“Beatles ‘64” wants to hold your hand.
The latest Beatles documentary specifically focuses on the 1964 arrival of the lovely lads from Liverpool in America. This includes their zeitgeist-capturing performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and their first live concert in the United States, held at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.
But how can you watch the latest documentary on the Fab Four? Read on to find out.
“Beatles ‘64” premieres exclusively on Disney+ on Nov. 29.
The new documentary is only available on Disney+. Sure, it would be pretty fun to watch “Beatles ‘64” in a crowded movie theater, with people reacting to the band today like they had back then. But alas, it is impossible.
There are new interviews with surviving Beatles members Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney; there are also contemporaneous interviews with people who were at the concert or the “Ed Sullivan Show” performance. They interview one guy who sailed to Liverpool illegally just to walk in the Beatles’ shoes. He got arrested but later worked as a producer for John Lennon. (Can you imagine?) “Blue Velvet” director David Lynch also shows up and there are fleeting appearances by Martin Scorsese, who produced the documentary.
Ostensibly, “Beatles ‘64” is about the band’s arrival in the United States. But more than that, it was about the explosion of youth culture, a country reeling after recent events (the assassination of John F. Kennedy was just a year earlier) and a world on the precipice – a nebulous moment just before the hippie revolution, the Vietnam War and arrival of Richard Nixon. It’s an atmosphere full of upheaval and drama. And that’s when the Beatles struck a chord.
While there are plenty of new interviews in “Beatles ’64,” the backbone of the feature is based around footage shot in 1964 by legendary documentarians Albert and David Maysles for the film “What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A.” The footage and audio was overhauled using cutting edge technology developed by Peter Jackson. It looks and sounds amazing.
Disney+ is also the home of Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back,” the epic, three-part documentary about the making of the band’s final album “Let It Be.” The streaming platform is also the home to “Let It Be,” the long unavailable documentary by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Together, the two documentaries complement each other beautifully. Both are essential pieces of Beatles lore.
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