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It Was Fifty Years Ago Today... Sgt Pepper and Beyond
A documentation of the influences that went on to help create the seminal album, Sgt Pepper's lonely hearts club band.
April 13, 1943 in Ryde, Isle of Wight, England, UK
5 April 1946, Marylebone, London, England, UK
7 January 1936, Renfrew, Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK
29 December 1946, Hampstead, London, England, UK
27 May 1943, Liverpool, England, UK
18 February 1933, Tokyo, Japan
7 July 1940, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
27 January 1944, Birmingham, England, UK
18 June 1942, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
6 September 1943, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
23 August 1946, Wembley, London, England, UK
22 December 1949, Douglas, Isle of Man, UK
9 October 1940, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK
1 September 1946, Douglas, Isle of Man, UK
8 April 1963, Liverpool, England, UK
3 January 1926, Holloway, London, England, UK
May 27, 1935 in England, UK
May 26, 2017
With a two-hour bombardment of talking heads of varying relevance, Parker tries gamely, but fails resoundingly, to overcome his documentary's glaring paradox - that it's a film about music containing no music.May 25, 2017
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.May 26, 2017
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 ...May 16, 2017
Even blessed with such a rich subject and vast reserves of archive footage, It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! still has the threadbare feel of an unauthorized cash-in.May 26, 2017
This is the most frustrating film. It's probably no fault of the makers, but it's rare to have to assess a documentary for what it doesn't have.May 25, 2017
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.May 22, 2017
What's the point in making a documentary about a classic album if you don't have the rights to any of the music?