Review of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) by Cameron J — 24 Jun 2013

"Gotta keep on rockin', that boy has got to stay on top, and be in a jukebox musical (He's got stars in his eyes)!" I've got plenty of Beatles songs to reference, yet I figured I'd reference Foreigner because I wanted you to get a good idea of how cornball this film is when it's at its coolest, and plus, may faith in Beatles music has been momentarily shaken by this film. Yeah, about the only cool thing about this film is Aerosmith's cover of "Walk This Way"-I mean, "Dude Looks Like a Lady"-I mean, "Love in an Elevator"-I mean, "Come Together". Yeah, I'm not saying that certain Aerosmith songs run together, but even their covers sounds like more than a few of their own "original" hits, though, in all fairness, "Come Together" seems like a song that could well-Aerosmithed up, and it just had to be intentionally selected, seeing as how it is, like, well, more than a few other songs on this film's soundtrack, not even on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, or at least I don't think it is, seeing as how plenty of the Beatles' songs also ran together. No, people, I'm kidding, because once the Beatles started to stray away from their pop-rock roots and, well, got much better (Man, mainstream music even watered down the full potential of guys whose pop image, alone, broke ground in the making of cool music), they took plenty of diverse steps, though at least kept consistent in producing songs that could easily be made cheesy, as this film and, of course, plenty of others who paid tribute to the Beatles around this era will tell you. Hey, War's cover of "A Day in the Life" is amazing and all, but that horn section mimicry of the Oriental riff that followed Eric Burdon's proclaiming that the "[u]Chinese[/u] army had just won the war" is by no means the only moment in which that eleven-minute long, psychedelic soul/jazzy funk rock epic got kind of carried away. Well, at least Burdon was cheesy in a cool, though that's not to say that he could save this film from cheesiness, and yet, as corny as this film is, Aerosmith isn't it's only commendable aspect.

Costing an estimated $18 million, the film was disappointed to find that it barely grossed past its budget, seeing as how it wasn't the priciest of films with status this high, which isn't to say that this film didn't spend what money it had well, for although the production value of this effort isn't glowing, if nothing else about this messy final product can be complimented as consistent strengths, it is Brian Eatwell's production designs and May Routh's costume designs, which colorfully spring this admittedly flashy world to life with a flare that ranges from nifty to genuinely rather dazzling. When it comes to visuals, I find difficulty in denying that this film delivers, because no matter how messy the substance is, style is reasonably sharp in some parts, and that livens things up a bit, though not as much as a certain major aspect in this film that has been complimented and criticized time and again: the soundtrack. A star-studded jukebox musical that celebrates many a classic by the Beatles, this film is driven by its soundtrack, which is not only a questionable key aspect to storytelling, but filled with fall-flat interpretations of Beatles songs that emphasize the original versions' undeniable cheesiness through sometimes embarrassing overstylizing, thus making for a soundtrack that hardly consistently works, but still manages to work just enough to turn in plenty of entertaining tunes that do a decent job of capturing their source materials' colorfulness in a typically unique fashion that is bound to keep you from falling out of the mess entirely. There is a weak musical number for every decent, if not genuinely good one (In all seriousness, Areosmith's "Come Together" is "the" highlight, and they're ironically presented in the film as definitive opponents of decency), but seeing as how this film is so driven by its musical aspects, the high points in the soundtrack do about as much as anything in saving the film, if not providing a small taste of what could have been: decency, but not much more than that. Yeah, there's not much to this film, and that really emphasizes what is so very wrong with this misguided project, and yet, at the same time, what strengths there are also go emphasized by the film's not being so demanding, supplementing a mild degree of entertainment value that is itself complimentary to a certain degree of charm, spawned from ambition that is hard to miss. Needless to say, while it isn't all that demanding, the ambition behind this film goes seriously unfulfilled by glaring flaws, of which there are many, though not so many that I found it hard to see the strengths that are in limited supply, but no less present as somewhat lively notes that guide the final product's narrow escape from contempt. Still, while the film goes saved by what handful of things it does reasonably well, it comes close to collapsing into disdain, which is ultimately kept at bay, yet made much too visible to battle back mediocrity, reinforced by an abundance of flaws, some of which can even be found within the musical aspects.

Again, there are highlights in the soundtrack, and they do a lot in almost saving the final product, but in so many ways, the music works to this musical's detriment, not just because plenty of numbers are weak, but because the musical storytelling aspects of this film hardly work, partially because the leaps between the unevenly used spoken word narration type of storytelling - powered by George Burns - and most prominent musical storytelling prove be about as jarring as the occasional considerable tonal shift that comes with sudden changes in certain songs of distinct types, and largely because the tight flow of musical narrative keeps you from meditating upon the progression of the "story", which is kind of ironic, seeing as how when this film is careful to not sum up too much with the musical number, it ends up having the music blandly meander along one sequence, sometimes dully. Like I said, there are entertaining spells that go anchored by the musicality, but there are dull spots which are also anchored by the musicality, or at least misusage of the musicality in the context of the telling of what story there is, which isn't to say that the performers in this film do more than just turn in both overbearing musical numbers and, well, some unconvincing attempts at lip-syncing. There's certainly not a whole for our performers to work with, so it's not like there are a whole lot of weak notes within the cast, some of whose members charm enough to earn a bit of your appreciation, but when the acting faults, there's no missing it, because we're talking about a cast that is mostly comprised of musicians with little, if any acting background who were crammed in simply because of the magnitude of their name, whose respectability is kind of shaken by unconvincing, if not cheesy physical acting that ranges from disconcerting to near-frustrating. Again, the occasional charming performer earns your attention, but on the whole, the mediocrity, if not incompetence of the acting hurts the effectiveness of this film's substance, which was, of course, never to be too rich, because what we have here is a paper-thin, overwhelmingly fluffy story concept that has little going for it, and would be easier to swallow if it wasn't so bland and uncompelling, even when it comes to the concept, whose execution into an aimless, unfocused narrative gets to be monotonous something fierce. Clocking in at just shy of two hours, this mindlessly directionless mess of a film outstays its welcome, being not so frustratingly overblown that it earns disdain, but certainly too long to have so much fluff, which makes things all the more irritating by getting mighty carried away time and again. Not simply paper-thin, this film's story is all-out dumb, and sure, the deliberateness of this "plot's" stupidity is obvious and could have added to the charming entertainment value, but ends up being much too milked by over-the-top cheesiness that results in lame jokes, painfully overbearing themes and embarrassing set piece, after embarrassing set piece, until the film ends up drowned in corniness whose liveliness can't even be consistently soaked up through the blandness. Sure, when the film doesn't have its entertaining moments, it's simply too bland to be bad, and such a formula, while kind of aggravating, saves the final product from contempt, but make no mistake, this film is an overblown, unfocused, cheesy and all around misguided mess that falls every bit as short of likability as it falls short of disdain, directly into mediocrity, at the absolute best.

When the day in a life is done, sharp production value, high points in the musical numbers and entertaining moments compliment the undeniable degree of charm within ambition that save the film from a collapse into contempt, but cannot dilute the sting of the unevenness, meandering spells and weakness within many a musical number, questionable occasions in acting, conceptually bland and aimlessly told "story", and overwhelming cheesiness that make Michael Schultz's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" a messily misguided borderline disaster that could be worse, but is still much too sloppy to be genuinely likable.

2/5 - Weak.