This is running on PBS, and it is worth seeing, even with pledge breaks. Ron Howard really did a great job directing this. The script was well written by a couple of solid writers. The stock footage used is top notch. The facts are as amazing as the group. What did the Beatles Years all really mean?

Howard, a baby boomer might have understood the Beatles the best because he was 9 years old in 1963. Kids that age were in awe of what the group did, they grew up with them. The portrait here of how things were done by the group as they started out and grew is really a story that might not ever happen again today. Our society structure is so much different now. How did The Beatles work?

Up until the right 4 guys were together, the early Beatles did not get anywhere. To approximately quote Ringo here, "When the 4 of us got together, the chemistry just seemed to fit. It was magic." It sure was, and because it was, the group rose to the highest of heights, and then broke up. This film focus is that rise.

The point made late in the film is very true. When anyone gets too successful, the competition comes after you, and you become complacent and grow apart from yourself, losing sight of your original goals. This happens to everyone, who is young enough to live a long time after being this successful.

It is not a spoiler to go over their success. This film goes beyond and actually digs into the personal feelings of the band as they got to the top, and then tried not to fall off. The film does note when those falls began, and why. It is told better here, than any other film including the Beatles own films.

Rare footage is used here, including the groups last concert together, a unique and totally unplanned event. It is stunning. Even folks who are not Beatles fans should really appreciate this master piece of the telling of this story for what it is and what they were, phenomenal.

9/17/17. This documentary is a good reminder of just how crazy teenagers were in the '60s. What struck me about the Beatles now was just how good their sound was and how talented they really were. They deserved all the success they got, but as humans they just couldn't maintain their professional ties, to the detriment of pop music. They were a cultural phenomenon and true rock icons who had it all but couldn't keep it going. Perhaps, that is the saddest part of watching this - they made wonderful music, but only for a short time, in retrospect. Together, Lennon and McCartney were the best music writing team ever. Separately they were hardly half of what they were together. They balanced each other out. While McCartney continued to be successful, none of his own works ever surpassed the work he did with Lennon. (Although I did like Ram) And, Lennon turned into an embittered, cynical angry man who just couldn't get over the slights he tried to overcome. And, when he finally got close to getting his act together we all know what happened that one December day.

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK is perhaps Ron Howard's best film in years, as it's a straightforward documentary feature without any of that sappy stuff that keeps spoiling his feature films. The aim of the documentary is to tell the story of the Beatles, both in their own words and at the height of their fame, using a ton of footage that's been discovered over the years. Thus we get a lot of photographs overlaid with sound taken from recording studios, plus clips of world tours, concerts, and the like.

There's not really a narrative of sorts, although the events play out in a chronological order. The running time is added to with the inclusion of interview snippets from some famous fans such as Whoopi Goldberg, while Paul McCartney also gets plenty of screen time. EIGHT DAYS A WEEK has a fast pace and plenty of insight, making it a must-see music documentary, and that comes from somebody who doesn't even consider himself a big Beatles fan.