told nothing about his troubled background or how he came to be this way. Significantly too, no clue is given that the band's success actually came from the songwriting partnership and indeed burgeoning friendship of Lennon and McCartney which had started by this time.
Instead the narrative plays up the friendship of Lennon with his fellow art student Sutcliffe with the former forgiving the latter's musical deficiencies out of friendship and misguided loyalty. Sutcliffe's true talent lay in art and it takes a chance meeting with the charismatic Miss Kirchner, herself a talented photographer often credited with helping establish the Beatles mop-top look, for him to recognise that his place wasn't playing faltering bass in the band but expressing himself with his art.
Tragically, just when it seemed as if he too, like the band, was making headway in his chosen field of expression, he was struck down by a brain aneurysm at only 21 years of age. As is usual in many Beatles biographies, McCartney is portrayed as something of the heavy in demanding Sutcliffe leave the band while Lennon is lionised as the tortured leader of the band torn between loyalty to his soulmate and his ambition for the group.
I suspect that the film would appeal mostly to Beatles completists like myself rather than to the wider public. The soundtrack comprises their then repertoire of rock 'n' roll classics and these are put over with almost punk like energy. Of course the rough edges would be smoothed out as the group transitioned to success swapping the jeans and leathers for Cuban heels and Savile Row suits.
The actors' resemblances to their real life counterparts are satisfactory and the performances too are reasonably convincing. Still, throughout, I wondered if the background story was strong enough to carry the whole movie which may imply some criticism of the sometimes downbeat direction of the material.
Nevertheless, it can't have been too easy to bring alive another, on the face of it, clichéd story of a band trying to make it, even if that band was the Beatles and I appreciated the clear intent to bathe the unfortunate Sutcliffe in deflected rather than reflected glory.