'Beatles '64' Reveals Fabs' Success in America Was Linked to JFK's Death
Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021, Beatles fans settled in for Get Back, Peter Jackson’s eight-hour epic that transported viewers back to the weeks leading up to the band’s famous rooftop concert in January 1969. Though more lighthearted than the troubled reputation of the period would indicate, the docuseries was colored by the irrefutable fact that it concludes with the last live performance the Beatles would ever give. Even the happy moments were made bittersweet with the knowledge that, despite appearances, it was nearing the end.
This Thanksgiving, fans received the perfect cinematic companion piece. Beatles ‘64, now streaming on Disney+, bookending the group’s story by providing the ultimate insider's look at the birth of Beatlemania in the United States. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the film is directed by his longtime editor David Tedeschi, a crucial collaborator on his string of essential latter-day rock docs examining the work of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and George Harrison. “I think one of the reasons they chose us to make this is because we're from New York,” Tedeschi tells PEOPLE. “And it's a very New York story.”
That was, of course, where the Fab Four first made landfall on Feb. 7, 1964. The hero's welcome they received at Kennedy International Airport would echo throughout the city, country and ultimately the world. It’s only fitting that the Nov. 24 premiere of Beatles ‘64 was held in the heart of the Big Apple. A-listers like Emma Stone, Chris Rock, James Taylor, and Elvis Costello were on hand at Manhattan’s recently completed Hudson Square Theater to celebrate alongside Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, and an ebullient Paul McCartney. Ethan Hawke moderated a post-screening Q&A with the director and Scorsese, who recalled how hearing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for the first time on his morning walk to NYU’s Washington Square College left him so mesmerized that he was late to class.
Source: Jordan Runtagh/people.com