{"id":26827,"date":"2017-11-03T07:35:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T11:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=26827"},"modified":"2017-11-03T08:09:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:09:02","slug":"the-bootleg-files-bravermans-condensed-cream-of-beatles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/03\/the-bootleg-files-bravermans-condensed-cream-of-beatles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Braverman’s Condensed Cream of Beatles"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 612:<\/strong> \u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d (1974 film essay).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> A copy can be found on Veoh.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> The Liverpool lads had it pulled.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>Unlikely.<\/p>\n

A few weeks back, this column dug up \u201cThe Compleat Beatles,\u201d a popular documentary on the Fab Four that can only be seen today via unauthorized online postings or out-of-print VHS videos and laserdiscs. Today, the Beatles are back with another once-ubiquitous film that has also been removed from commercial release. But whereas \u201cThe Compleat Beatles\u201d offered a traditional straightforward nonfiction film approach, today\u2019s offering is something much more fanciful.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d sums up the rise and dissolution of the Beatles in a 14-minute span. The \u201cBraverman\u201d in the title is Chuck Braverman, a filmmaker who scored his first major notice with the 1968 short \u201cAmerican Time Capsule,\u201d a fast-cut montage piece that summarized American history within three minutes. That project led Braverman to a string of educational and industrial film work, and he repeated the \u201cAmerican Time Capsule\u201d style for the opening sequence of the 1973 Charlton Heston flick \u201cSoylent Green.\u201d Braverman\u2019s decision to put his name in the title made him (pardon the obvious) a braver man than most filmmakers at his level, considering he was hardly a household name. The corporate remains of the Beatles approved the project, which is prefixed with a fanciful Apple Film logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d opens with the perfect musical slice from the band: the \u201cCan You Take Me Back\u201d outro from \u201cCry Baby Cry,\u201d a rueful lament for a more serene time. From there, the film becomes a kaleidoscope of song sampling, bits of film and television footage and a swirl of photographs covering the Beatles\u2019 career. The band\u2019s early years receive a very brief acknowledgment \u2013 Stuart Sutcliffe can be seen for a nanosecond, Pete Best is nowhere to be found, and the montage gives the impression that the Beatles were an immediate success, jumping from the leather jacket rough trade boys to \u201cLove Me Do\u201d to the film version of \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d instantly.<\/p>\n

A bespectacled Ed Sullivan is shown in an interview explaining how he learned about the Beatles on an October 1963 trip to London, adding that he paid them $10,000 for three appearances on his television variety show. From there, the band is playing to a massive audience at Shea Stadium and goofing about in the film \u201cHelp!\u201d<\/p>\n

The montage then mixes animation and a selection of photographs of celebrities and images with no connection to the band \u2013 the Lone Ranger, Arthur and Kathryn Murray, Bogart and Bacall, artwork from Norman Rockwell and Rene Magritte, and the National Lampoon dog with the gun to its head \u2013 populate the screen. Chronology is thrown out of whack when \u201cHer Majesty\u201d is inserted into the mid-60s section (and the royal shown with the Beatles is Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, not Her Majesty the Queen) while the Beatles\u2019 girlfriends-turned-wives abruptly show up, and Ringo is paired with Peter Sellers in a still from their 1970 film \u201cThe Magic Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some visual witticism is found in juxtaposing the four Beatles with the Yellow Brick Road foursome of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d and the line \u201che blew his mind out in a car\u201d from \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d is pegged to death imagery and the \u201cPaul is Dead\u201d hoax. Clips from the promotional films for \u201cStrawberry Fields Forever,\u201d \u201cPenny Lane\u201d and \u201cRevolution\u201d are included, along with snippets of \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d and two stills from \u201cThe Beatles\u201d TV cartoon series, but no footage from \u201cMagical Mystery Tour\u201d or \u201cLet it Be\u201d is included. The song \u201cBlack Bird\u201d is illustrated with an abstract black line undulating in a simulation of avian flight.<\/p>\n

Oddly, the film skips from the \u201cAbbey Road\u201d album to George Harrison\u2019s post-Beatles \u201cConcert for Bangladesh\u201d in 1971 and then to a Geraldo Rivera interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the same period regarding their immigration woes. That leads to John performing \u201cInstant Karma,\u201d followed to a return to Beatlemania with \u201cThe Ballad of John and Yoko.\u201d The film ends where the band ended musically, with the overly symphonic \u201cLong and Winding Road,\u201d with a rapid recap of the previously seen imagery plus blink-and-you-miss-them images of Brian Epstein and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are belatedly thrown in. The closing credits include John\u2019s \u201cpass the audition\u201d joke from \u201cLet it Be\u201d on the soundtrack.<\/p>\n

Of course, one can quibble over the selection of imagery and tunes that Braverman collected for this work. (Why is \u201cBlack Bird,\u201d of all things, included, and not \u201cLucy in the Sky with Diamonds\u201d or \u201cGet Back\u201d?) Relegating Brian Epstein to afterthought status is dreadful, and the absence of George\u2019s sitar-influenced music or his ethereal \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d is a shame. Paul and Ringo\u2019s post-Beatles work is barely acknowledged, and Yoko haters could hardly be pleased that so much footage is given to her intrusive presence. It is unclear what influence the ex-Fab Four had in creating Braverman\u2019s work, but there is no evidence of their voicing any disapproval over the final result.<\/p>\n

\u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d had its premiere on July 30, 1973, on the ABC program \u201cGeraldo Rivera: Goodnight America.\u201d The film was picked up by Pyramid Films for the 16mm non-theatrical educational market and was a staple of high school and college film studies classes well into the 1980s. But when the home video era dawned, \u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d vanished. Apple Corps Ltd., which controls the rights to all things Beatles, has blocked the film’s return to commercial distribution, and it is unlikely that it will ever see an official re-release. The old 16mm prints can be found for sale online, and these were also the source of bootleg DVD copies sold on a collector-to-collector basis. Apple Corps Ltd. has successfully forced the removal of unauthorized postings on YouTube, but a faded version can be located in a two-part<\/a> posting<\/a> on Veoh under another title.<\/p>\n

Some online sources claim that \u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d won the Academy Award, but it was never eligible for that prize. Braverman was Oscar nominated for his 2000 documentary short \u201cCurtain Call,\u201d and he most recently served as executive producer of \u201cTempest Storm,\u201d a documentary on the legendary stripper that is now playing on the festival circuit. His website, for no clear reason, fails to make any mention of \u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles.\u201d Go figure.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall<\/a>\u201d on SoundCloud, with new episodes every Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 612: \u201cBraverman\u2019s Condensed Cream of Beatles\u201d (1974 film essay). LAST SEEN: A copy can be found on Veoh. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The Liverpool lads had it pulled. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely. A few weeks back, this column dug up \u201cThe Compleat Beatles,\u201d a popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":26828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[1837,1051],"class_list":["post-26827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-bravermans-condensed-cream-of-beatles","tag-the-beatles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26831,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26827\/revisions\/26831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}