Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years[Deluxe 2 Blu-ray]

Description

Academy Award-winner Ron Howard’s authorized and highly anticipated documentary feature film about The Beatles’ phenomenal early career The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years is based on the first part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966) – the period in which they toured and captured the world’s acclaim. Ron Howard’s film explores how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr came together to become this extraordinary phenomenon, “The Beatles.” It explores their inner workings – how they made decisions, created their music and built their collective career together – all the while, exploring The Beatles’ extraordinary and unique musical gifts and their remarkable, complementary personalities. The film focus’s on the time period from the early Beatles’ journey in the days of The Cavern Club in Liverpool to their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966. Featuring rare and exclusive footage, the film is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. Produced by White Horse Pictures & Imagine Entertainment.Executive produced by Apple Corps Ltd., Whitehorse Pictures and Imagine Entertainment.THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK - THE TOURING YEARSDisc One Running Time: Approx. 106 minsDisc Two running time: Approx. 100 minsDISC TWO – Special FeaturesOver 100 minutes of special features covering all aspects of The Beatles early career right up to 1966. Includes five rarely seen full length performances.Two disc set packaged in digipak in a slipcase plus 64 page booklet with an introduction from director Ron Howard, essay by music journalist and author Jon Savage and rare photos from The Beatles’ private archive. HD Standard 1080pFeature Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1BD Region AllDolby StereoDTS-HDMaster Audio 5.1Dolby 5.1Subtitles: English HOH, French, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Romanian and RussianNR – Not Rated Review: A must have for ANY Beatle fan!! - WOW! Totally fab!! My face hurts from grinning so much. Ron Howard has done it again. In my opinion, he has produced and directed THE definitive documentary of the Beatles days' on the road - from 1962-1966. In those 3 1/2 short years, the Beatles played almost 800 performances! For some perspective, in one month, they did 25 separate concerts in 25 different cities! In the middle of all this touring and interviewing (between Jan. '63 to the middle of '66), they also went into the studio and produced 7 albums and 14 singles plus B-sides (approx. 120 songs in 42 months). This turns out to be a little over one song every 10 days. And remember, all went on to become hits! This volume of production has been unparalleled by any one at any time. Mr. Howard not only tells the story of the concert years from THEIR perspective, but like he did in "Apollo 13", he actually is able to transport us back to those times, so that we're able to almost FEEL the oppression that their fame put on them. We feel as though we are going through it with them. There is not one second of anonymous voice-over in the film. It is voiced by the members themselves and the people closely involved with them during this time. There is also great deal of footage that I and others have NEVER seen (and those that know me, you know how voracious a fan I am). And the clips and concert footage that HAVE been seen, have been beautifully cleaned up. About that. A BIG tip-of-the-hat to Music Supervisor Giles Martin (George Martin's son) and Sound Re-recording Mixer Chris Jenkins for their audio work [...] You and I have seen SOME of these clips before, but you've NEVER heard or seen them like this! The concert clips were "re-mixed" (using technology learned from making the "Rock Band" video game) to sound fuller and clearer that we have EVER heard them. And getting all the various interview sound bites and film clips that were recorded over the yeas to sound like they all belong in the same film must have taken a shed-load of work (believe me, I know how hard this task can be). The two-disc blu-ray disc has one whole disc devoted to the documentary itself and the other disc dedicated entirely to special features (expanded concert footage, the making of A Hard Days Night and MUCH more). Also included, is a thick booklet with extra pictures and an introduction by Ron Howard and an essay by Jon Savage. All worth the price of admission. This is a must-have for even the casual Beatle fan. It provides a new perspective for those who were either not yet born, to young to have actually experienced the "mania", or for those who's memories of almost 60 years ago have started to fade. Buy it, rent it, watch it. You WON'T be sorry!! Review: A band that never grows old - Eight Days a Week The Touring Years 2-DVD set is an exceptionally produced documentary by Ron Howard of the most legendary bands in musical history The Beatles. The documentary captures the initial years in which the band performed live with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr from 1963-1966 and in consort with their first seven albums. Amongst the hundreds of live film footage are full performances and a few abbreviated of their hit songs that started it all in the United States “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” But what diehard and new fans will definitely see throughout the film what Beatlemania was all about and countering events that occurred during the 1960s that paralleled with when the band performed, which summed to a tumultuous time. The discs include the 100 minutes of documentary material with interviews and performances interspersed within the film. Fans that may already familiar with previous documentaries The Compleat Beatles or Beatles Anthology series, several photos and film and sound bites from the Anthology audio re-mastered recordings are also infused in this documentary; but there is also new material as well, interviews by Paul and Ringo and older ones from John and George and other members of Beatle assistant Neil Aspinall and Promoter Derek Taylor and Producer George Martin. But for the fans that are accustomed to the authenticity and preservation of material, especially with the live filmed performances watching a snippet from band play at their historic first live concert in Washington, D.C. there will be the missing of the original black and white frames replaced by very noticeable colorized tints, this may also be found on other segments from shows in England and the Ed Sullivan show – artistic expression or a blend of home movie segments that were also in the mix? Nevertheless, the live shows were the highlight within the entire documentary and to conclude the band’s concert journey there is a short loop of the rooftop performance in 1969 from the “Let it Be” film where the band plays “I Got a Feeling” and “Don’t Let Me Down”. And as added treats the second disc is a mini-documentary of the band’s musical transitions from their earliest days in Liverpool to there most experimental periods during Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, commentary by close colleagues that they band help to pen songs. And additional live performances “She Loves You,” “Twist and Shout,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “You Can’t Do That,” and “Help!” If that is not enough, there is a beautifully written booklet of over 40 pages of photos and commentary, imagine being 10 years old and to see all of this happen before your eyes – it was an amazing time. Words can say so much about the documentary and by far the music that is still memorable. The entire DVD set is a step back in time but also shows the timeless quality that the band produced that would be emulated but never repeated. The Beatles were one of a kind.