Oh Blasphemy of Blasphemies! I had a warning that this would be bad, but I thought it had a Beatles soundtrack and after-all all 4 Beatles were still alive would John, Paul, George and Ringo all sit back and let such an atrocity happen in their name!!! Okay enough over-drama, but really this film although filled the joyful tunes of the Beatles (an all Beatle soundtrack with an albums worth of songs qualifies as a Beatles specialty and up for a personal review) but it does not contain the spirit of the Beatles as I knew the experience coming as a fan. So what I say may not apply to every Beatle fan. Anyway, the problem is a band that sang "All You Need Is Love" and "Revolution" it doesn't seem likely to have designed their alter ego band to have literal militant origins. In the previous film incarnation of Sgt. Pepper's via Yellow Submarine Sgt. Pepper's had no military background and the Beatles posed as Sgt. Pepper's to fight the meanies with music and they joined to Pepperland and left the Dark Side. A children's tale of ideology worthy of Dr. Seuss. But in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band it lacked the charm of an urban fantasy of a Utopian Wonderland and went for the unbelievable concept of small town patriotism who shamed Hollywood fame. The 70's generation seemed so hypocritical making this moral lesson against materialistic decadence. Really think of how many coke induced orgies the stars of this film participated in. The 70's was the worst elements of the 60's and this film to me perfectly reflects that, not that I don't like many of the performers or that I think ill of all who participated afterall Aerosmith sobered up and in this film gave one of the best Beatles covers ever (note on Permanent Vacation they also did a great job on the Beatle tune "I'm Down"). Back to the theme of the film, it just seemed too preachy and yet not saying anything. And I suppose I'm still being overdramatic but to quote John Lennon in a depressed stage of his career circa 1970 Plastic Ono Band "The dream is over." And for a long time it seemed to ring true for generations of disingenuous charities and self indulgence.
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