The Beatles on celluloid shows them maturing and disintegrating before our eyes. The movies helped to define the band, the brand and the individual characters: John the sharp and witty cynic, Paul the hopeless dreamer, George the deep and meaningful one and Ringo as the cute one. They never really wanted to make films.

Let’s face it, if nothing else, if The Beatles didn’t exist on film, there wouldn’t have been The Monkees, and if you didn’t have The Monkees, then you may not have had Metal Mikey on kids’ TV, then where would you be?

This Dirk Five is a celebration of the best of their reluctant efforts.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

A Hard Days Night

Also known as ‘All For One’ in Italy and ‘Four Boys in The Wind’ in France.

The first and best Beatles film, a pretty perfect slice of 60s brilliance.

Help!

A slice of zany slice of Beatles life. Its not as good as the first but it has some excellent songs, so who cares?

Yellow Submarine

Made without them but they provided four new songs. It had the Blue Meanies and it was probably the best animated film of the 60s.

Magical Mystery Tour

The years have been kind to it and Scorsese was up for recommending it last year. It features the brilliant I Am The Walrus.

No! No! No!

Let It Be

It maybe difficult to get hold of, but it really isn’t worth the effort. The best bits are in The Anthology.

Dom-Dirk via the joy of Text