Movies - TV
The Long-Forgotten Beatles Documentary Every Fan Needs To See
By JEREMY SMITH
The Beatles remain one of the world’s most popular and influential music groups of all time, but movies about the band typically tend to be terrible or flops.
However, one little-seen, semi-forgotten 1990s Beatle film is about The Fifth Beatle. While there was never an official fifth member, there have been a few who claimed the title.
Iain Softley’s 1994 biopic, “Backbeat,” makes an invigorating case for Stuart Sutcliffe due to his role in The Beatles’ rise from upstart bar band to rock-and-roll sensation.
Sutcliffe was the band’s original bass player who left to become an artist. Softley’s film centers around Sutcliffe’s conflicted feelings about the band and his art career.
The film examines Sutcliffe’s relationship with his girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr, and bandmate John Lennon. Sadly, his story ends due to a brain hemorrhage at age 21 in 1962.
One highlight of the film sees the original five-man band take the stage — Lennon, Sutcliffe, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best.
Softley assembled an all-star band of musicians like Dave Grohl, Thurston Moore, and Henry Rollins to provide the music for the movie.