Buy the CD and forget the movie I recently had a chance to see this film for the first time since its original BBC screening on December 26 1967. I'd seen all the reviews, of course, pointing out what an awful, shambolic mess the film was and how the Beatles had been forced to apologise to viewers after its first screening. But then, I thought, it was the sixties and maybe the passage of time will show the film in a more favourable light. And let's face it, nothing by the Beatles could be a *complete* disaster, could it?
Well, I'm sorry to say...yes it could. The film has a pretty weak concept to begin with - a couple of middle-aged people fall in love on a bus tour of the English countryside. (Of course, in this day and age they'd probably be jetting off to the Bahamas instead.) Right from the beginning the acting is weak, the dialogue isn't remotely funny and the attempts at surrealism seem forced. Admittedly there is some minor amusement to be gained from watching a drill sergeant bellow gibberish orders at a cow, but the scene where Ringo's "auntie" dreams she has to eat a huge plate of mud in a restaurant is just plain embarrassing, and the scenes where the Beatles dress up as wizards and run around a laboratory are totally pathetic. At one point Ringo's narration informs us that "already the magic is starting to work", but unfortunately he's wrong.
All right, but what about the music, you cry? Well, yes, this movie does feature some of the Fab Four's best work - "The Fool On the Hill", "Flying", "Blue Jay Way", "Your Mother Should Know", "I am the Walrus", and of course the title song, as well as the jazzy "Death Cab for Cutie" by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. But the songs are let down by the visual presentation. "The Fool on the Hill", for instance, features Paul McCartney...um...on a hill. That's it?! Afraid so. Likewise "Blue Jay Way" features George sitting on a rug, while the instrumental "Flying" features the kind of colour-distorted landscapes that Kubrick later used in "2001: A Space Odyssey". At least "Your Mother Should Know" is accompanied by a dance routine, albeit a slightly lacklustre one, and "I am the Walrus" has some nicely surreal imagery (John's idea?). For the most part, though, you'd probably get more out of the music by listening to it with your eyes shut. And if you're going to do that, you might just as well buy the Magical Mystery Tour CD, which also includes "Hello Goodbye", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need is Love"....
If in spite of these comments you still feel compelled to watch the film, it has been released in Australia on DVD. It's Region 0, which means that it should play on DVD machines everywhere.