News of another Beatles movie has me a bit twisted around.The planned film probably won't be at the cinema for at least a year. It will be called Nowhere Boy, and it will be based on the book by John Lennon's half-sister, Julia Baird. I wasn't crazy about the other Beatles biopics, like BackBeat back in '94, and I don't know what to think about this one. It'll have all the right elements: Matt Greenhalgh, who gave us Control (about Joy Division leader Ian Curtis ... it's been languishing in my Netflix queue) will direct.
The main dilemma I have is that when I read the news, oh boy, I wanted to blog about it. But I'm frankly shocked at how often the Beatles have come up since I have launched this project. As I have said before, I don't want this to be a Beatles blog. My main goal is to survey the many entry-points that different people have to this lunacy of loving a country to which one has no particular ties beside the cultural ones. And the Beatles come up again and again.
Now, I'm not one of deify the Fab Four. I remember once when I suggested to a friend that the Beatles were, at the end of the day, a band ... he nearly exploded, screaming about their genius and how they changed everything. Then again, I once worked for a guy who claimed to hate the Beatles, which I thought was a bit of posing. He said that The Who were much more influential -- and better musicians, as well.
The question is: Does loving the Beatles and this level of anglophilia go hand in glove? I'm sure that there are some Beatles fans who don't spend too much time following other elements of British culture ... but are their anglomaniacs out there who aren't fans of the lads from Liverpool?
1 comment:
Good question. I'd say, of course you can be an Anglophile and not love the Beatles. you could before 1964 right, so why not now?!
OK, so speaking as a Brit/Englishman, let me point out something people here, Stateside, often don't realise: The Beatles aren't nearly as loved and idealised in Uk as they are here! No one I knew or know from there admitted a love for the Beatles. Most can only name a few songs but here it's crazy--it's almost essential.
So, If lots of Brits who live all things British have such attitudes to the Beatles, surely non Brits can and still be Anglophiles!
Now, with that said, I should note I LOVE the Beatles too but I was a rarity, let me assure you! :)
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