Rating: 
Summary: Hidden Track
Review: I don't know if anybody's commented on this before, but this is eerie: there's an early scene in this video, set in the Beatles New York hotel room, just before they're about to leave to tape the first Ed Sullivan appearance. John is noodling around on what looks like a melodion, tooting apparently random notes while conversation swirls around him. Then the notes resolve into something very much like the opening of "Strawberry Fields Forever." I swear on Brian Epstein's grave - that's what it sounds like. The pitch isn't exactly the same, but if you have ears to hear it you will hear it too. If you own this tape or DVD, check it out.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty good
Review: This is all right. Part of its disappointment is actually part of what makes it interesting. There are boring moments in the video. But you can appreciate here that being a phenomenon would not spare you from boring moments, like when they are trying to entertain themselves on the train or in the hotels...and not really succeeding!! When they're driving in a car, they're just guys in a car...and then all these girls come screaming at the car when the arrive at the hotel. From the Beatles percpective, it seems like all those girls waiting are really wasting their time.So it's a unique view from the legends' eyes, and how being a legend can be tedious at times, too. You're rich, you're famous, talented, you're in instant living legend, and STILL the darn TV reception won't come in!! George STILL comes down with a sore throat, so can't join John, Paul and Ringo in Central Park. On the train, when George and Ringo are trying to be funny...they aren't very funny! So the Beatles wit wasn't flawless. (It let's you know how important the script was in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT!). But there are purely great moments, like seeing John Lennon's great voice soar on the middle-eight section of "This Boy" when they are playing it live.
Rating: 
Summary: "A Hard Days Night": The Blueprint
Review: When you watch this film you realize Richard Lester did, too. This is the movie "A Hard Days Night" in actual footage: the performances, behind the scenes, dancing in the night clubs...almost the exact movie.... You can also feel the coming tension that would finally take hold of the Beatles, as you see them jocky for camera positions, etc., and you get a real feel for what it's like to have that much attention on you 24/7....It's amazing they lasted as long as they did.... A short inside story: When the Beatles did their first Shea Stadium show, I was there with my band to see them....and that's all anyone who was there did: see them. Right before they were to come out on the stage, everyone was looking for Ringo's drums, and the famous Beatles Bass Drum head. Right before the Beatles are to take the stage, a stage hand walks over to the drums Sounds Incorporated was using, and pulled away the fake bass drum head and there it was: The Beatles......a scream went up in the 50,000+ crowd that lasted until the Beatles left, and that was all anyone heard.......But I wouldn't trade that memory for anything
Rating:
Summary: The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
Review: I remember waiting patiently years ago for somebody to release the February, 1964 appearances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. This video represents that, plus much of the hotel/limousine/Peppermint Lounge footage shot by the Maysles brothers during their historic first tour of the United States. While this represents a nice overview and entertaining video of that period, it could have been much more. Unfortunately, several of the songs from the Sullivan shows are NOT in the video; only "extracts" (the video's term!) are depicted. The entirety of the Beatles' 1964 Ed Sullivan performances are priceless. It's truly a shame that we may never get to see a commercially available release of all of this footage. The Maysles' film footage, however, is wonderful. In hindsight, it's amazing that these brothers had that much access to the Beatles. Much of this film was shot in the front seat of limousines and hotel rooms. I have to give the video a "C+." It could very easily have been an "A+"
(Update:6/27/03) This is to add to my initial review: A 2-disc DVD set was released late last year of all four Ed Sullivan 1964/1965 televised performances. This set, which was advertised for about a month during the Fall 2002, features the entire Ed Sullivan broadcasts (including commercials) and all other acts. This renders the edited Sullivan performances on the Beatles/First U.S.A Visit video moot.)
