In another chapter of its Rock Documentary summer series, the Wexner Center for the Arts ran “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.” Friday.
The film, directed by Alfred and David Maysles, follows the Beatles through their first tour of America in 1964 from when the four moptops first walked off the plane to legions of screaming American fans to when they returned to England and faced hoards of crazed British devotees.
David Maysles once said that in his films he wanted to document “life as it is – no better, no worse, no different.”
This is exactly what he and his brother achieve in the 75-minute runtime of the movie. They depict the quartet in hotel rooms, radio stations, cab backseats, nightclubs and tour buses with an unsteady camera mirroring human movement so well that viewers believe they actually are with the Beatles, not just watching them.
What this film captures best is the fact that, although the Beatles were the biggest band in the world and are arguably the most influential band in rock history, in the mid-1960s the members of the Beatles were in their early 20s. The four friends from Liverpool were scarcely older than the average Ohio State graduate and had a lust for life and a fascination with success expected from a group of world-famous twentysomethings.
Paul McCartney’s irreverent mockery of American commercialism – especially memorable is his impression of an American news anchor advertising for cigarettes while giving the news – and Ringo Starr’s constant shenanigans are examples of their youthful exuberance.
McCartney and Starr sneaking a girl into their hotel room and George Harrison twisting his heart out on the Peppermint Lounge’s dance floor remind the audience that,although these four men would grow up to be rock legends they were once just four young Brits having the time of their lives.
It has been said that the fab four were too conscious of the cameras in this film and that they were just putting on a show.
It is true they were aware of being constantly filmed; this just shows how new to fame they really were. This was a group still amazed at the mobs of fans that chased their car and still listened with rapt attention to Beatles songs on the radio – even though they had probably played those same songs hundreds of times.
The only true downfall of the movie is the poor quality of the audio track. The small 1960s audio equipment and the Liverpudlian accents of the movie’s stars render the four men practically unintelligible to American ears in large sections of the film.
Despite the limits of the recording technology at the time, “What’s Happening! Beatles in the U.S.A.” is a light, humorous and personal look into the inner workings of the Beatles in 1964. It provides an entertaining look into the lives of four young musicians who changed the world forever.
