10 great films about The Beatles

Poor old Ringo Starr. George Harrison was commemorated by Martin Scorsese, while Paul McCartney is about to be profiled by Morgan Neville, and Kevin Macdonald’s One to One: John & Yoko and Alan G. Parker’s Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade are the latest in a long line of tributes to John Lennon –in the last year alone, these included Daytime Revolution, Revival 69, and the three-part John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial. 

Yet, the drummer who provided the missing piece that transformed a combo of Liverpudlian likely lads into global superstars has yet to be the subject of a serious feature documentary. It’s bound to come, however, as, 55 years after they broke up, the world remains fascinated with The Beatles, as a band and as individuals.

Films were only ever a sideline, and having become bored during the making of Help! (1965), the band had little to do with either Al Brodax’s cartoon series The Beatles (1965 to 1967) or George Dunning’s animated Yellow Submarine (1968). They were more hands on with the BBC special Magical Mystery Tour (1967). But the majority of films about The Beatles have been retrospective and rockumentary in nature, although they were also the narrative animus for the likes of Robert Zemeckis’s I Want to Hold Your Hand (1978) and David Trueba’s Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013).

Having been murdered at 40, Lennon has received the lion’s share of the attention, whether in feted biopics like Sam Taylor Johnson’s Nowhere Boy (2009), well-meaning if mediocre teleplays, or in such cine-encomia as Imagine: John Lennon (1988), The U.S. vs John Lennon (2006), LennoNYC (2010) and John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky (2018). 

It’s intriguing to consider what contribution he might have made to The Beatles Anthology (1995), which saw his surviving bandmates seek to put the record straight after the release of unofficial compilations like The Compleat Beatles (1982). Curiously, the bulk of these bio-docs have been chronicles, with only the 2021 miniseries McCartney 3,2,1 focusing on what continues to make The Beatles so revered and relevant: their music.

Director: Richard Lester

Determined to avoid falling into the same screen trap as Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard, The Beatles insisted that their first feature was a fictionalised documentary. Having witnessed the cocooned chaos during a two-day trip to Dublin in November 1963, screenwriter Alun Owen devised a scenario that showed John, George, Ringo and Paul (complete with a fictitious grandfather) as prisoners of their fame, who only came alive while performing. 

The vérité approach was confirmed when the group saw the footage that American siblings David and Albert Maysles had shot for a Granada news report (which was incorporated into What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A., 1964), although director Richard Lester was also keen to spice the realism with some Goon Show zaniness and nouvelle vague chic. Incalculably influential, this monochrome snapshot of Beatlemania retains the inventiveness, vivacity, intimacy and irreverence that prompted critic Andrew Sarris to declare it “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”.

Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Although The Beatles had stopped touring in 1966, Paul was keen to reconnect with the audience and Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary was originally intended to be a record of the rehearsals for a one-off gig that would spawn a TV special and an album. Time was tight in January 1969 as Ringo was booked to shoot The Magic Christian (1969) for Joseph McGrath — like Lindsay-Hogg, McGrath had directed several of the band’s groundbreaking singles promos – and tensions quickly surfaced in the artificial surroundings of Twickenham Studios. 

After a week, George had to be talked out of quitting before everyone reassembled at Apple headquarters, where the project wrapped with the joyous rooftop concert. Despite earning an Oscar for best song Score, Let It Be was long suppressed, as it brought back too many unhappy memories. However, following the awed reception for Peter Jackson’s 468-minute series The Beatles: Get Back (2021), which digitally spruced up the 16mm footage, it was reissued in 2024 to overdue acclaim.

Directors: John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Having already produced a number of avant-garde shorts, including Rape and Self-Portrait (both 1969), John Lennon and Yoko Ono opted for a ‘day in the life’ approach for this pioneering venture promoting tracks from their respective albums, Imagine and Fly. Largely filmed at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot, but with scenes also shot in London and New York, this is essentially a home movie, but with George Harrison, Fred Astaire, Andy Warhol and Jack Palance among those who happen to drop by. 

Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, there’s a mischievous spontaneity about much of the imagery, although the helicopter shot for ‘Jealous Guy’ and the closing walking on water sequence at Staten Island took more planning. As the footage was originally filmed at 25 frames per second, the 2018 restoration took Simon Hilton and Paul Hicks eight years to complete, as they also had to slot in 18 extra minutes, many of which had been cut from the home video release in 1985.

Directors: Eric Idle and Gary Weis

George Harrison was a huge Monty Python fan and had appeared on Rutland Weekend Television in 1975. So, when Eric Idle decided to expand a sketch about The Pre-Fab Four after it had gone down well when he had shown a clip while hosting Saturday Night Live, Harrison signed up to play a TV interviewer. 

Mick Jagger and Paul Simon also guested to take gentle sideswipes in recalling their encounters with Ron Nasty (Neil Innes), Dirk McQuigley (Idle), Stig O’Hara (Ricky Fataar) and Barry Wom (John Halsey). John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner also took cameos, with Bill Murray splendidly sending-up famed DJ, ‘Murray the K’. In addition to lampooning landmark series like Tony Palmer’s All You Need Is Love (1977), Idle also turned Beatle history into Rutle pastiche, with the aid of some masterly musical facsimilies by Innes. John and Paul refused to see the joke, however, because of perceived snipes at wives Yoko and Linda.

