I have tried to watch some of the biopics of famous musicians. Elvis, which you may be surprised to learn is about Elvis Presley, Walk The Line (Johnny Cash), A Complete Unknown (Dylan) and Deliver Me From Nowhere (Springsteen) to name but a few but all I see is an actor pretending to be a rock star. Timothée Chalamet, I’m sure does an excellent job as Dylan, but at no point do I feel like I am watching the real thing. It’s the same with Jeremy Allen White as The Boss and every other imitator. For me, it just never works, especially if they actual subject of the movie is still very much with us. but it’s about to get much, much worse. Here come four Beatles biopics.
Yes, four Beatles biopics, each featuring an actor who, frankly, looks nothing like the actual Beatle. As a wag said on social media, rather than resembling the Fab Four, they look like Open University lecturers from the 1960s.
The photo that heads this blog: does anyone honestly think that this is an accurate representation of John, Ringo, George and Paul? The Lennon impersonator looks horrendously bad, and from left to right the others look more like Monty Python Eric Idle, Bee Gee Barry Gibb and former DJ Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart. Now, I appreciate that these names may mean little to the younger reader – if I have one – but if I am thinking that, I’ll bet a few other folk are thinking that, too.
After idolising The Beatles in my childhood I have rather gone full circle and idolise them even more in old age. I devour all their albums, read every book I can find about them and avidly watch any film or TV clip I can find. The only band bigger than The Beatles of the 1960s is The Beatles today. What I do not want, or need, are movies of blokes pretending to be them, and men and women pretending to be Yoko Ono, Linda McCartney, Brian Epstein, John’s Auntie Mimi or anyone else connected to them. I want the real thing or nothing.
It could be that my dislike of biopics is a spin-off of my reading habits. I very rarely read fiction because, well, it’s fiction, all made up. No matter how brilliantly it’s written, I can’t get past the obstacle headed FICTION. This doesn’t apply to TV or movies – or not so much anyway – but it does apply to books and biopics. And, while I think about it, I have the same issue with biopics about virtually everyone else.
I watched Gandhi many years ago, but all I saw was Ben Kingsley. I have seen the brilliant Michael Sheen play the likes of Tony Blair, Brian Clough, Chris Tarrant and David Frost, but all I see is Michael Sheen. I did actually enjoy the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton but that, I think, was because I love the story so much, that I was able to commit to the movie for a short while. But even then, I knew all the way through it wasn’t Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre on the screen.
The Beatles movies could be the worst yet. Just looking at the images I cannot imagine how anyone could take them seriously, let alone enjoy them and even the Beatles music, most of which, incredibly, still stands up today and sounds positively new and refreshing, cannot save it. Frankly, I’d rather director Sam Mendes, who I agree is a total genius, would simply assemble a series of clips and videos, employ the services of a top dollar narrator and allow us to see the real story with the real people who created it.
The only reason for making these four movies has to be money. And it has to be assumed that the producers know their business far better than I do. And they must have worked out who their audience is going to be. I am thinking there must be a few more fans like me, and fans who are far more hardcore than me, who will be thinking, “What the actual fuck? I don’t need to see this.”
My thoughts are also these. If you want to know more about The Beatles, listen to the music. Then, watch the Disney documentary series The Beatles: Get back. Then read John and Paul: A Love Story In Songs by Ian Leslie, followed by Paul McCartney The Lyrics and Ray Connolly’s Being John: A Restless Life. (Other books, some good, some not so good, are available.) Then, listen to the music again.
While I have tried in the past to watch biopics, I won’t be bothering with any of these. We already have the real thing, any imitation won’t be as good. What’s the point?
