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George Harrison (1943–2001), John Lennon (1940-80), Sir Paul McCartney (1942– ), and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey 1940– ). British songwriters and musicians.
Harrison wrote music for: Wonderwall (Joe Massot
1969). Produced: Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones 1979); Time
Bandits (and wrote theme song for) (Terry GILLIAM 1981). Provided voice
for: "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" (1993), episode of The Simpsons.
Appeared in several music videos.
Lennon acted in: How I Won the War (Lester
1966). Produced, directed, appeared in, and wrote music for: Imagine
(documentary) (1973).
McCartney wrote, acted in, and wrote music for: Give
My Regards to Broad Street (Peter Webb 1984). Provided voice for: "Lisa the
Vegetarian" (1995), episode of The Simpsons. Wrote theme songs for: The
Magic Christian (Joseph McGrath 1969); Live and Let Die (Guy
Hamilton 1973); Rupert and the Frog Song (animated short) (and co-wrote
and did voice for) (1984); Spies like Us (John LANDIS 1985). Appeared in
numerous music videos.
Starr acted in: Candy (Christian Marquand 1968);
The Magic Christian (McGrath 1969); 200 Motels (Frank Zappa
1971); Son of Dracula (and produced) (Freddie FRANCIS 1972); Lisztomania
(Ken RUSSELL 1975); Ringo (and Harrison appeared in) (tv special)
(1978); Caveman (Carl Gottlieb 1981); Give My Regards to Broad Street
(Webb 1984). Shining Time Station (tv series) (1984-89); Alice in
Wonderland (tv movie) (Harry Harris 1985). Provided voice for: The Point
(animated short film; narrator) (1971); "Brush with Greatness" (1991), episode
of The Simpsons; Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories, Volume 1
(animated short film; narrator) (1992); several video compilations featuring
Thomas the Tank Engine, compiled from Shining Time Station episodes,
featuring Starr's voice only. Appeared in several music videos.
Films based on their works: The Beatles
(animated tv series) (1964-66); The Rutles (and Harrison appeared in)
(tv movie) (Gary Weiss and Eric Idle 1978); Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band (Michael Schultz 1978); Beatlemania (Joe Manduke 1981).
First, the Beatles inspired, participated in, and
contributed to two remarkable and imaginative films. While Help! is
usually regarded as a rock'n'roll film, and as such is dismissed as frivolous
froth in contrast to the gritty, documentary-style realism of its predecessor A
Hard Day's Night (1964), the film is better considered as a spy movie
spoof. In that context, Help! is the best of its bunch; from Our Man
Flint (1965) in the 1960s to Austin Powers in the 1990s, no other films of
the genre quite match the sparkling wit and frenetic energy of Help!,
and the Beatles, emulating their brilliant supporting cast (Leo McKern, Eleanor
Bron, and Victor Spinetti), play their roles with precisely the proper balance
of sincerity and silliness. Yellow Submarine is also a masterpiece in
the field of animated movies; lively, eclectic, and colorful, the film is
further enlivened by creative touches like the sequence, suggested by the
Beatles, in which the Yellow Submarine follows Ringo down a London street. And,
should some suspect that the Beatles themselves had nothing to do with the
success of these films, they need only examine the comparable films made
without their participation, like the lame American cartoon series The
Beatles and the incoherent, unendurable extravaganza Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Second, the Beatles provide powerful testimony to the
irresistible lure of filmmaking: while they lacked any demonstrable aptitude
for that rigorous art, and while they once professed disdain for the entire
enterprise, struggling to evade their contractual responsibility to appear in a
third film (eventually satisfied by the documentary Let It Be [1970]),
they collectively and individually kept being drawn back into film projects,
albeit rarely than splendid results.
As a group, the Beatles for some reason decided to
create and produce the lambasted television movie Magical Mystery Tour,
with an improvised story about a group of eccentrics on a bus which ineptly
blended vaguely recalled elements of A Hard Day's Night and Help!
It would most charitably be classified as a pioneering example of the
"long-form" music video, with one memorable number, the Beatles' costumed
performance of "I Am the Walrus."
As individuals, the Beatles involved themselves with
film in highly disparate manners. Appropriately, as the famously "shy Beatle,"
George Harrison worked behind the scenes, rescuing the beleaguered and
controversial Monty Python's Life of Brian by providing financial
support, and earning a producing credit for that and for Terry GILLIAM's
extraordinary children's film Time Bandits (also contributing a cheery
theme song for its closing credits). For the next decade, Harrison served the
guiding force behind a well-regarded and idiosyncratic production company,
Handmade Films (also appearing along with Starr in its film Water
[1985]), before he basically retired from both film and music in the 1990s
while he struggled with cancer, finally succumbing to the disease in 2001.
After ably performing in Richard LESTER's uneven farce
How I Won the War, John Lennon decided that he did not want a career as
a film actor; but later, inspired by his second wife, avant-garde artist Yoko
Ono, he plunged into experimental filmmaking, producing a series of unesteemed
and rarely viewed films featuring his own penis, the construction of an office
building, a woman they randomly chose to follow about with a camera, and so on.
The only Lennon film that occasionally surfaces, his documentary about the
making of the album Imagine, had a few visually striking touches, like
the sequence of John singing "Imagine" while Yoko opens all the windows in a
vast room, gradually brightening the environment. When his comeback in 1980 was
brutally cut short by an assassin's bullet, it eliminated the possibility of
any future film projects.
Paul McCartney, for the most part, interacted with
film in the conventional manner of a rock musician, with a television special,
concert films, and music videos like "Off the Ground," showing McCartney flying
through the air like Superman; he has also contributed songs to films like Live
and Let Die, Spies like Us, and his own animated short, Rupert
the Bear. However, in the 1980s, he was unfortunately inspired to write and
score an autobiographical film, the slightly surreal but tedious Give My
Regards to Broad Street, which remains the only rock'n'roll film to suggest
that the typical life of a musical superstar is really, really boring.
Of all the Beatles, only Ringo Starr has had a true
career as a film actor, distinguished by competent performances in terrible
movies, some with fantastic elements, like Candy, The Magic Christian,
Lisztomania, Alice in Wonderland, and Ringo, the latter a
semi-autobiographical television special with Ringo playing both himself and a
humble lookalike following the storyline of The Prince and the Pauper.
One of his lesser efforts, the satirical Son of Dracula with Ringo as
Merlin the Magician, incredibly appears to be a lost film despite its
relatively recent production, suggesting that few people saw any virtues in it.
But Caveman represented a credible effort to revive an unrevivable film
genre, the prehistoric epic, and Starr was genuinely charming as the host of
the children's series Shining Time Station, playing the diminutive
Conductor who talks to boys and girls and introduces stories about Thomas the
Tank Engine much more effectively than his successor George Carlin. Now, as he
carries on with his music career, producing new albums that again document his
lack of singing ability and incongruously touring as the front man of an
All-Starr Band of musicians far more talented than he is, Starr curiously
commands respect as a performer who brings a refreshing air of unpretentious
ordinariness to fantastic settings; and strangely, given his continuing
visibility, it is possible that this last and least of the Beatles will someday
emerge as the group's most famous member.
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