THE BEATLES
The Magical Mystery Tour
MPI Home Videos

I was nine years old and playing with English Matchbox cars when "Magical Mystery Tour" was released in late 1967. My brother Carl got the album as a Christmas present that year.  We loved the record and wanted to see the movie, but the 50-minute film was only shown once on BBC television the day after Christmas 1967. Banished to Midnight Movies in college towns, it wasn't until 1996 that I got a chance to see it on video and I was not disappointed.

Widely panned by the public and critics when it was released, what the "then" contemporary public failed to realize just what the movie was about… nothing.  Basically, it's about four incredibly popular and stoned rock stars in their mid-twenties with more money than they know what to do with. Magical Mystery Tour was a gift from The Beatles and now thirty-four years later, the gift can be appreciated. It's a beautiful time capsule of a period where everything and anything could happen. The restraints of culture, especially English culture, freed itself from the manacles of social repression and Magical Mystery Tour was at the forefront. 

I was disappointed with the quality of the DVD, which is faded and speckled as if it was rushed into format without considering the technology that could have cleaned it up. The sound quality could be better too. Perhaps billionaire Sir Paul McCartney will rescue this DVD and turn it into the magical mystery film that it should look and sound like.                                          David A. Kulczyk