anybody remember this made for tv movie that aired in December 2000 on NBC? It was a look at John's early life all the way up to when the Beatles found out that I Want To Hold Your Hand had hit #1 in America.



In Liverpool in the 1950s, a young man named John Lennon (Philip McQuillen) combats the traditional education system and the wishes of his well-meaning aunt, Mimi Smith (Blair Brown), to become a musician in the incipient field of rock & roll. He forms a number of bands and with each new effort his local audience grows. Soon, he's teamed up with Stuart Sutcliffe (Lee Williams, George Harrison (Mark Rice-Oxley), Pete Best (Scot Williams), and Paul McCartney (Daniel McGowan), and collectively known as the Beatles, they draw the attention of music promoter Brian Epstein (Jamie Glover) who ushers them into the big time. Sutcliffe and Best are dropped from the band, Ringo Starr (Kristian Ealey) is added, and the rest is musical history.

It was hilarious. It stops before it gets interestng though.

omg! this is the movie that first got me into John Lennon and The Beatles!!! lol. I saw it about 2 months ago. and i was kind of disapointed that it stoped early but if it was to the end it would be really long wouldn't it? lol. thanks for posting.

Quoted from 366

It stops before it gets interestng though.

Yea I agree. It stops when they get Ringo in. So they stop in the :begining of the Beatles".  It was quite sad though...

And they were too Irish (no offence to the language). And Cynthia (whoever played her) is way better looking in the movie than in real life (no offence to her either).

But yea, it was a good film- it sort of conveyed the right mood.

Quoted from Kaleidoscope_Eyes

It was quite sad though...

Yeh, I found some parts really sad... especially the bit when John's mum dies and he goes to his room and starts playing/singing Love Me Tender...  

Quoted from 366

It stops before it gets interestng though.

That's true, but, to be honest... I was actually glad it didn't stop at the actual "end" (and I don't mean just the breakup...)
but maybe that's just me

Quoted from Octie

Yeh, I found some parts really sad... especially the bit when John's mum dies and he goes to his room and starts playing/singing Love Me Tender...  
[...]

Really sad ... he was feeling so helpless!

Just watched it over the weekend, and as Paul would say, "it had some good bits."  

Alas, it also had bullspit.  Like when John and his friend are in the cemetery, and they notice a tombstone with the name Eleanor Rigby (which was supposed to lead the viewer to believe that John thought of the song).  

I also didn't care for the "faces" of the Beatles.  The actor who played John sounded just like the guy, however, it looked really nothing like John.  The nose was too small, his upper lip was "too Elvis."  

I can accept artistic license to change events to help move the film, and with that in mind, I thought it was a decent film.  The actor portraying Stuart was spot-on.  Macca was okay; George, well, they could have found a better George.  And forget about the dude who played Ringo.

I like how they managed to fit in some "good bits," such as when John, after becoming a success, presents his aunt Mimi with a little plaque saying: 'you'll never make a living playing a guitar' [sic], words to that effect she used when she tried to deter John from leaving for Germany back in the beginning.