Rating:
Summary: THEY CAME, THEY SAW, WE LAUGHED
Review: This is less a movie, more a historical document of the revitalization of youth culture in America in 1964. Centered on the original 45-minute footage of the Maysles brothers' coverage of the Beatles' arrival in New York on Friday 7 February 1964, this DVD version is expanded with all three Ed Sullivan Show transmissions of the Beatles - two live (in NY and Miami), one recorded and some Washington performance extras. The footage is crude - though the video restoration is superb - and the editing uneven; but the energy of the subject electrifies. It is important to recall the context. Rock 'n roll had subsided with Elvis's conscription and the deaths of Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent etc. The optimism President Kennedy brought with the youthful vigor of his New Frontier had been cut down just 10 weeks before. It was a moment of frustrated suspension for a youth population wealthier, more educated and empowered than ever before. And then the Beatles flew in, the week the ebullient I Wann Hold Your Hand topped the record charts. The song was symbolic empathy in the angst after Kennedy, and the people took the offered hand with relish. The Maysleses' film shows the substance behind that offer. The Beatles themselves were friends. There is no evidence in this documentary of the common strife and compromise of band politics: these kids liked each other, and loved the game of life. On second look, the off-stage antics are moronic and addictive. As individuals, it's clear, the Beatles were fundamental revolutionaries: they instinctively saw the tyranny of institutions, and laughed at them; and laughter is a powerful weapon. John Lennon stands curiously apart in this film. It is interesting to see how Ed Sullivan's crew almost ignored him on the first historical telecast (he barely figures), but had got the gist by Miami, some days later. DJ Murray the K is an intrusive, but supportive, presence throughout (but bear in mind that Jack Parr had already introduced the Beatles phenomenon to the US weeks earlier) - and Lennon alone resists his sometimes unctuous company. McCartney has a sensual presence that mixes Fabian with Kerouac, and is mesmeric. Harrison dispels accusations of a morose temperament by showing a sparky humor comparable with Ringo Starr's. The Beatles have been likened to the Marx Brothers in their comic impact, but the Maysleses' expanded film shows them more as anarchists, enlightened and made palatable by deep-root humor and precocious (they are all 23 or under here) self-awareness. And the music content? The initial Ed Sullivan shines brilliantly with the premiered All My Loving and lapses awfully with a flat-rendered I Wanna Hold Your Hand. The follow-on Washington Colliseum footage is better, apart from a strained, almost inaudible Ringo vocal on I Wanne Be Your Man. Miami and the pre-taped outro are the best performances. Miami starts with a sublime From Me To You (that middle chord change! ) - and John Lennon's moving This Boy, never sung better. Musically the Beatles were as tight and powerful as any rock band. Watching Lennon's rhythm hand, following the running lines of McCartney, seeing Starr improvise on miscues, watching the endless inventiveness of Harrison, one marvels again at the force of nature that is the Beatles. They gave America optimism and imagination when the world went sour. They remind us of the abstract magic of music and its capacity to turn life round. This is a DVD for the shelves of social historians, music lovers and all flaky Joes.
Rating:
Summary: THE MAYSLES BROTHERS ARE GENIUSES!
Review: The Maysles Brothers have done it again (first, with"Salesman" in which they followed around Bible salesman andshowed the human side of door-to-door salesman). That was brilliant and this is even better. The footage is unbelievable. You wouldn't have ever guessed that the Fab were so funny! GET THIS DVD! There's nothing like it (unless, of course, you can find a copy of A Hard Day's Night, which is currently on moratorium/not available to buy at this time)! This and "The Compleat Beatles" are the definitive Beatles documentaries. DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS DOCUMENTARY! You won't be sorry! Don't pay attention to the negative reviews! The good ones overshadow them.
Rating:
Summary: The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
Review: If you want to actually see the Beatles perform, this is definatly the movie to get. So, some of the stuff actually does get repeptitive, but the songs are great and the quality is excellent. You can't love the early Beatles songs and NOT get this...the only collection of early Beatles that is worth getting! You'll love it, yeah yeah yeah!
Rating:
Summary: A piece of history
Review: A warning should be made about this video: this documentary is for those who understand the historical value of the footage. Sure, there are a lot of scenes of the Beatles in hotels, limousines, trains, etc. But isn't it wonderful that a movie camera was there to capture it all? And there is even a candid scene of George creating some weird noises in his acoustic guitar, anticipating the Indian-influenced, experimental music he would make in the late 60's. This video is NOT for the casual Beatles fan who wants to show his daughter that they were better than the Backstreet Boys. But it is certainly the most generous collection of Beatles footage ever released on home video! And the television appearances are the icing on the cake!
Rating:
Summary: An essential piece of music history
Review: A very-well documented history of the Beatles first trip to the US! Surprisingly, the video and audio are very good for being over 35 years old. Although I'm not a fan of MPI Home Video's quality from what I've seen so far, this is one of the better ones (although they didn't Q/A the trivia game). Beatles fans need this -- and so do all fans of music history -- 'cuz this is it: almost an hour and a half of the real-life Beatles, their humor, their charm, and their wonderful music.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: Spurred on by the other reviews, I was looking forward to this video. I sat down to watch it with my 12-year-old daughter, to proudly show her that the fab-four were, yes, much bigger than the Backstreet Boys. I was anticipating an energetic, fast-paced video. Boy, was I wrong. In a word, Yawn. This is one slow video, folks. The film-makers apparently felt that having inside-the-hotel access was too priceless to cut a second of footage. The result is endless sequences of the Beatles in rooms, and backseats of limos...on and on like the home-videos of people who don't know when to stop and move to the next scene. It was also a bit jarring, I'm afraid, to watch my heroes suck down what appeared to be about a pack an hour of cigarettes, though I suppose that's neither here nor there. Bottom line is that I wanted badly to like this movie, and revisit wonderful times, but it just dragged. Too bad. I shoulda bought Hard Day's Night.
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