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: Fascinating private view of the Beatles
Review: This is an amazing document. Ringo's and Paul's nervous glances out the limo window upon their first glimpses of New York, John's rapier put-down of Murray the K (shamelessly riding the Beatles' coattails) in their hotel room moments before they leave for the first Sullivan performance, and Ringo's joyous dancing at the Peppermint Lounge make the Beatles accessible in a way all the press coverage and adulation never could. They perform knowing full well just how good they are (like John's solo on This Boy), their confidence and ability live before tens of millions of viewers. By the time they leave for England, though, the guardedness has begun to set in. You don't even need to be a fan to like this one because this is a fascinating view of the private world of four young men about to become global icons.
Rating: 
Summary: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR...
Review: This is an engaging documentary of The Beatles' first U.S. visit. What makes it so fascinating are their performances on the Ed Sullivan show, which are captured here. Digitally remastered, this early television footage has been expertly restored, enabling the viewers to see and hear The Beatles, as they first appeared on American television. Cheeky and exhuberant, The Beatles, occasionally off key but having the time of their lives, have not lost the capacity for knocking the socks off the viewer, as they are brimming over with vitality and the joy of life. They are truly wonderful to watch, as well as hear. Fortunately, the video covers all their performances on Ed Sullivan, and what a treat they are! It is sad to think that already two of them, John and George, are no longer with us. The film documents a more innocent and simple time. It captured The Beatles on the threshold of international fame. It memorialized for all time their first U.S. visit with footage shot in railroad cars, hotel rooms, and limousines. Some of it is somewhat self-conscious, and some of it is playful fun. It also memorialized the reactions of their fans. The film is a daily cinema verite testament to that first visit. This is a very good documentary that is well worth having soley for the performances of The Beatles. There are over thirteen of them, and the tracks have been digitally remastered for your listening pleasure. Overall, however, the documentary lacks some cohesion, due to the cinema verite nature of the film. Still, it is a worthwhile documentary to have, if only for those wonderful Ed Sullivam performances. If one wants a historical overview of The Beatles, one may also wish to view the more in depth and complex documentary, "The Compleat Beatles".
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: 4 kids shake the globe
Review: What an amazing DVD! Take A Hard Day's Night, and turn it into a real-time documentary of the historic Ed Sullivan appearance. So many fascinating moments are captured here. John is visibly thrown by the "Sorry Girls, he's married." subtitle, and then acts out hilariously at a terrific concert in DC. George sits in a hotel room fingerpicking a terrific spontaneous imitation of Bob Dylan's Talkin' Blues, making you want to just shake him and tell him to go ahead and write his own. Ringo entertains the media non-stop with all kinds of physical comedy, while a strangely petulent Paul sourly comments that he doesn't "feel like being funny." Of course it's the angelic faced bass player who takes the lead for the first couple of songs on Sullivan, and for a while the cameras assume that he is the focus of the band. Only after the second show in Miami, when John is more prominently featured, does the angle of presentation change, now going past him towards the pair at the other mike, with Ringo centered above. TV's earliest presentation already picks up on the tension and power of the great rivalry. Honestly, you get some of this stuff on Anthology and as it is now out of print the cost of tracking one down might be a little prohibitive. But no mistake, this is a thorough, honest view of a rare, magical moment in the course of popular culture.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, a reception that any other artist have received
Review: When you watch The Beatles:First US Visit, you understand why the Beatles are so important.The DVD brings the historical appearence in the Ed Sullivan Show(My favorite track of the show is I Want to Hold Your Hand) and the Washington Concert(this show is avaiable too in the Anthology).And of course in the, DVD you can see the histerical fans to see the 4 Liverpool Stars and others things.You are going to love much more the Beatles when you watch this DVD
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: an absolutely amazing document!
Review: Wow! Is this really a documentary? Were the Beatles really that witty, charming and off the cuff? The answer to both questions is yes! Actually, this shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hard Day's Night was really very close to the real thing: A Day In the Life of the Beatles in early '64. However, this documentary takes nothing away from a Hard Day's Night. They are both absolutely brilliant on their own terms. Lester does things in the movie that transcend what a documentary can do (the fabulous escape "Can't Buy Me Love" sequence, for one of many). However, you don't need to be a Beatle fan to appreciate this great documentary. Unless you have no interest in this very interesting time in history, you will find this extremely...well... ...interesting. How lucky we are to have this unique event so brilliantly preserved for posterity. The Maysles brothers were visionaries! If you have any interest in why the '60s were such a remarkable decade,don't miss seeing this! Holds up very well to repeated viewings.
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