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Two of Us (2000 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Two of Us' is a 2000 television drama (and the third original VH1 film) which offers a dramatized account of April 24, 1976, six years after the break-up of the Beatles and the day in which Lorne Michaels made a statement on 'Saturday Night Live' offering the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on his program.
It was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who also directed the 1970 Beatles film, 'Let It Be)' and starred Jared Harris as John Lennon and Aidan Quinn as Paul McCartney. Beatles historian Martin Lewis served as the film's technical adviser, and the screenplay was written by "longtime Beatles fan and Beatlefest attendee, Mark Stanfield."[http://www.instantkarma.com/iknews_020100_vh1.html TWO OF US - A VH1 ORIGINAL MOVIE]
The title of the film comes from the 1970 Beatles song "Two of Us".
Historical background
There was great public demand for a Beatles reunion during the 1970s. For example, in September 1976, American promoter Sid Bernstein, who had booked many of the Beatles' historic American appearances in 1964-1966, published a full-page ad in the 'New York Times' publicly requesting the group to reunite and offering millions of dollars.[http://oldies.about.com/library/weekly/aa081902a.htm The oldies.about.com Interview: Sid Bernstein] On April 24, 1976, 'Saturday Night Live' producer Lorne Michaels parodied such offers with an on-air announcement that he would pay the Beatles $3,000 if they would perform on his program together. He joked, "divide [the money] up any way you want. If you want to give less to Ringo, that's up to you." John Lennon discussed the 'Saturday Night Live' episode, as well as his relationship with McCartney, in a September 1980 interview for 'Playboy':
Paul McCartney also remembered the event for an interview: "[John] said, 'We should go down there. We should go down now and just do it.' It was one of those moments where we said, 'Let's not and say we did.'"[http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1436073/20000201/beatles.jhtml VH1 The Beatles: And in the End...]
Overview
'Two of Us' opens with the following introduction:
The screenplay consists of a series of long conversations between John Lennon and Paul McCartney (while their wives, as well as other Beatles, are referred to, they do not appear in the production). The discussions between Lennon and McCartney explore a number of issues including the breakup of the Beatles and the difficulties that developed between them after Lennon married Yoko Ono. According to Lindsay-Hogg, "Most of the film [consists of] two men and four walls. [...] You can't get more intimate than that."A Day in the Life (That Might Have Been)" 'Newsday'
Critic Kevin McDonough argues that, "in less talented hands, 'Two of Us,' like any Beatles-reenactment movie, could have been an awful exercise in bad wigs and Liverpool accents. Instead, Lindsay-Hogg and first-time screen writer Mark Stanfield have created a small masterpiece, a variation on 'My Dinner With Andre' meets The Beatles."
Structure and characters
Critic David Bianculli likened 'Two of Us' to a three-act play with the following structure::'Act I': "McCartney, on the New York leg of his world tour with his post-Beatles group Wings, arrives unannounced at Lennon's Dakota apartment at a time when Yoko is away; they exchange small talk and biting insults, consume some marijuana and eventually end up noodling around on the piano."[http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2000/02/01/2000-02-01_lennon-mccartney_telepic_roc.html LENNON-MCCARTNEY TELEPIC ROCK SOLID]
:'Act II': "[McCartney and Lennon] don disguises, walk through Central Park and confront a few of their fans at a quiet little restaurant."
:'Act III': "As the evening wears down, they watch 'Saturday Night Live' together and, by chance, witness producer Lorne Michaels offering the Beatles a laughably low sum $3,000 to reunite on his show. Impulsively, they toy with the idea of speeding to Rockefeller Center to perform a few songs that very night."
