The Compleat Beatles

Last updated
The Compleat Beatles
Compleat Beatles.JPG
videocassette cover
Directed by Patrick Montgomery
Written byDavid Silver
Produced byPatrick Montgomery,
Stephanie Bennett
Starring John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr
George Martin
Marianne Faithfull
Bruce Johnston
Billy J. Kramer
Gerry Marsden
Billy Preston
Lenny Kaye
Tony Sheridan
Narrated by Malcolm McDowell
Music by The Beatles
Distributed by MGM
Release date
  • May 28, 1982 (1982-05-28)
Running time
119 min.
LanguageEnglish

The Compleat Beatles, released in 1982, [1] is a two-hour documentary chronicling the career of the Beatles. [2]

Contents

Narrated by actor Malcolm McDowell, [1] it includes extensive interviews with a number of sources close to the Beatles. Some of the people interviewed are producer George Martin, [3] their first manager Allan Williams, [3] Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooler, music writer Bill Harry, [3] and musicians Gerry Marsden, [2] Billy J. Kramer, Marianne Faithfull, Billy Preston, Lenny Kaye, and Tony Sheridan. The film also includes archival footage of interviews with members of the Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein. Authors Nicholas Schaffner and Wilfrid Mellers are among the commentators who offer their views on the band's career. The Compleat Beatles also features early concert footage, behind-the-scenes background on the making of their albums, and candid footage of their often obsessed, hysterical fans.

Directed by Patrick Montgomery, the film was produced by Delilah Films/Electronic Arts Pictures and released on home video by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1984. Based on the popularity of the video release, the film was later made available theatrically in 16mm by TeleCulture Films, an independent company who previously channeled other small films to MGM for home video.

Video releases

The Compleat Beatles was initially released as a PBS documentary in the United States, and then on VHS, Betamax, CED and Laserdisc that same year on the MGM/UA Home Video label. The 1982 Laserdisc was released in both Analogue and Stereo versions, as well as being released in Japan and England (in PAL format) in 1983. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Rutles</span> Parody group of The Beatles

The Rutles were a rock band that performed visual and aural pastiches and parodies of the Beatles. This originally fictional band, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for a sketch in Idle's mid-1970s BBC television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television, later toured and recorded, releasing two studio albums and garnering two UK chart hits. The band toured again from 2002 until Innes's death in 2019.

The Beatles Anthology is a multimedia retrospective project consisting of a television documentary, a three-volume set of double albums, and a book describing the history of the Beatles. Beatles members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr participated in the making of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the Anthology project, while John Lennon appears in archival interviews.

<i>A Hard Days Night</i> (film) 1964 British-American musical comedy film by Richard Lester

A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 musical comedy film starring the English rock band the Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – during the height of Beatlemania. Directed by Richard Lester, it was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists. The film portrays 36 hours in the lives of the group as they prepare for a television performance.

An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.

<i>Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band</i> (film) 1978 film by Michael Schultz

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a 1978 American jukebox musical comedy film directed by Michael Schultz, written by Henry Edwards and starring an ensemble cast led by Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. Depicting the loosely constructed story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their hometown of Heartland, the film is presented in a form similar to that of a rock opera, with the songs providing "dialogue" to carry the story. George Burns has most of the spoken lines that act to clarify the plot and provide further narration but there are a few other lines throughout the movie.

<i>The Compleat Al</i> 1985 American TV series or program

The Compleat Al is a mockumentary about the life of "Weird Al" Yankovic, from his birth in 1959, to 1985. It was partially written by Yankovic and directed by Jay Levey. An abbreviated version premiered on August 7, 1985 on the Showtime network before the full film was released on video on September 25, 1985. The title of the film is a parody from the 1982 documentary The Compleat Beatles.

<i>The Making of Star Wars</i> 1977 American TV series or program

The Making of Star Wars is a television special produced by 20th Century Fox Television, which aired on ABC on September 16, 1977. It was written by Richard Schickel and directed and produced by Robert Guenette.

<i>Elvis on Tour</i> 1972 film by Robert Abel

Elvis on Tour is a 1972 American concert film starring Elvis Presley during his fifteen-city spring tour earlier that year. It is written, produced, directed by Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

<i>12 Wasted Years</i> 1987 video by Iron Maiden

12 Wasted Years is a video documentary of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, focusing on the history of the band from 1975 to 1987. It includes several rare videos and interviews from the band's career, some of which were later included on the 2004 documentary The Early Days.

