The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]

First up, the picture looks fantastic. Just like it did back in '64. Black blacks and white whites, the glare of that hot spotlight on Paul during "And I Love Her" into the cool shadow is transferred beautifully. And the extras, there are tons of them, from Richard Lester on down. View them complete or incorporated into the documentary on the making of the film. However, none of The Beatles partake in any of the supplements of this landmark film. George Martin gives a brief rundown, song by song, of the score.(His remarks on "And I Love Her" a song I would have thought to be completely up his alley, was a particular surprise.) But his honesty, ultimately, is most welcome. But not having any of the guys on camera or tape, gives the DVD another level of mythical satus, that in the end works in its favor. They're forever young, like James Dean, and Beatlemania can be revisited without the glare of your own age, or the suriving members, hitting you in the face on the way in or out.Some caveats though. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio, always a plus in my book. However, this is a rare example that works against the film. In the extras, clips from the film are shown full frame and the images are more involving as such. You're able to step inside the movie, immerse yourself and be totally involved. The easy solution would be to have both versions available on the same disc, a very common practice today. But that's not done here. For such a deluxe packaging, it's mystifying. And how about that packaging? Instead of the wonderful poster used in the UK, or the exitement of the one sheet used here in America, there's this bland, boring packaging that you have to look at closely to identify it as having anything to do with A HARD DAY'S NIGHT or The Beatles. There's an interview with the actress who had a scene with Paul on his excursion (each Beatle had one,which pointed out Ringo's lack of one) but it was cut before the film's premiere and sadly does not seem to exist. Only stills remain. Didn't they film "You Can't Do That" for the concert sequence? Richard Lester talks about cutting a number there, but doesn't say which one. I expected the extras to include "I'll Cry Instead" but that's not here either. Now to the big one, the sound. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT despite the talent involved, was a low budget quickie (Post production was a few weeks!!!!!) and the sound was always a problem. With the thick Liverpudlian accents and the rapid, and I do mean rapid dialogue (HIS GIRL FRIDAY plays like an Ingmar Bergman film after this) it always took at least three viewings to catch all the dialogue.And while the sound quality of the songs was always of a higher standard than the dialogue soundtrack, somehow the technicians got it good enough so that it blended to a whole. Here however the songs so obviously come from another sound source that you're thrown out of the picture when they start up. Also, even more disturbing, the high frequencies are rolled off, leaving the songs, with a bigger bottom end than top. To somebody's ears I guess this sounded good. Cleaner, more polished, perhaps. But I've never heard these songs sound like this, not even when I'd fool around with my equalizer while listening to the soundtrack. It takes away from the excitement of the score. I had expected something different from the sound, something on the order of the YELLOW SUBMARINE remix actually. But not this! While my memory of the film may not be exact, I know you didn't hear the complete fade out of the title song in the opening credits, I thought I remembered a bit of it being played as it blended with screams of the railway station girls,while the producing and directing credits are shown. Here the song ends abruptly as soon as John stops singing. It jarred me as being not correct, so I was on the "lookout" for any sound deviations after that. I'm all for cleaning up old soundtracks, some of these films can become pretty noisy in their old age, but you can go too far and wind up shaving off the "sound of the room" as is constantly being done with older films by people who are being paid to know better. This isn't really a problem here, but I'd rather have a small amount of "noise" on the soundtrack as opposed to that "dead quiet" soundtrack that removes frequencies from the film track so that it's aurally as quiet as films being made today. I'm "only" a consumer and I'm not supposed to know better. But I do. Five-star movie. Four-star DVD.

I recently received the Blu-Ray, but this review applies equally to the Miramax DVD of "A Hard Day's Night." (In fact, the Blu-Ray is made from a video transfer of the DVD, as opposed to an original film source, and so preserves the digital "jutter" that comes with transferring film to video. If you have the DVD, it is truly not worth the investment to upgrade to Blu-Ray.)As to the film itself, I would like to address the sound issues discussed by previous reviewers. Yes, in an age where we are all used to hearing the digital upgrades to the studio recordings on modern sound equipment, the sound will seem muddy. When a source close to the project said "blame Apple," he meant that the Beatles' licensing company had insisted that, from now on, the soundtrack must be authentic. The 5.1 soundtrack on the DVD and Blu-Ray does modify the sound (and previous calls for an alternate original mono track should be heeded), but is made entirely from the original film track. When songs begin, the sound is moved off of the center channel and out to the left and right channels. A very slight delay is added to the rear channels to provide a sense of depth, but it does not come off as added echo. (The reverb added to "Tell Me Why" was also on the original soundtrack album - along with a good deal of left to right panning!) Basically, the tracks remain in their original mono, and, more importantly, in their original movie mixes.Aside from the obvious single-tracking of Paul's vocal on "And I Love Her" and John's in the intro to "If I Fell" (which, by no intent of the Beatles, became the mixes used on the U.S. single of those two songs), there are other, more subtle changes in the mixes made to accommodate the film. (Guitars are brought forward when the camera is on them, the drums when it moves in on Ringo, and so on.) There are also sound effects which were lost when stereo versions were substituted (such as when John knocks over the music stand during "And I Love Her.")In short, the sound may not be up to the albums we listen to at home, but it is what we heard in theaters in 1964 (if we could hear it at all over the screaming!)As to the picture, the widescreen video does cut off a small bit of the top and bottom of the picture we saw on the VHS tape, while showing a silght bit more on the sides. It should be remembered, though, that the film was shot and framed for widescreen viewing. (Note how the credits are placed far from the top and bottom of the screen. There is also no feeling of cut-off heads or action missed offscreen.) Widescreen was the norm in theaters in 1964, and most theatrical prints were made to accommodate them. We did not watch a square picture in theaters when we saw the film in 1964 - we watched the Beatles explode across the wide screen! The square picture on the MPI VHS version was a nice accommodation for square TV's, but the widescreen on the current release is far closer to the original presentation. And plugging in the stereo versions of the songs may have been a sonic upgrade, it was a move away from what the producer created.I wish that the Blu-Ray had been an actual 24/fps transfer from a film source, and I wish that an alternate "true mono" soundtrack had been provided - but all in all, it's an excellent presentation the original film in its original form. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Une référence dans le genre comédie musicale par l'un des plus grands groupes du rock : THE BEATLES !!! Les bonus nous offrent des interviews des principaux protagonistes du film et de John , Paul , George et Ringo , une narration de Phil Collins , des photos et scènes prises pendant le tournage du film , un sujet sur Peter Sellers et du Goon Show , une filmographie de Richard Lester réalisateur du film et bien d'autres choses encore dans les suppléments .

Delivery was in good condition and was a speedy delivery.Thank You.Russell Portas.

Bien reçu. Satisfaite du film

They’re still the best and this film still stands up both as movie and as a record of the band and the era. Well worth seeing.

Worked well and was as described