7 Movies Where The Beatles Music Was The Major Selling Point

7. I Am Sam

”Major selling point” might be a little unfair to this touching, custody-battle drama. The Beatles aren’t the films main focus but they do run right through it like the name through a stick of rock.

Sean Penn, as the titular Sam, plays a Beatles obsessive, the script is riddled with Beatle references and their music was even played everyday on set while the movie was shooting.

The film was even directed and edited with a Beatles soundtrack in mind. As director Jessie Nelson told the Los Angeles Times, “I was so naive writing the script that I thought, ‘Oh, this wonderful. I’ll get 12 Beatles songs and we’ll just have them run through the movie’.”

Failing to secure the rights, Nelson settled for covers instead. But there wasn’t much room for the artists to experiment on their tracks. Because the film was already edited, bands had to record to a clicktrack so their covers matched the tempo of the originals.