Magical Mystery Tour Review: Worth a Watch For Arthouse Fans
rating: 3.5
Magical Mystery Tour was the third, and last, film The Beatles were involved with, and its 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 isnt one. Its a strange little film. Like I said- the clues in the title. Its not meant to be like the previous Richard Lester films, A Hard Days 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 didnt 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 Pythons Flying Circus by two years. The film does manage to feel very British. It made me think about the coach trips Ive 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- Im a man of the theatre. I write for theatre. Ive been on stage, backstage, studied it academically. And in my life Ive 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 theyre doing what they doing. But Magical Mystery Tour doesnt want to show off or to question why, its just about having fun, which is something only a handful of performance art pieces actually do. Once again the film conforms to its title- you dont know whats 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 wasnt sure if theyre reached their destination or not. For fans of art-house, surrealism, 60s movies and a certain band its worth as watch. Maybe even a second watch, when enough time has passed.