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Post by Panther on Feb 9, 2009 3:52:45 GMT -5
I was wondering what y'all thought of The Complete Beatles (1984). I saw this on PBS back in the day, recorded it, but have since lost the tape. The movie is directed by Patrick Montgomery, and narrated by Malcolm McDowell, of 'A Clockwork Orange' fame. It even had a theatrical release back in '84. I still think this is the best cinematic movie about the Beatles that can be watched in one sitting. It's very interesting now in that it's so dated. It was produced just 13 years after the group broke up (by comparison another 25 years have passed since it was released), and so the memories of people like Tony Sheridan and Allan Williams is perhaps not so clouded by cultural baggage and self-consciousness at it is today. Do you all like it as much as I do?
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Post by OldFred on Feb 9, 2009 6:48:30 GMT -5
Until the Anthology, the Compleat Beatles was the best documentary on the Beatles. Surprisingly, the Beatles gave permission for their music to be used in it, and that puts it a notch above other Beatles documentaries that uses 'faux' Beatle music. Narrated by Malcolm McDonald, it pretty much got most of the story right. It was released commercially on video and I still have my copy of it. It was a very successful seller and it gave Apple the incentive to finally finish the Anthology. The Anthology has made it obsolete now, but the Compleat Beatles is still a nice film to see if you just want to see a 2 hour pocket version of the Beatles story.
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Post by superhans on Feb 9, 2009 7:02:38 GMT -5
The Anthology has made it obsolete now, but the Compleat Beatles is still a nice film to see if you just want to see a 2 hour pocket version of the Beatles story. In many ways, two hours is an ideal running time for a documentary. 'Anthology', of course is a comprehensive, completist account of the life and times of the Beatles; but a two hour version that just tells the story in one helping -- which could be screened across TV networks just like any other documentary -- would be a really cool idea.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2009 7:22:40 GMT -5
As well as the movie there was a two volume set of Beatles sheet music for piano released with the same title and the same cover. All of the songs were transcribed in the correct key and were as accurate as the arranger could get them..
I have had the movie and the music books for well over 20 years...
In fact,my original copy of this movie was in Beta format,i had it transferred to VHS in the early 90's...
I still refer to them occassionally...
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Post by Panther on Feb 9, 2009 7:57:11 GMT -5
Narrated by Malcolm McDonald Just to clarify, that's McDowell . . . The Anthology has made it obsolete now, but the Compleat Beatles is still a nice film to see if you just want to see a 2 hour pocket version of the Beatles story. I don't think the Anthology has made it obsolete. The Complete is more of an objective perspective, while Anthology is something completely different -- an authorized, first-person thing. Interesting point that The Beatles had to give approval of the usage of their music. . .
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Post by Riff Raff on Feb 9, 2009 8:19:34 GMT -5
As well as the movie there was a two volume set of Beatles sheet music for piano released with the same title and the same cover. All of the songs were transcribed in the correct key and were as accurate as the arranger could get them.. I have had the movie and the music books for well over 20 years... I bought the music books at the same time, too. Very good arrangments, as you say, but due to the size of the books, hard to get them to stay put on the piano! Same with the Complete Scores (the white book), except with that one, the print is so darned small! Excellent reference material, though.
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Post by gottafeelin on Feb 9, 2009 9:56:45 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, Compleat has a better version of the Strawberry Fields video than Anthology contains. I still don't understand why they screwed around with the videos for the Anthology.
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Post by John S. Damm on Feb 9, 2009 10:03:08 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, Compleat has a better version of the Strawberry Fields video than Anthology contains. I still don't understand why they screwed around with the videos for the Anthology. Yeah, the promo video for "Revolution" on Anthology is in the best quality I've ever seen and suddenly John's doing a voice-over right in the middle of it. I liked The Compleat Beatles. We watched it in my 1985 Beatles' class at Indiana University and I later recorded it off PBS. Is it not on dvd because Apple didn't want it competing with Anthology? Did Apple somehow stop MGM on this?
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Post by enockss on Feb 9, 2009 14:14:08 GMT -5
Amazon.com currently has 45 copies of the film, on VHS, in both new and used forms starting at $2.20.
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Feb 9, 2009 16:17:33 GMT -5
I used to think it was a big deal when it was first released, but now it's pretty poor, and certainly in comparison with ANTHOLOGY. Not that it makes much difference, but it was actually released in '82.
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Post by Panther on Feb 9, 2009 21:01:06 GMT -5
Thanks -- I thought it was '82 also, but to double-check my memory I looked it up on Wikipedia, which obviously has the wrong date. Which is why Wikipedia is not to be trusted.
I want this movie on DVD!
