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

2017

1h 54m

Documentary

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12 Reviews

24%

Audience Score

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Filmmaker Alan G. Parker chronicles the creation and recording of the groundbreaking album.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Audience Member

A low-budget documentary about an over-covered topic - The Beatles! However, the producers have focused on their seminal album, Sgt. Pepper, which is a novel perspective for fans. Some interesting interviews including John Lennon's sister, make this worth watching for extreme Beatles fans. Not for non-fans to be certain. As a Beatles fan myself, I have come to realization that their story is far too over-covered. There were other bands and musicians that influenced music and society as well, but granted, few to the extent of The Beatles.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

New photos. Bad cover of a timeline jumping from 66 to 68 and 67. It spends time on the closing of Apple boutique. Spends a lot of time on Epstein's death and life. There's a guy that makes a lot of inaccurate stories. Terrible.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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Alan G. Parker

Director

Pete Best

Self

Freda Kelly

Self

Hunter Davies

Self

Simon Napier-Bell

Self

Tony Bramwell

Self

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It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond: Trailer 1

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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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