If you expecting to find at least one of those Doris Day comedies to pop up on this list, well sorry but Ms. Day, with or without Rock Hudson, will be found nowhere on site. I am not an admirer, or fan. Day does have a nice comedic touch and some of her comedies are pleasant (Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back), but her virginal, sugary, spunky self, I just find annoying. Like Mary Tyler Moore’s Lou Grant once said, “I hate spunk.” I don’t mean to turn this into a tirade against Ms. Day, but in the 1960’s, the times, they were a changin.’ and films like With Six You Get Eggroll did not cut it. Anyway, here is my list for the decade that helped defined me.
As you will see most of the films here except for a few are from the later part of the decade. You can check out the previous entries in this series by clicking on the link here. Continue reading
Backbeat is not just another Beatles biopic; it’s more of an intimate story of friendship, love and ultimately death. The film’s focus is not on the rise of the group’s fame but, more on the triangular relationship between German photographer Astrid Kirchherr, Stu Sutcliffe, the original fifth Beatle, and John Lennon.
Even with all the in fighting and hard feelings that were rising to the surface, they could still have fun and play well, as they do, from the top of the Apple Building, which turned out to be the final time John, Paul, George and Ringo ever performed together. The film is not for the casual fan who will probably find it somewhat boring at times and skip over directly to the concert. On the other hand, serious Beatles and Rock and Roll fans will find the film a fascinating look at the most celebrated band ever in the final stages of their career. As previously pointed out, the film is technically bad, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg should never be allowed behind a camera again. There were hours and hours of film shot and it seems no one knew how to put all this footage together. Except for an occasionally nice cut here and there, the film looks like it was chopped with a cleaver by a character from the Sopranos. While the sound of the music is crisp and loud, much of the dialogue between the fab four is hard to hear and at times unclear, forcing you to raise the volume on your TV. This is especially noticeable during the now well known “tutoring” Paul gave to George on how to play the guitar in which George, fed up finally said, and I am paraphrasing here a bit, “I’ll play anyway you want me too or I don’t have to play at all.” George apparently walked out and quite the group at this point (this is not noted in the film) and there was talk of replacing him with Eric Clapton. George did return and Billy Preston was brought into the sessions to help ease the tension. Poor George also became the brunt of some mocking by John, when during a rehearsal of George’s song “I Me Mine”, John began to dance a waltz with Yoko. John, off camera, sarcastically had told George as he listened to the slower portion of the song “We’re a Rock and Roll band!” 
It’s not all bad; there is plenty in the film to savor. Ringo and George rehearsing “Octopus’ Garden” with Ringo on piano and eventually John joining in on drums. We see the group singing tidbits of songs never completed like “Suzy Parker.” While warming up the band would jump into bits and pieces of oldies like “Rip it Up”, “Shake Rattle and Roll”, “Kansas City” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” segueing from one to the other. You get a look at their creative process as you watch Paul and John work out specific cords Paul wanted for his song, “I Got a Feeling.” There is as he Paul reminisces to someone off camera about the early days, how he and John would write songs in his family’s living room, mostly pretty bad stuff, but some that were eventually used liked “Love Me Do.” He talked how they both hated the words to “One After 909” and in one of the more inspired edited moments, we quickly cut to the band in the studio doing a blazing version of the song, one much better than the official released version on the “Let It Be” album.
However disjointed the rest of the film may be the final twenty minutes is pure magic. The concert actually lasted about forty five minutes before the police pulled the proverbial plug. They played only seven songs, short versions of “God Save the Queen” and “She’s So Heavy” were edited out along with multiple versions of “Don’t Let Me Down”, “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Get Back.” They also performed “One After 909” and “Dig a Pony.” Intercut with the performances, the filmmakers showed the bewildered crowds down below as the music began to play.
Twenty Four Frames 
