Product Description

Teens go to new york for the beatles 1964 ed sullivan show debut. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Nancy Allen Susan Kendall Newman Run time: 104 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Robert Zemeckis

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20225 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
The happy hysteria--or total insanity--that was Beatlemania is brilliantly evoked in this charming, entertaining 1978 movie from director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and executive producer Steven Spielberg. It's February 1964. The Fab Four are making their first trip to America, and four Jersey girls (plus a couple of reluctant boys) are determined to get face to face with them--at their hotel, at their historic appearance on Ed Sullivan's TV show, or otherwise. They do so with varying degrees of success, and in ways that are amusing and clever, as are the depictions of the Beatles themselves (the real Fabs appear only in archival footage; in the film, their stand-ins are seen only from the back, from the waist down, and so on). Best of all, the soundtrack is filled with actual Beatle music. This one's an unexpected treat. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

"I wanna hold your glands..."
Robert Zemeckis' I Wanna Hold Your Hand captures the time that was Beatlemania, February 1964. Who better to capture a time than Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg as executive producer helping out to bring out the authenticity to the period? The film was made 14 years after the event, and at the same time, when all the flurry of an immanent Beatles reunion was circulating around and Beatlemania was hitting Broadway. This film was a reflection of the baby boomers possibly turning 30 and their commemoration or celebration of their wild and crazy times where they lived for hysteria, that is, before the drug-hallucinations and San Francisco's Haight Ashbury would converge on the happy-go-lucky Hullabaloo and Shindig era, or in this case, Sunday night with Ed Sullivan and his circus of stars.

Nonetheless, I Wanna Hold Your Hand is not about the period of innocence, but rather the hype and the mass distribution of Beatles paraphenalia that occurred during the time - Beatles bedsheets, sneakers, or baby powder. The film had several hilarious moments as captured by the six New Jersey teenagers who hitch a ride to New York with one teenager taking his father's hearst as his only means of transportation in order to catch a glimpse of their Liverpudlian idols. For the female character played by Nancy Allen, she was the fortunate one - she was able to get into the four lads' hotel room. Unfortunately, it eventually put her in hot water as well with her fiancé where she broke off the engagement, but received two tickets to the Sullivan show. Though this is the purely a fantasy, the teenagers succeed at the end of the film.

The movie is definitely a recreation of the period with the early Beatle tunes blaring during the opening credits of the film, the screaming girls, and the general atmosphere with the cars and the clothes as well as the typical parent frowning down on these "long-haired" boys from England. I Wanna Hold Your Hand could have been any teenager's story, but with the magic of movies, these five teenagers had their dreams come true for one day and one night.

Totally charming film!
Probably the only film I ever enjoyed Nancy Allen in....
Seriously, the movie manages to PERFECTLY capture the still semi-sedate early 60s with the changes Beatlemania brought about. If you were fortunate enough to have lived through that period, this will hit the mark dead-on. If you weren't, you may learn something about the older folks. Worth seeing several times

A Splendid Time is Guaranteed For All...
Really, I'm serious!

I watched this film with two friends: one who loves the Beatles, one who can't stand the Beatles, and all three of us had a complete *blast*.

Why? Because it's a riotous two of hours of zany, crazy, hillarious fun. The chemistry between the kids in the film is fantastic, and it covers all angles of the events of that insane February in 1964: from the over the edge obsessed 'Rosie' to the death-to-the-beatles 'Smirko'. The film even spends time focusing on the issue of kids vs. parents in putting in a sub plot about an enraged father stopping at nothing to get his son to cut his hair like a 'marine' and not a 'girl.'

And *that* is why the film is a gem, because in two hours it beautifully capsules an entire chapter in western pop culture when everything seemed to be turned completely on its head. Even if you can't stand the beatles you will surely have a great time with the movie if for no other reason that it's a terrific and surprisingly well made romp back in time!

(And it might even convert the non-believer... my beatle hater friend softened considerably after watching the climactic 'Ed Sullivan show' segment of the film... she said it was, to quote, 'awesome.')