By Lee Pfeiffer
The Beatles: Their Golden Age is a "new" documentary about the Fab Four just released by MVDvisual. There really isn't anything new about it, as the writing only provides padding for various vintage film clips. The actual story of the Beatles is glossed over (Stu Sutcliffe isn't mentioned at all, Pete Best is mentioned just once before vanishing as mysteriously as a Liverpool version of Amelia Earhart, Ringo pops up out of nowhere without any context given.) The documentary is produced by Les Krantz, who specializes in low-budget documentaries often derived from public domain sources. That's not meant as a knock, since I did the same thing many years ago. It's better to have a low budget product that still enables the public to enjoy rare footage rather than keep this material suppressed in hopes that someday a financier with deep pockets will come to your rescue. Their Golden Age is still appealing, despite the seemingly insurmountable task of presenting a one hour documentary about the Beatles without a single note of Beatles music. (Krantz eschews even cover versions in favor of Beatles-like melodies.) Indeed, Krantz is so (understandably) concerned about a lawsuit that he doesn't use the original soundtracks to trailers, even though they are in the public domain. The real value of the DVD is the presentation of rare early footage of the Fab Four. There is an abundance of great material comprising of teenage and tween girls fainting (or pretending to) at the sight of their idols. There is rare color footage, glimpses of the Magical Mystery Tour TV special and some glimpses behind the scenes of A Hard Day's Night (though, inexplicably, Help! isn't even mentioned.) There is also news footage of the Beatles during the period that led to their breakup, with John and Yoko's "bed-in" and Paul and Linda's wedding. It's lightweight the entire way, but there is no pretentiousness about the product, which is designed to use some accessible footage sans royalty or licensing fees. The Beatles: The Golden Age will shed no new light on any aspect of the legendary group, but it is fun to indulge in this rare footage of a more innocent era in rock 'n roll history.
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