MovieChat Forums > A Hard Day's Night (1964) Discussion > Is this movie supposed to be funny?

Is this movie supposed to be funny?

posted 15 years ago by rochelle-rochelle
48 replies | jump to latest

I finally got the DVD from netflix to watch this classic infamous movie and I had to turn it off after 20 minutes. It was so lame and corny and nothing was funny. I had my english subtitles on to understand what everyone was saying, but that didn't help. Maybe I had to be a teenager during the 60's to appreciate this film. I don't get the jokes.

"Give me my ball back." saying over and over again and then they stand posed outside the window INSIDE the train saying "give me my ball back" and then they separate and run away and then run OUTSIDE the train saying "give me my ball back" and then the next scene they are still inside the train. I don't get the line and why they are outside the train and then back inside the train. That's just one of many things I didn't understand about the first 20 minutes of the film.

Is this film supposed to be taken seriously? It just had a lot of close ups of the Beatles with them saying corny lines that aren't even funny. Am I missing something? Am I too young to enjoy this film (I'm 30).

If CTU would let Jack Bauer do his job, the show would be called 12.

[–] elisedfr 11 years ago

I think the line is pretty clear actually: the man with the mustache was behaving like an old grouch. He apparently had a grudge against today's youth and said things like "I went to war for people like you before you were born"...
And the Beatles were reacting in a cheeky manner to make him even more mad.
So they're associated with little boys who have been playing with a ball in front of a grumpy old neighbour's house and by accident threw it in his garden. And now they're asking for him to give it back, which he is not very enclined to do.

About them suddenly out the train then in again: I don't think there's any logic in it. It's all part of the New Wave attitude. Maybe the passenger was just hallucinating ? Not a thing one should get too deep about.

In answer to your general question, yes this movie is supposed to be funny. Actually, it is in its own peculiar way. I personnally found the humor very fresh and offbeat, while sometimes having a hard time to get the lines (I'm french and fluent in English, but those quick Liverpool accents were not easy to take at first).

And I don't think age has anything to do with liking this movie or not. I am 20 and was 19 when I watched it for the first time. My sister was 17 and we both loved it right from the start. Guess it's more a question of tastes: different strokes for different folks.

" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris

[–] ridge-m-1 11 years ago

If you didn't laugh when JWL holds a bottle of Coke and snorts the cap you are beyond help. This was in 1964 for crying out loud!