Sam Mendes ‘films on the Beatles: fans’ reactions and forecasts
The news of the next realization of four films on the Beatles directed by Sam Mendes has, as it was obvious, aroused reactions of all kinds on the various international blogs dedicated to discussions between enthusiasts of the Liverpool group. In addition to the very predictable reactions of skepticism for the poor physical resemblance with their characters of the interpreters chosen for the roles of John, Paul, George and Ringo, the brightest discussions are taking place on the theme of “what they will tell” these four films. Because, in the end, it is said, it is not possible that each of them stick to the chronological history of the band from the beginning to the end – who would see them all?
At the moment, the two prevailing schools of thought are as follows.
1 – According to the formula of “Rashomon”, the 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa (according to MyMovies: a lumberjack, a monk and a vagabond report on an assassination that involved them as witnesses. While the declarations of the protagonists are followed by the protagonists before a court on their version of the facts, the truth instead of emerging seems to be quietly watched off), each of the four films could tell the same. History, but seen from four different points of view, those of the four Beatles. “The four truths”, to paraphrase the song of Mogol/Battisti who, like Rashomon, tells the same story with her words, of the other, of him.
2 – The second hypothesis is more interesting. The story told would be the canonical one, the one that corresponds to the facts actually happened, but divided between the four films. The first years, let’s say those of the beginnings, concerts in Hamburg and hunting the record contract, would be narrated through the eyes of John Lennon, founder and driver of the Beatles. George’s film could focus on Beatlemania, from the point of view of the beatle that less than the others like the turbulent period of the international fame of the group. The years of the psychedelic period – “Sgt Pepper’s …”, “Magical Mystery Tour” – would be those assigned to Paul, who in those years after the death of manager Brian Epstein was the engine of the Beatles’ activity. While the “Ringo” film would tell the last years of activity, those characterized by disagreements and contrasts, observed from the privileged and detached point of view of the drummer’s platform. All without excluding Flashback and Flash Forward, just to liven up everything and to make the four films interconnected.
If it will be one of these two, or one still different, the formula adopted by Mendes, what is sure is that, being the project approved by the two surviving beatles and by the widows of the other two, the original songs of the Beatles can be used in the soundtrack – what happened to the other fiction on the group so far made.
Never like this time, the conclusion is “we will see”.
