PERFORMING ARTS

Act Naturally: The Beatles on Film

by Steve Matteo
Backbeat: Rowman & Littlefield. May 2023. 344p. ISBN 9781493059010. pap. $24.95. FILM
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Veteran music journalist Matteo (Let It Be./i>; Dylan) writes about the five films produced by the Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Yellow Submarine, their hour-long television special Magical Mystery Tour, and concert film Let It Be. There is also the three-part, nearly eight-hour 2021 documentary called The Beatles: Get Back, directed and produced by Peter Jackson. The problem with this book’s account isn’t details—there are plenty of them—but focus. Every time a new name appears, the narrative stops for an excessive aside on the player’s past and future performances. Readers may not care to know about the subsequent film careers of the Beatles’ doubles in Help!, or that in A Hard Day’s Night, Ringo was reading Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder, which was made into a film by Otto Preminger with a score by Duke Ellington. This is great for the superfans and Beatles-trivia lovers, but not so much for general readers.
VERDICT For Beatles and film enthusiasts only.
Reviewed by David Keymer , May 01, 2023
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