Director: Jack Priestley

Paul McCartney hasn’t had much luck with film. His scene with Isla Blair was cut from A Hard Day’s Night, while his brain-child, Magical Mystery Tour (1967), was regarded as the first Beatle misstep. The critics would also relish savaging Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), which came four years after this exhilarating record of the Wings Over America tour, which was complemented by the 1979 BBC documentary Wings over the World. 

Despite cutaways to Linda, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English, the focus was firmly (as it had been in One Hand Clapping, 1974) on McCartney revelling in playing with his band. Gleaning 30 songs from four gigs, the playlist scrupulously balances Beatles and Wings numbers, as Macca sought to reclaim the hits that audiences hadn’t heard live for a decade. When he resumed touring in 1989, after a 13-year hiatus, he reunited with Richard Lester for Get Back (1991), which confirmed the shift towards nostalgia that continues to dominate the octogenarian’s shows today.

Director: Christopher Munch

No one knows what happened (if anything) between John Lennon and Brian Epstein when they spent 12 days in Barcelona in the spring of 1963. At Paul’s 21st birthday party in June, Lennon reportedly beat Cavern DJ Bob Wooler to a pulp after he had teased him about his ‘honeymoon’ with Epstein, just three weeks after new wife Cynthia had given birth. 

In his autobiography, childhood friend Pete Shotton claimed that Lennon had confessed to a brief manual flirtation. But in The Hours and Times director Christopher Münch offers an alternative speculation, which explores the longing that Epstein (David Angus) felt for Lennon (Ian Hart) while knowing that any rumours could damage the reputation of The Beatles at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. Shooting in long takes and close-ups that emphasise the pair’s awkward affection, Münch contrasts Epstein’s disciplined compassion with Lennon’s acidic insecurity. Consequently, this is infinitely more sensitive and insightful than Joe Stephenson’s more melodramatic Epstein biopic, Midas Man (2024).

Director: Iain Softley

They weren’t a bad little band. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Nirvana’s Dave Grohl were among those playing on the BAFTA-winning soundtrack to Iain Softley’s Hamburg saga. Miffed at his own depiction, Paul rightly complained that John never sang ‘Long Tall Sally’. But this is less about the Lennon-McCartney dynamic (which was a turbulent love story in itself) than about John having to deal with the loss of aspiring artist, reluctant bassist and best friend Stuart Sutcliffe so soon after the death of his mother. 

Ian Hart again nails the firebrand Scouse charisma, while – as Sutcliffe – Stephen Dorff sweetly conveys the James Dean cool that attracted German photographer Astrid Kircherr (Sheryl Lee), who crucially changed the look of the pre-fame Fabs. You need to double bill this with Richard Marquand’s Birth of the Beatles (1979) to get a fuller picture of the combo’s evolution. But this remains the best Beatle biopic to date. No pressure, Sam Mendes.

Director: Martin Scorsese

George Harrison was always considered the ‘Quiet Beatle’. But this epic profile reveals him to be the most complex. He could be cocky, moody, tactless and libidinous. Yet he spent much of his life seeking a higher purpose through meditation, mantras and music, as he felt existence was pointless without enlightenment and transformation. 

Recapping the Beatle’s story from the perspective of the lead guitarist who blossomed late as a songwriter and strained to do his own thing, Martin Scorsese celebrates the diversity of Harrison’s achievements, from the Concert for Bangladesh and the founding of HandMade Films to the flourishing of The Traveling Wilburys and the cultivation of his Friar Park garden. With the most poignant contributions coming from widow Olivia Harrison, this is a genuine contender for the best film ever made about a Beatle, even though it virtually ignores the wonderful albums that Harrison made after bouncing back from the lowpoint of his 1974 Dark Horse tour.

Director: Ron Howard

Between Woolton fete on 6 July 1957 and Candlestick Park on 29 August 1966, The Beatles (under various names) played a disputed number of concerts (between 815 and 1325) in 15 countries. At the height of Beatlemania, few in attendance could hear anything but screaming. But, as Ron Howard points out, audibility was only one of the reasons why the band quit the road. 

Blending newsreel, interview, home movies and clips from such rarities as The Beatles Come to Town (1963) and The Beatles at Shea Stadium (1966), the chronicle examines the initial thrill of being famous before dwelling on the growing restriction of confinement, the frustration of being unable to play sophisticated studio tracks live, and the annoyance at having to dance attendance on dignitaries and play the press game when they wanted to express their views on a world they had helped change. The shared experience of these frantic years created a unique bond. But it started to fray once the tours stopped.

Directors: Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels

It’s hard to believe Yoko would have been particularly chuffed about this documentary. It depicts the period that follows hard on from the seeming bliss of Imagine and One to One and provides a fascinating insight into how Ono stage-managed the affair between John Lennon and her Chinese-American assistant, May Pang. As everyone knows, “The separation didn’t work out.” But, with its lively blend of archive material, interview and animation, the film shows how the 18-month Los Angeles hiatus enabled Lennon to rediscover himself by shedding his various accumulated personas. 

It also led to him reconciling with Paul McCartney and rebuilding his relationship with his son, Julian. Moreover, it saw him return to his musical roots, with the 1975 album Rock ‘n’ Roll. Although still clearly devoted to Lennon, Pang isn’t blind to his flaws, as she concedes their relationship had its abusive, as well as romantic moments. Yet, for all its compelling revelations, this never quite feels like the whole story.