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Post by winstonoboogie on Feb 9, 2009 21:35:17 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, Compleat has a better version of the Strawberry Fields video than Anthology contains. I still don't understand why they screwed around with the videos for the Anthology. Yeah, the promo video for "Revolution" on Anthology is in the best quality I've ever seen and suddenly John's doing a voice-over right in the middle of it. Yes, and then the end is cut off! (the video, not the audio - for some reason, they freeze on John glaring at the camera from earlier in the video! ) I finally saw the entire video on YouTube recently! (from when it was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) But I liked Beatles Compleat also - it has snippets of "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone" from Budokan, which aren't on Anthology!
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Post by Steve Marinucci on Feb 10, 2009 9:20:13 GMT -5
Yeah, the promo video for "Revolution" on Anthology is in the best quality I've ever seen and suddenly John's doing a voice-over right in the middle of it. Yes, and then the end is cut off! (the video, not the audio - for some reason, they freeze on John glaring at the camera from earlier in the video! ) I finally saw the entire video on YouTube recently! (from when it was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) But I liked Beatles Compleat also - it has snippets of "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone" from Budokan, which aren't on Anthology! I also like Compleat. It's, I think, the best summary of the Beatles story in about 90 minutes.
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Post by John S. Damm on Feb 10, 2009 9:49:29 GMT -5
Yes, and then the end is cut off! (the video, not the audio - for some reason, they freeze on John glaring at the camera from earlier in the video! ) I finally saw the entire video on YouTube recently! (from when it was on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) But I liked Beatles Compleat also - it has snippets of "Nowhere Man" and "If I Needed Someone" from Budokan, which aren't on Anthology! I also like Compleat. It's, I think, the best summary of the Beatles story in about 90 minutes. I am going to hunt down my VHS copy I made from a PBS showing back in the early 1990's. fabfour mentioned two books of sheet music but I have a book spun off this documentary with text. It was okay, I got the large paperback version. The Compleat Beatles was quite a project in its day. We were starved back then for such material.
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Post by revolver66 on Feb 10, 2009 10:12:11 GMT -5
I agree that Beatles Compleat was a big deal in it's day. I saw it at the Movie Theatre with many others and as JSD said we were all starved for anything Beatles at the time especially Video material which was still rather scarce. I would also like to see this on DVD. I haven't seen it in ages but I can still remember them Playing Tomorrow Never Knows with the Revolver LP cover spinning around and around!!
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Post by John S. Damm on Feb 10, 2009 11:21:32 GMT -5
I agree that Beatles Compleat was a big deal in it's day. I saw it at the Movie Theatre with many others and as JSD said we were all starved for anything Beatles at the time especially Video material which was still rather scarce. The best example of this craving was the "Video Room" at the late 1970's and 1980's Beatlefests where they would have the big, box-like versions of large screen t.v.'s in the front and the video players all plugged in with seemingly nonstop videos. That room was packed in the early to mid-1980's. If someone got up and left, we'd fight for his or her empty seat. By the mid-1990's that room was depressingly empty because most folks had most of the material at home! I'd go in there to rest from the frenzy of the Flea market! ;D
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Post by scousette on Feb 10, 2009 12:31:00 GMT -5
I have Compleat and it's pretty good. Definitely a keeper.
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nine
Very Clean
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Post by nine on Mar 2, 2009 4:09:41 GMT -5
I love Horse Basher.
"If they was having problems with pimps or pwostitutes..."
"There was four guys of them."
It's funny how similiar Compleat is to The Rutles film... which, came out before... and which was apparantly based on a cut of The Long & Winding Road which George showed Eric Idle.
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Post by wiseblood on Jun 7, 2009 12:32:42 GMT -5
I can't even begin to count how many times I watched this between 1984 and when Anthology was finally released.
I was born in 1979 and felt like this was the Bible as far as I was concerned on ANYTHING Beatles. I mean, I was young...
It was very cool...
And I did end up getting the music books when I was 8. I thought they were the Bees Knees.
Someone should transfer this movie to DVD if for nothing more than good memories. If the information was covered on Anthology, I still like the first hand accounts from Alan Williams and the other folks that were involved with the band.
I'm gonna go watch that movie right now...
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Post by Steve Marinucci on Jun 20, 2009 22:23:42 GMT -5
I can't even begin to count how many times I watched this between 1984 and when Anthology was finally released. I was born in 1979 and felt like this was the Bible as far as I was concerned on ANYTHING Beatles. I mean, I was young... It was very cool... And I did end up getting the music books when I was 8. I thought they were the Bees Knees. Someone should transfer this movie to DVD if for nothing more than good memories. If the information was covered on Anthology, I still like the first hand accounts from Alan Williams and the other folks that were involved with the band. I'm gonna go watch that movie right now... It's been transferred. I've seen copies of it. Not legal ones, of course. But it's around.
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