Review of Yellow Submarine (1968) by Johnb S — 09 Jul 2018

After finishing a screening at the Alamo of the new 4k restoration for the film's 50th anniversary, a friend gushingly said that "movie's like this are a gift"-and really, that could be said about nearly the entirety of the Beatles oeuvre. It's striking to me how consistently great the band was, each song almost impossibly crafted on every level, from theoretical underpinnings of the songwriting to the pitch perfect arrangements and production, song after song, album after album, leading a culture wave for a decade. While their five film projects were somewhat more erratic in quality, considering how piss poor even the most fondly remembered rockstar "jukebox" projects are-think "Purple Rain" or "One Trick Money," which lack in cinematic scope what they make up in musical brilliance-it's still pretty astounding that two of the movies are so groundbreaking, thoroughly entertaining, and thoughtfully put together.

Ostensibly a movie made for kids, "Yellow Submarine" is a film overflowing with artistic energy and creativity, with political goals and social commentary. In typical Beatles fashion, the audience is all embracing, the point is pointless, hole-y (wholly/holy) love, lovingly made not to widen the burgeoning generation gap, but to bridge it. The jokes are clever, punny, referential, erudite in a way that only adults might pick up the punchline while kids nevertheless can revel in the playful absurdity; likewise the animation is both geared toward the hippy-dippy psychedelic set, and at the same time, perfectly attuned to a child's sensibility for the strange and looney. The movie is working on so many levels, every gear turning, experimental yet commercial, subversive yet receptive, pop-art embracing its own paradoxical status; yes, this is absolutely a product that aims to fill a contractual obligation with a record company, but the logos of the band's own label are the weapons of the bad guys!

While I remember liking this movie as a kid, even decorating my room with knickknacks and paraphernalia-not just a lunchbox (which I movie stubs in, not sandwiches), but a lava lamp!-I don't think I really appreciated how intelligent and beautiful it really is until now. This is a movie both of its time, utterly and unmistakably of the 1960s, and timeless in its message and music, as engaging today as it was engaging in/of its own time. It is a core message worth remembering: To say yes to love, to each other, to art-and no to outright authority, to fascism, and to blue meanies.

It's all in the mind, y'know.