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sgt pepper s lonely hearts club band | Year: 1978 Classification: Musical Directed: - Michael Schultz Actors/Actresses: - Peter Frampton - Barry Gibb - Robin Gibb - Maurice Gibb Once in a lifetime film & great fun too! This is one of the most fun films ever made and as a wine improves with age, so does this film. When this film was first released, it was scoffed at and rebuked by "true" Beatles fans throughout. What? the Bee Gee's doing the Beatles - Heaven forfend! - this is an outrage! Hogwash! It died a sudden death in the theatres because it was released into a critical sarcastic period of time where we, during the party crazed 70's weren't ready for it. The film is a perfect reminder to us now in the 90's to have fun and not be so critical. Enjoy life - enjoy this movie. Listen to the music, don't make comparisons, enjoy it for what it is - a fun journey, making fun of itself and us too with wonderful music delivered in a unique format. The critics are always critical - that's their job. Trying to analyze this film critically is a mistake as it doesn't fit within the standard confines of a typical film. Don't be surprised if this film takes on a cult personna, ala Rocky Horror - it's unique, it's great fun, and you've missed the point if you take it too seriously - have fun, sit back, and go on a journey unlike any other... Sgt. Pepper a seventies fairytale/cartoon. 1. Don't go watching this movie expecting a serious plot and storyline, approach it as a modern day fairytale/cartoon combo. 2. Don't expect any dialogue: it's mostly "acting" to existing songlyrics, so to "words that are set, line by line" even when somewhere between 3 lines the situation has ceased to have anything to do with the songlyric. The only spoken words are the voice over by narrator George Burns, trying to tie all the songs into somewhat of a story or plot. If you take the above into consideration then you'll have a fun time watching this fairytale of the good, innocent people of Heartland against the evil characters of showbizzland. Frampton, skinny and scrawny, doesn't stand out enough as the main character against his backup bandleader: tall and stunningly handsome Barry Gibb. The BeeGees vocals are much, much better than the originals by the Beatles, they're just vocally superior. Beatles producer (sir) George Martin was ecstatic about the BeeGees vocals. I could've done without Frankie Howerd and Steve Martin's part seems a bit unnecessary too, oh well. So: a good movie to spend watching with the brain on zero and some popcorn. 25 Years Later, 'Sgt. Pepper' Is Still Painful To Watch The ficticious place called "Heartland" finds all kinds of musicians coming together in orange, pink, red and purple satin. "Sgt. Pepper" unites all kinds of Beatle tunes into one large ball of cheese. How many careers were ruined by this film? Is it easy to spot that only a handful of people here actually had (any) acting experience out of the hundreds of people in this film? Outside of some brief narration by George Burns, it's ALL song and dance. There's a few good performances here (Aerosmith's "Come Together", Robin Gibb's "Oh Darling", Earth Wind & Fire's "Got To Get You Into My Life", and the Bee Gees' "Golden Slumber")... and one hilarious - Steve Martin singing "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" in the green tiled room... but most of this is tedious to get through. THE HEROES: Peter Frampton plays the starring role of Billy Shears (dig those white overalls with "Billy" printed on them). Barry, Robin and Maurice (RIP) Gibb play the roles of the Henderson brothers who help Shears find the stolen instruments. George Burns plays the role of narrator and Mister Kite. Donaled Pleasance (from "Halloween" fame) as BD Hoffler. THE VILLAINS: Alice Cooper as the mean Marvin Sunk (why was his version of "Sun King" omitted on the "Sgt. Pepper" movie soundtrack?). Aerosmith as the infamous (FVB) Future Villain Band. And a wonderful performance by Steve Martin as the evil Dr. Maxwell Edison. In the stands for the Grand Finale, you'll spot numerous "guests" from 1970's world of music... including Tina Turner, Robert Palmer, Hank Williams Jr, Seals & Croft, Sha Na Na, Nils Lofgren, Heart, Leif Garret, Jose Feliciano, Johnny Winter, Wolfman Jack, etc. Outside of the trailer and a language selection, this DVD has no extras. For those of us that grew up in the 1970's, it would have been nice to see some interviews or commentaries with some of the musicians. Thank goodness Billy Preston saved the day at the end of the movie (singing "Get Back")... bringing back to life the already deceased Strawberry Fields with a zap of his finger, and then saving Billy Shears from certain suicide and a very sad ending... Ugh. 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