Magical Mystery Tour Review: Worth a Watch For Arthouse Fans

By Daniel Williams /

rating: 3.5

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Magical Mystery Tour was the third, and last, film The Beatles were involved with, and it€™s the one in which they had most creative input. The film is getting a limited theatrical run and will be re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray later in the month. The film was shown on British TV on 6th October, which is when I, a huge Beatles fan, finally got to see the rare film. And was it worth the wait? The plot of Magical Mystery Tour is summed up by the title. There is a great deal of improv and, ahem, spontaneity within the film. Ringo takes his Auntie Jessie on a Magical Mystery Tour to somewhere. The coach travellers are a mix of Beatles, actors, real people, children, and an accordion player. In between vignettes the four perform their songs- I Am The Walrus, Blue Jay Way, Your Mother Should Know and the title song. As most of the film is improvised, the conversation scenes do feel very unfocussed. It takes a really good set of actors to make an improv film work, and, bless him, Ringo Starr just isn€™t one. It€™s a strange little film. Like I said- the clue€™s in the title. It€™s not meant to be like the previous Richard Lester films, A Hard Day€™s Night and Help!. Even though Help! had its surreal moments (like the amazing adventures of Paul on the floor), Magical Mystery Tour took is closer to an art-house movie than the Goons-esque musical before. Looking at the film as a comedy, I guess I didn€™t laugh all that much. The bit that made me chuckle most was one in which Beatle film regular Victor Spinetti plays an incomprehensible army sergeant. It reminded me a lot of the acting style of John Cleese. In that vein, the whole film reminded me of Monty Python, but the film predates Monty Python€™s Flying Circus by two years. The film does manage to feel very British. It made me think about the coach trips I€™ve been on and how there is something about a coach trip that drives people mad- the constant eating, falling asleep, and the big sing-a-long. I liked that it reflected some strange aspects of Britain. Everything about this film was loose and unfocussed. Yet, it was strangely watchable. There was just something about it. What that €˜something€™ is I think comes down to my personal opinion. You see- I€™m a man of the theatre. I write for theatre. I€™ve been on stage, backstage, studied it academically. And in my life I€™ve seen God knows how many surreal pieces of performance art, like one where a guy sat reciting numbers with a hat covering his eyes. Yet Magical Mystery Tour was not like those sorts of performance piece because, despite its self-indulgent leanings, the film was not pretentious like the aforementioned hat-over-eyes performance. Those types of performance art are to show off the people who made it- they want the audience to question why they€™re doing what they doing. But Magical Mystery Tour doesn€™t want to show off or to question why, it€™s just about having fun, which is something only a handful of performance art pieces actually do. Once again the film conforms to it€™s title- you don€™t know what€™s going to happen next but, hey, just go with it. In the other films The Beatles play off their €˜characters€™ and this is perhaps the one film they get to be themselves. But, the film needs a stronger hand to focus it. It could have had all of the surreal elements, but in the hands of a stronger director, the film could have received a stronger line to follow. The film suffers greatly from a lack of climax- I wasn€™t sure if they€™re reached their destination or not. For fans of art-house, surrealism, 60s movies and a certain band it€™s worth as watch. Maybe even a second watch, when enough time has passed.