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It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond

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0% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 22% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Filmmaker Alan G. Parker chronicles the creation and recording of the groundbreaking album.
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It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond

Critics Reviews

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Steve Rose Guardian It's not easy to make a documentary about the greatest album in history when you don't have access to a single note of the music, but this documentary forges on and cashes in regardless ... Rated: 2/5 May 26, 2017 Full Review Ed Potton Times (UK) Alan G Parker's film is an overlong, tedious parade of familiar talking heads (Hunter Davies, Pete Best) trotting out familiar anecdotes and, significantly for a film about an album, there's not a note of Beatles music. Rated: 2/5 May 25, 2017 Full Review Trevor Johnston Little White Lies There isn't a single note of the actual album to be heard, nor any images of the record itself and its famed cover art. Rated: 2/5 May 25, 2017 Full Review Jamie Healy Radio Times For an album judged to be the best of all time by Rolling Stone, this instantly forgettable tribute has all the allure of a bunch of cobbled-together DVD extras. Rated: 1/5 Jul 1, 2024 Full Review Louise Burrell One Room With A View Diehard Beatles fans may enjoy the wealth of archive footage featured, but a documentary about an iconic album without any of the music comes across as a cheap attempt to make some money off the back of its anniversary. Rated: 2/5 Mar 4, 2019 Full Review Ed Williamson TheShiznit.co.uk Fifty Years is guilty of being gratingly generic and of accepting too tough a challenge: to properly explore a hugely significant collection of songs without featuring any of them. Rated: 2/5 Dec 26, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Yakking With F i saw it on netflix in 2017 its was a okay documentary about sgt pepper album recording history i give it a 3 of 10 okay documentary if you are a big beatles fan of sgt pepper watch this documentary on Tubi Rated 2 out of 5 stars 10/30/24 Full Review Anthony K I’m very disappointed with Alan Parker. I watched because of his cachet. The whole thing felt like it was a part of a longer series chronicling the history of the Beatles from 66-67. There was a little bit of history of Sgt Peppers, but that wasn’t the focus of the film. I would like to think that the project started with grand ambitions but faltered when they couldn’t get the okay from the Beatles to use any music or actual footage chronicling the making of the album, they cobbled together what they had into this meandering history. Some great interviews and interesting stories from insiders, but probably not worth your time if you’re a casual fan. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/26/24 Full Review Audience Member There's was really not much focus, particularly around the third where they were talking about The Beatles in India and all. Events that have no connection towards what is the greatest album ever made. The people being interviewed were OK but mostly boring. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member I don't share the critics view at all. Of course it would have been great to have the songs but I thought it was interesting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member It's unfortunate that this documentary wasn't licensed to use any Beatles songs, hence having a soundtrack consisting of vaguely psychedelic music. It spends relatively little time discussing the actual subject-album, but does expound upon the Beatles' cultural impact, and the influences that lead them to change the creative direction of their careers. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Compared to Ron Howard's Eight Days a Week this is awful. Too many uninteresting talking heads (none of the Fab Four themselves) who had little to nothing to do with the release of the Sgt. Pepper album. Beatles history covered in many other documentaries. Limited archival footage. And the filmmakers could not afford to license ANY Beatles music to support something that is supposed to be all about an iconic album. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews
It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Alan G. Parker chronicles the creation and recording of the groundbreaking album.
Director
Alan G. Parker
Producer
Reynold D'Silva, Alexa Morris
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 8, 2017
Runtime
1h 54m
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