Synopsis
A typically Beatlesque film originally produced for television, this short film was intended to be an off-the-wall road movie with the Beatles and three dozen or so friends on a psychedelic bus.
1967 Directed by Paul McCartney, Bernard Knowles …
A typically Beatlesque film originally produced for television, this short film was intended to be an off-the-wall road movie with the Beatles and three dozen or so friends on a psychedelic bus.
John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Vivian Stanshall Neil Innes Roger Ruskin Spear 'Legs' Larry Smith Sam Spoons Rodney Slater Jan Carson George Claydon Ivor Cutler Shirley Evans Nat Jackley Nichola Jessie Robins Derek Royle Victor Spinetti Mandy Weet Maggie Wright Alexis 'Magic Alex' Mardas Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell Mal Evans
The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour, Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
Now this is the precise level of chaotic silliness I crave from a Beatles film! I can’t help but marvel at how they bounce from mild-mannered to psychedelic to downright grotesque. Midway through Ringo’s aunt has a dream so intensely unsettling that it would even make Jon Waters queasy. Much like the eponymous album, Magical Mystery Tour is a patchwork quilt of The Beatles idiosyncrasies woven with wonderful and wild whimsy.
45
Can't say I fully enjoyed this bizarre curiosity, but it certainly makes sense following Richard Lester's Help!, which served The Beatles a delectable, tiring buffet of adventure tropes and surrealist escapades to sort through. This is somehow structured even more haphazardly. Barely an hour long and almost entirely consisting of extended Fab Four riffs, flights of fancy, and disgusting bits of psychedelia. Magical Mystery Tour doesn't feel nearly as inspired as their other cinematic endeavors, but it stuck me as an integral text for such a transitory period in their music career. If Get Back offered a revealing glimpse into process and creation, Magical Mystery Tour is a performative folly, unveiling key layers of the Beatles persona.
Magical Mystery Tour. 1967. Directed by Paul McCartney, Bernard Knowles, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Star.
This is the epitome of psychedelic, surreal film making by The Beatles. Ringo’s cinematography was epic, enchanting, and disturbing. However, the film seemed to lack a script. Nevertheless, the cast entertain and The Magical Mystery Tour (1967) is guaranteed to please. Once again The Beatles proved they could do anything. Some of the more grotesque scenes are balanced with beautiful songs such as Fool on the Hill, Your Mother Should Know, and Hello Goodbye. Swinging London was showcased in full as the exotic dancer finished her routine. Definitely a milestone in cinematic history worth revisiting if one is a Beatles fan.
crazy how cinema peaked and simultaneously ended in 1967 because of The Beatles.
paul’s script for this movie was a circle drawn on a piece of paper divided in 6 or 8 sections. which should kind of give you an idea of what it was like.