The Beatles Anthology is a documentary television series on the career of the Beatles. It was broadcast on UK television in six parts on ITV between 26 November and 31 December 1995, while in the United States it was seen as three feature-length episodes on ABC between 19 and 23 November 1995. It was released in greatly expanded form as an eight-volume VHS set and an eight-disc LaserDisc set on 5 September 1996. The series was re-released on DVD in 2003, with an 81-minute special-features disc.

<i>Imagine: John Lennon</i> 1988 documentary film by Andrew Solt

Imagine: John Lennon is a 1988 documentary film about English musician John Lennon. It was released on 7 October 1988, two days before Lennon's 48th birthday.

Ron Furmanek is an American Grammy nominated music producer and filmographer who has produced over 200 CDs. His most recent work, which includes six Kingston Trio titles, is currently released on RichKat Records, through Collectors Choice Music in the United States.

<i>The Beatles at Shea Stadium</i> 1966 film

The Beatles at Shea Stadium is a fifty-minute-long documentary of the Beatles' concert at Shea Stadium in New York City on 15 August 1965, the highlight of the group's 1965 tour. The documentary was directed and produced by Bob Precht, NEMS Enterprises, and the Beatles company Subafilms. The project, placed under the direction of manager of production operations M. Clay Adams, was filmed by a large crew led by cinematographer Andrew Laszlo. Fourteen cameras were used to capture the euphoria and mass hysteria that was Beatlemania in America in 1965. The documentary first aired on BBC1 on 1 March 1966. In West Germany, it aired on 2 August that year. It aired in the United States on ABC on 10 January 1967.

<i>Scenes from the Big Chair</i> 1985 video by Tears for Fears

Scenes from the Big Chair is a documentary film about the British band Tears for Fears. Released on home video in 1985, the 75 minute documentary was made at the height of the band's global success following the release of their multi-platinum selling album Songs from the Big Chair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Rock and Roll Revival</span> Music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was a one-day, twelve-hour music festival held in Toronto, Ontario on September 13, 1969. It featured a number of popular musical acts from the 1950s and 1960s. The festival is particularly notable for featuring an appearance by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and Alan White as the Plastic Ono Band leading to the release of their Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album. The festival was also the subject of two films: D.A. Pennebaker film Sweet Toronto and the 2022 Ron Chapman film Revival 69: The Concert That Rocked the World.

<i>SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back</i> 1980 American TV series or program

SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back is a television documentary special which originally aired on CBS on September 22, 1980. Hosted by actor Mark Hamill, it is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the special effects in the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, which was released that year. The special was written by Richard Schickel and directed by Robert Guenette, who had both previously worked on the 1977 special The Making of Star Wars.

<i>From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga</i> 1983 American TV series or program

From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga is a 1983 television documentary special that originally aired on PBS. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the original Star Wars trilogy, with particular emphasis on the final film, Return of the Jedi.

<i>Wingspan</i> (film) 2001 film

Wingspan is a 2001 made-for-television documentary film about Paul McCartney's musical career, after The Beatles disbanded, with his second band, Wings. The film was directed by McCartney's son-in-law Alistair Donald, and features members of his family, along with archival footage from other musical guests.

Patrick Montgomery is an American documentary producer/director and film and photo archivist. He has specialized in making films using archival materials, most notably The Man You Loved to Hate (1979) about the legendary actor/director Erich Von Stroheim and The Compleat Beatles (1982) a two-hour documentary about the rise and fall of the world's most famous rock group. He also founded and ran Archive Films/Archive Photos, the largest independent commercial film and photo archive in the U.S. until its acquisition by The Image Bank, a division of Eastman Kodak, in 1997.

Tex Avery Screwball Classics is a series of single-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive unit collecting various theatrical cartoons from animation director Tex Avery during his tenure at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio's cartoon division between the years of 1942 and 1955. It is the first comprehensive collection of Avery's MGM shorts to be released on home media in North America since The Compleat Tex Avery series of laserdiscs in the 1990s, with many of the shorts having been previously unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Compleat Beatles (1982)". BFI. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Fleming, Colin (August 23, 2017). "'The Compleat Beatles': 10 Takeaways From Great, Overlooked Fab Four Doc". Rolling Stone .
  3. 1 2 3 Harrington, Richard (1984-02-15). "Incompleat 'Beatles'". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  4. "LaserDisc Database - Search - Compleat Beatles". www.lddb.com.