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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
The Fab Four from Liverpool--John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr--in their first movie. Nobody expected A Hard Day's Night to be much more than a quick exploitation of a passing musical fad, but when the film opened it immediately seduced the world--even the stuffiest critics fell over themselves in praise (highbrow Dwight Macdonald called it 'not only a gay, spontaneous, inventive comedy but it is also as good cinema as I have seen for a long time'). Wisely, screenwriter Alun Owen based his script on the Beatles' actual celebrity at the time, catching them in the delirious early rush of Beatlemania: eluding rampaging fans, killing time on trains and in hotels, appearing on a TV broadcast. American director Richard Lester, influenced by the freestyle French New Wave and British Goon Show humor, whips up a delightfully upbeat circus of perpetual motion. From the opening scene of the mop tops rushing through a train station mobbed by fans, the movie rarely stops for air. Some of the songs are straightforwardly presented, but others ('Can't Buy Me Love,' set to the foursome gamboling around an empty field) soar with ingenuity. Above all, the Beatles express their irresistible personalities: droll, deadpan, infectiously cheeky. Better examples of pure cinematic joy are few and far between. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Still rocking the kids
I bought this for my 16 year old daughter who has discovered the Beatles. She just loves their music and I am getting to enjoy them again also. It is great to be able to share my youth with todays youth.
Rating: - Great Movie!
The Beatles are wonderful in this movie. It is fast paced and very funny. One has to pay attention to the dialogue to get the jokes and they are gems. The extras are good too. A lot of fun!
Rating: - Still great after all these years
I bought this DVD as I am phasing out my VHS tapes. I had the same issue in VHS, though this has interviews with many people that make the extras neat. My favorite was George Martin discussing the boys individually as writers and the individual songs. The film stands up well to 40+ years of time.
Rating:  - Will Miramax and MPI please stop tampering with our memories?
The other night I decided to pull out HDN and watch it for the first time in several years. I have both the MPI and Miramax DVDs so I reached for my good old MPI edition and popped it in. The 1.33:1 aspect ratio always bugged me a bit but I thought "so what" and decided to watch it because I love the opening "I'll Cry Instead" prologue on that version. When the movie got to the "And I Love Her" sequence I started, for the first time, to notice that the mix was different than the video tape I'd seen ... Read More
Rating: - Movie Good / DVD Bad.
I've had this Miramax DVD in my collection since it was released in 2002 but have only just got around to watching it on a decent TV with a 5.1 surround system.
Like many others here I love the movie but am hugely disappointed by this DVD....particularly compared to the job that was done with the recent Help! DVD.
The letterboxing is obviously annoying to some people and it is noticable that things have been cropped however it is not the main problem I have with this release. ... Read More
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