Birth of the Beatles
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Birth of the Beatles is a 1979 biopic TV movie, produced by Dick Clark's company (Dick Clark Productions), that focuses on the early history of 1960s rock band The Beatles. It originally appeared on the ABC television network.
[edit] Main Cast
- Stephen MacKenna .... John Lennon
- Rod Culbertson .... Paul McCartney
- John Altman .... George Harrison
- Ray Ashcroft .... Ringo Starr
- Ryan Michael .... Pete Best
- David Wilkinson .... Stuart Sutcliffe
- Brian Jameson .... Brian Epstein
- Nigel Havers .... George Martin
The soundtrack was recorded by the Beatles tribute band "Rain". The guitar and vocal parts for Lennon were performed by Eddie Lineberry, McCartney's parts by Chuck Coffey, Harrison's by Bill Connearney and Starr's by Steve Wight.
While the program was entertaining, included most of the expected elements to a dramatisation of the Beatles story, and also included former Beatles drummer Pete Best among its production staff (as technical advisor), the movie suffers faults on many levels. Events are often telescoped to make the most of the time allotted, background details are assumed more often than investigated (and thus are frequently inaccurate), and the actors are plainly not experienced musicians, as shows whenever the Beatles and other bands appear onstage. (An "audition" scene introducing Pete Best's character, by sharp contrast, shows a drum flair the real Best never exhibited on any surviving recordings from the period, and one has to wonder how much artistic license was taken, with Best involved in the production.) Many of the familiar Beatle guitars (made by Rickenbacker, Hofner, and Gretsch, among others) are conspicuously absent.
Best's dismissal from the band is also handled awkwardly. The movie seems to place the blame on jealousies felt by the other band members toward Best's popularity in Liverpool. The truth was, record producer George Martin was not satisfied with the calibre of Best's drumming at the band's EMI audition, and Ringo Starr, already a longtime friend of the band, proved a better personal and musical match.
The movie received modest ratings when it premiered on American television, and was repeated in December 1980, as a tribute to John Lennon in the weeks after his murder. It later repeated on CBS, on The CBS Late Movie during the 1980s.
A more accurate (but less comprehensive, dealing mainly with Stuart Sutcliffe and the band's days in Hamburg, Germany) dramatisation of the early Beatles years is the 1994 movie Backbeat.
[edit] Trailer
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