Does anyone else out there find the whole "Magical Mystery Tour" package to be more than just a little creepy and disturbing? Me and my pot head buddies used to watch this all the time back in the 80s after it was released on home video (one of the first pre-record tapes I ever bought, and back then they were expensive) and I got to know it inside & out. Yet watching it now as an adult the one thing that kept striking me about the film was how it is so packed with morbid, bizarre little touches that are kind of disturbing.
First, think about the album cover, with these grown-ups dressed up as psychedelic circus animals. It is one of the creepiest covers for a pop record ever conceived of. I used to find it silly, now I see something darker and twisted in it that isn't all peppermint drops & incense. Then there are the songs themselves, amongst my favorite of The Beatles' catalog and utterly timeless examples of the psychedelic years' popular culture. Watching the band mime "I Am The Walrus" is a singular, unique experience: It was never performed or staged anywhere else by them. And George's utterly bizarre film for "Blue Jay Way" has gotten better and more mysterious over the years now that I have the patience to actually sit still long enough to see what he wanted to show us, and some of it is creepy as hell.
It's impossible to get around how deeply the music and imagery is infused with a seeming preoccupation with death, or mortality at any rate. It makes sense too since this was the band's first project after the death of their manager Brian Epstein at just 32 years of age. Where I used to look upon "Magical Mystery Tour" as The Beatles' attempt at Ken Kesey psychedelic twaddle I now look upon it as a subtle reaction to their grief and loss at having lost their friend & mentor right as they ceased needing him minding their daily affairs. The irony must have been unsettling even to Paul, who was largely responsible for this project and approached it as a way to keep themselves busy in the wake of Epstein's death. This was their expression of grief and is very unsettling because of it.
It's easy to chortle about the film's excesses being an example of how the boys needed someone to tell them "No" or how it was their first flop or misstep. I think that at the time it was impossible for their public to view the work and not dwell on the imperfections, which are numerous. Now in hindsight it's disturbingly odd, deliberately opaque and so purposefully unfocused that they must have had no idea what they were doing but had faith in themselves & proceeded as best they could anyway. It's probably exactly the movie the psychedelic age had coming to it too, waking everyone up from the party with a killer hangover and palpable sense of queasiness.
As others go to great lengths to point out, not everyone is going to enjoy this, even hardcore Beatles fans. I love the comment from another contributor of how they lost friends after showing this at a gathering: It's that kind of an experience. You'll either be fascinated by it or repulsed, as one should be by any example of artistic expression. What many may have a hard time accepting is that The Beatles were capable of making such an artistic statement, which is too bad for them. I say it's another brilliant masterpiece, though if you're looking for a trippy love fest you should probably stick with "Yellow Submarine", and if you want mop top foursome madness just watch "A Hard Day's Night" again. But for daring viewers who are content to let things be what they are this is a marvelous little head movie that may just creep you out if you let it.
9/10
First, think about the album cover, with these grown-ups dressed up as psychedelic circus animals. It is one of the creepiest covers for a pop record ever conceived of. I used to find it silly, now I see something darker and twisted in it that isn't all peppermint drops & incense. Then there are the songs themselves, amongst my favorite of The Beatles' catalog and utterly timeless examples of the psychedelic years' popular culture. Watching the band mime "I Am The Walrus" is a singular, unique experience: It was never performed or staged anywhere else by them. And George's utterly bizarre film for "Blue Jay Way" has gotten better and more mysterious over the years now that I have the patience to actually sit still long enough to see what he wanted to show us, and some of it is creepy as hell.
It's impossible to get around how deeply the music and imagery is infused with a seeming preoccupation with death, or mortality at any rate. It makes sense too since this was the band's first project after the death of their manager Brian Epstein at just 32 years of age. Where I used to look upon "Magical Mystery Tour" as The Beatles' attempt at Ken Kesey psychedelic twaddle I now look upon it as a subtle reaction to their grief and loss at having lost their friend & mentor right as they ceased needing him minding their daily affairs. The irony must have been unsettling even to Paul, who was largely responsible for this project and approached it as a way to keep themselves busy in the wake of Epstein's death. This was their expression of grief and is very unsettling because of it.
It's easy to chortle about the film's excesses being an example of how the boys needed someone to tell them "No" or how it was their first flop or misstep. I think that at the time it was impossible for their public to view the work and not dwell on the imperfections, which are numerous. Now in hindsight it's disturbingly odd, deliberately opaque and so purposefully unfocused that they must have had no idea what they were doing but had faith in themselves & proceeded as best they could anyway. It's probably exactly the movie the psychedelic age had coming to it too, waking everyone up from the party with a killer hangover and palpable sense of queasiness.
As others go to great lengths to point out, not everyone is going to enjoy this, even hardcore Beatles fans. I love the comment from another contributor of how they lost friends after showing this at a gathering: It's that kind of an experience. You'll either be fascinated by it or repulsed, as one should be by any example of artistic expression. What many may have a hard time accepting is that The Beatles were capable of making such an artistic statement, which is too bad for them. I say it's another brilliant masterpiece, though if you're looking for a trippy love fest you should probably stick with "Yellow Submarine", and if you want mop top foursome madness just watch "A Hard Day's Night" again. But for daring viewers who are content to let things be what they are this is a marvelous little head movie that may just creep you out if you let it.
9/10