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The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years

Ron Howard’s documentary about the first several years of Beatlemania may not surprise any fans of the Fab Four, but it’s still one of the year’s most purely entertaining films. And it has a hell of a soundtrack to boot.

Through archival concert footage and interviews with the Beatles, their crew and their fans (much of it also archival), Howard explores the band’s touring years, from their days haunting clubs in Liverpool through their U.S. invasion and subsequent world tour. You’ve likely heard many of the stories before, including how they all roomed together in one room during their first tour in Germany and how entire streets had to be cordoned off to prevent riots among their teenage fans in England and in the United States. The Beatles were nothing if not a heavily documented band, and their history has been covered in multiple books, television shows and films (both narrative and documentary). If you like the Beatles, you probably know this story.

But who cares? Howard delivers his most enjoyable film in years with this documentary. It’s great fun to watch the young Beatles goof around at a press conference, and the concert footage is simply amazing (and the film’s compact focus means Howard can afford to let entire songs play out). Hearing about Beatlemania is one thing, but seeing streets and auditoriums teeming with excited teenagers (including a young Sigourney Weaver!) echoes that this was a level of fandom the world hadn’t seen before — and probably hasn’t seen since.