Nanciann Cherry wrote that, "[Harris and Quinn] are superb, capturing accents, mannerisms, and behavior of their two famous characters. More than a fine job of imitation, Harris and Quinn get beyond the trappings of fame and show us two men, former best friends, who have gone separate ways and no longer know how to recapture that friendship.""Two of Us is a Grand Fantasy: VH1 Film Explores The Realm of What Have Been." 'The Blade'
Critic Ed Bumgardner wrote that:
:This conjured-up day-in-the-life meeting between Sir Paul and Saint John, a pretentious project ripe for disaster, is actually a thoughtful, well-developed character study that shouldn't embarrass either actor or the two men they so beautifully portray [...] Lindsay-Hogg's sharp eye for detail lends credence to the storyline. The period clothes and haircuts ring true, as do the dead-on scouse accents sported by Quinn and Harris as McCartney and Lennon."Imagine: Lennon, McCartney Are Subjects of a What If Film." 'Winston-Salem Journal'
Production
Jim DeRogatis interviewed Lindsay-Hogg about his involvement with the film. Lindsay-Hogg stated that he became involved with the project because of the screenplay:
:[The screenplay] wasn't so much about The Beatles. It was a very good script in which the agency of these two famous people and their story takes you somewhere deeper. To me, that's the nature of friendship: how we grow, how we grow up, and how things change. These boys knew each other when they were 16, and now they're 35, and they have to find a new truth. We all have our own relationships like that, whether they're matrimonial relationships or friendships.
Of the screenplay, he further stated, "Mark Stanfield is a good writer and a Beatles fan who has a lot of knowledge [...] Some of that stuff was ad-libbed by the actors because they really got into this, but Mark also wrote characters instead of stereotypes or caricatures."
In another interview, Stanfield discussed the decision to create a fictionalized account of actual people: "I didn't give it a lot of thought. Certainly, it's been done before, from Shakespeare through something like 'Melvin and Howard'. And more recently, in films like 'Gods and Monsters'. 'Shakespeare in Love', for that matter."[http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/twoofus/stanfield.html An interview with Mark Stanfield]
The film's technical advisor, Beatles historian Martin Lewis, conducted extensive research, drawing upon both his and Michael Lindsay-Hogg's personal knowledge of the band:
:I spent a lot of time working on the project. I dug up hours of film, video, TV, and radio material of John and Paul - so that Aidan and Jared could immerse themselves in the characters they were portraying. Much of the material was rare. What I especially wanted to give them were tapes of John and Paul talking, when they were not "on" - but being themselves - as they obviously would be when the two of them were together, without others around. We also spent hours discussing their characters and the dynamic of their relationship [...] Aidan and Jared were incredibly hard-working. They took their work very seriously. Neither of them planned to be 'impersonating' their characters. They wanted to capture the 'essence' of them more than anything.[http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/twoofus/ettu.html Et Tu Beatlus?]
Paul McCartney
To further prepare for the role of Paul McCartney, Aidan Quinn traveled to Liverpool with actor Ian Hart (who'd portrayed John Lennon twice, in the 1991 film 'The Hours and Times', and again in the 1994 film 'Backbeat'). While there, he visited a number of places, including McCartney's childhood home.[http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/twoofus/tour.html Aidan Quinn Tours Liverpool]Quinn discussed McCartney's reaction to the film in an April 2004 interview: "Just after I finished the film, I went on holiday and Paul McCartney was staying at the same place. I met him and we became quite friendly. Later, he saw the film and fortunately he liked it. It would have been terrible if he'd hated it."
Soundtrack
The original soundtrack by David Schwartz does not include any songs by the Beatles because "the producers could not get clearance from the notoriously difficult copyright holders, a company owned by Michael Jackson." Critic Jim DeRogatis notes that, "the movie was over before it struck me that the soundtrack was devoid of any Beatles songs [...] Such is our saturation in all things Beatles-related that their actual music isn't even missed in the movie. And maybe that should tell us something about getting back to what really matters in this group's legacy."Critic Kevin Thompson further argues:"[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-25149324.html Two of Us: A Poignant Tale of Two Beatles" 'The Palm Beach Post']
References
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