Disco de The Beatles: “Hard Day's Night [Film]”

When I finally decided to consider replacing my old MPI VHS tape copy of A Hard Day's Night (MP 1064) with the currently available 2 DVD set, I read the reviews on this listing to see if it was really worth re-buying something I've only occasionally watched over the last twenty or so years. It's not that I dislike the movie - far from it - It's just that this is one of those movies I can only watch once in a while with interest. Which only means; it's dated, although in the best possible way. But I love it, and having it as a VHS cassette rotting on my shelf made no sense, so I looked into the DVD.

I knew this was one of the first DVDs released and I've heard some which sound pretty bad, generally due to excessive echo from a careless transfer. And after reading the reviews here, I was expecting the music to be trash. (I took the precaution of making a digital recording of the soundtrack of the tape.) Also screen-cropping was an issue. I prefer widescreen when I can get it, but if someone actually cut part of the image off, which is what at least one reviewer seemed to be saying, that's catastrophic. Needless to say, I did approach this DVD with extreme caution.

But I was pleasantly surprised at what I found. As for the sound, my dread turned to relief when I heard that the Beatles' music on this DVD sounds as clean and pure as I could hope, with my only beef being that it is rendered in mono, rather than the "hi-fi" stereo of the VHS. But strangely, I found that in this case, mono works better. Instead of shifting from mono dialogue to stereo music, the DVD is completely mono, which makes for a more consistent viewing experience. For the performance section at the end, I believe a bit more echo was added to make it sound more "live." But as it's all studio tracks anyway, the alteration is somewhat justified and actually does add to the illusion you're listening to the Beatles perform, rather than lip-sync.

On the cropping; This DVD is in widescreen, which admittedly does make the image smaller and harder to see on the small screen. So why would anyone crop a movie to make it appear widescreen when it'd be better full? Profit? (So they could sell us another copy later on.) Possibly, but for some reason in this instance, I doubted it. What I did to check was pick an object in the movie close enough to the top of the full screen video that if it were cropped, would certainly not show up on the wide. I picked the helicopter propeller blades near the end of the movie, when you can see their top, before it takes off. I found that they were not cropped off on the DVD, although I'll grant it may be that they were closer to the top of the screen. But this may appear so due to the reduced size of the picture. In any case, if there is any cropping, it's not obtrusive.

So why all the carping? I'm going to guess because it's not the way you remember it. Take the fans' word for it, but for my money, the fact that I can actually hear what everyone's saying, plus the interviews, makes the DVD preferable.

If I was reviewing only the picture of this dvd, I would rate it 4 or 5 stars. However, since the sound is simply awful, I can't. The old MPI video took the orignal recordings of the songs and mixed them back into the movie. This approach sounded crisp and clear, and more importantly in true stereo (since The Beatles at the time were using 4-track tape). I'm guessing that Miramax was not allowed access to the masters. Consequently, their new so-called 5.1 "remix", had to be built around the original mono track of the film itself. In other words, any kind of stereoization had to be electronically faked. My initial reaction, when hearing this dvd for the first time, was that all the songs were rerecorded by other musicians. This is obviously not the case. But the recordings sound so differently from what is expected, I wasn't sure!

The picture is decent. But what about that reissue prologue and the deleted "You Can't Do That" performance? The dvd producers must have known how long fans have been waiting for this film to be released. They could have put more time and care into it. Oh well. Let's hope Miramax doesn't aquire the rights to HELP!

I've tried to watch this DVD a number of times but the songs don't sound the way they should, the way they were meant to sound, and this ruins the entire movie for me. It's a shame because this movie is the greatest.

Why can't they just release the movie in its original form so that viewing it would be like seeing it new in 1964? In the early nineties AMC played a lovely restored & cleaned up version. Why not release that version? Then, as a bonus, throw in some original trailers and the "You Can't Do That" footage.

When you have a perfect film to begin with....don't mess with it!

First and foremost, A Hard Day's Night is a great film starring the greatest band in the history of music. The Miramax DVD of this classic film is one of the worst DVDs of alltime. The 5.1 soundtrack mix is awful and the attempted letterboxing is equally as bad since the film was not shot in widescreen. If you can get your hands on the first AHDN DVD, issued in 1997 by MPI, grab it at any cost. The MPI DVD was produced after the film was restored and had its premiere on the American Movie Classics (AMC)cable channel. It is not in 5.1 digital sound, but it's a heck-of-a-lot better than the mix Miramax came up with. Don't let my rating of 1 star fool you, however. The Miramax AHDN DVD gets 1 star, A Hard Day's Night, THE MOVIE, gets a 5 star (or better) rating in my opinion. ST

Santa got me a blu ray and one of the first discs I bought was HARD DAY'S NIGHT being a total Beatles geek and it's the only BR I could find.

The DVD redux they did a few years back was significant and I wasn't sure how the BR could look much better.

IMHO - it doesn't.

Still holding out for LET IT BE!!