The Rutles, brilliant or not?

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:19 am

I don't come in here very often so please forgive me if this subject has been talked to death. I think that the Rutles film is an excellent and clever parody of the Beatles, am I alone?

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:27 am

Not alone. At least there are two of us. If they had simply done only the dress-up part, it would have been funny. But the fact that they wrote song parodies that are actually good makes it excellent. I have to get the DVD one of these days.

wolfgang · Post by **wolfgang** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:36 am

excellent!

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:43 am

Apparently George Harrison was a fan. didn't he play a reporter?

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:45 am

The DVD is excellent (it sells in the UK for around $10) and has a second soundtrack which is a directors documentary on who played who, locations, etc. It is well worth buying.

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:47 am

Yes, GH is a reporter in it. All of the Beatles apart from Paul liked it.

expomick · Post by **expomick** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:50 am

Loved it; most of the Beatles fans that I know (dozens, no...hundreds, wait...maybe thousands) all have an appreciation of it.

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:52 am

Excuse the poor quality (photo of the screen).

craviola990 · Post by **craviola990** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:00 am

Thought it was GREAT that George H. was in the movie; showing a wonderful sense of humour, etc. I got a kick out of it, some care and effort certainly went into it. The Rutles are "Bigger than Rod" was good, and all the screaming fans rushed out to JFK, unfortunately the Rutles landed at LaGuardia! Thanks, Christian

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:10 am

No apology needed Peter. Great shot

string_along · Post by **string_along** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:45 am

The Rutles film was great! I really liked the songs, "Hold My Hand" and "Number One", too!
A classic film!

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:52 am

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:57 am

<<< is singing after two pints of Guinness - Hold my hand, Yeah Yeah...

alanz · Post by **alanz** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:40 pm

"All You Need Is Cash" is great (and originally a Saturday Night Live sketch), but I do think you have to be a Beatles nerd to really get it. The two or three decades later follow up, "Can't Buy Me Lunch" is apparently a ripoff if the Amazon.com reviews can be believed; just recycled scenes that retell the story.

The director's commentary (Eric Idle) is good but it really needed Neil Innes' input (or maybe a separate commentary). I'm not sure of the timeline but at one point Eric and Neil had a falling out, with Eric putting a hold on the release of The Rutles' "Archaeology" CD, even though he had absolutely nothing to do with the music of the Rutles, which may explain why Neil is not on the commentary.

That, or Eric is just an a**hole, which apparently he is in real life.

One thing that I very find interesting and a great example of life imitating art imitating life about The Rutles/Beatles intersection is that George echoes certain words and phrases used in "All You Need Is Cash" in the Anthology; saying "shocked and stunned" at one point and referring to drinking tea.

Fun Neil Inness/Rutles factoid: he makes no money from Rutles music; all royalties go to the Beatles per an out of court lawsuit settlement.

chucksimms · Post by **chucksimms** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:38 pm

What!? Neil Innes doesn't get any royalties from the Rutles stuff? Good lord. I did not know that. Those songs are GREAT. It's one of my son's favourite CDs of all time. Just goes to show, even skilled parodists of the Beatles got screwed.
One of my old bands did 'Hold My Hand' (we performed it like the cover version on the Rutles tribute album- how many people have that?).