All You Need Is Cash

All You Need Is Cash_720p(480P)

source: All You Need Is Cash

His work with Monty Python aside, Idle has never been able to top this, one of his earliest and best-known solo efforts. "The Rutles" is a brilliant parody that gets a lot of mileage out of its limited budget (as Idle points out on the DVD's commentary track) and Idle's penchant for wordplay. Neil Innes's songs are also a highlight. Many have so many antecedents that they can be taken as good songs in their right ("Hold My Hand," "Cheese and Onions," "Doubleback Alley"). Fans of the Beatles and Monty Python (and also "Saturday Night Live") will be sure to get a big kick out of "The Rutles." One can only hope that Idle doesn't follow through on his threat to make a sequel.

This movie was a brilliant forerunner to mocumentaries like Spinal Tap, capturing the style, and the cheese (and onions!), of the rockumentaries of the early 1970's. Much in the way Mel Brooks skewered Hitchcock in High Anxiety, this tribute goes more than skin deep. The more you know of the Beatles, the better to appreciate the Rutles. Although it was originally shown on US Television as a TV Movie, All You Need Is Cash could easily have been released and made a run at the art house and college circuit. The icing on the cake is the music. Crafted with wit, style and love, many of the songs could easily be mistaken for true Beatles tracks. In fact, I have my Rutles CD mixed in with my Beatles CDs for when I want a grin *and* good music. In short, I highly recommend this film to anyone ...especially anyone who has a good knowledge of the Beatles and their history.

After years of reading about this movie, I finally saw The Rutles: All You Need is Cash on YouTube just now. Monty Python member Eric Idle created and wrote this mockumentary about a Beatles-like group originally as a filmed sketch on "Rutland Weekend Television". That sketch would eventually make its American debut on "Saturday Night Live" when he hosted the show during its second season. Lorne Michaels, producer of that show, liked what he saw and agreed to help produce a television special of this group for a 90 minute prime time spot. So with Idle and Gary Weis-"SNL" filmmaker at the time-directing and Rutles member Neil Innes writing the tunes-inspired by the Beatles songs, of course-and cameos by the likes of Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, fellow Python Michael Palin, and "SNL"ers like Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, along with writers/bit players Al Franken & Tom Davis, and Michaels himself, oh, and also former Beatle George Harrison who I didn't recognize in his makeup, this was quite a funny and entertaining show that I enjoyed highly especially when they played with certain happenings like having their manager quit to go to Australia for a teaching position instead of killing himself or mentioning Bob Dylan introducing them to a strange substance-called tea! There's plenty more funny stuff but I'll just now say that I loved The Rutles: All You Need is Cash and highly recommend it if you love The Beatles and great comedy.

The very first comedic mockumentary (2 years pre-Spinal Tap) this is a very funny film, with great music, it happened on accident Eric planned on making another film with Neil, but the music sounded to much like A Hard Day's Night. This film is so acurate in its homage to Beatlemania George, (Stig) who is also in this movie) quotes it 5 times in the Beatles: Anthology Book. Hilarious and a cult classic.

Somehow my brother and I got hold of the soundtrack album before we actually saw the TV special. The funny thing is that while the comedy bits are really funny (most of them) the songs are actually much better and stick in my mind to this day. The songs from the early period, like "Ouch!" and "Hold My Hand" are okay, but they really can't capture the excitement and energy of the Beatlemania period. But as the story continues, the darker, sadder, more pessimistic songs are actually better than what the Beatles were doing at that stage in their careers. Case in point: "Living In Hope," a late-period Ringo song, of the type you might hear on the White Album. "I grew up in the country/beside a chicken shack/then I left for the city/and I didn't look back." Really gets Ringo trying to write a country song and sounding silly, yet somehow knowing he's silly and having the time of his life! "Got no woman/or a steady job/feeling like a cowboy/and looking like a slob!/But I'm living in hope . . ." This was such a great song I had it on tape for years. Then again there was "Love Life," which totally captures the silly side of the "All You Need Is Love" type of statement. The fade of the song is just "Love is the meaning of life/Life is the meaning of love/Love is the meaning of life/Life is the meaning of love." Fall over laughing as they repeat about 100 times! Even the sad songs, like "Cheese and Onions" really capture the fall of the Beatles, as you hear the weariness and disgust creeping in. "I have always thought in the back of my mind/cheese and onions/I have always thought that the world was unkind/cheese and onions." Totally captures John Lennon at his most bitter and cynical, but still with the odd touch of humor. "Man and machine/Keep yourself clean/Or be a has-been/Like the dinosaurs." The music was so great it didn't even seem like a parody, but more a meditation on the genius of the Beatles.

I remember watching the NBC broadcast debut of "The Rutles: All You Need is Cash," during the spring of 1978. Even though it was highly promoted that week, and featured cameos by Lorne Michaels and nearly every member of the red-hot Not Ready for Prime Time Players, ratings for the special were abysmal, possibly even the very bottom of the Nielsen list. People I talked to had absolutely no idea what to make of it at all. Go figure. This wonderful piece, which grows better with further perspective on the 60's (and Beatlemania), paved the way for fake documentary genre pioneers, "Zelig," and "Spinal Tap," and fortunately found an audience through home video. Even though "The Rutles" is very much an Eric Idle project, it is often overlooked that this film was largely directed by Gary Weis, who was responsible for the wonderful, ground-breaking short films that appeared on the early episodes of "Saturday Night Live." Hats off to Neil Innes, whose songs and arrangements were absolutely dead-on, not just musically, but technically correct in every detail as they evolved through the Beatles chronology.

...With Neil Innes! Generally I thought the movie was great. There were some very funny moments in it. My favorites; the Bath In and when George Harrison is interviewing Micheal Palin and behind them the strangest things get stolen. Recognizing all the famous (and less famous) Beatle moments and footage was a lot of fun. But the best thing about the movie was Neil Innes. Not only did he write those great songs in the movie, but he also gives an incredibly accurate performance of John/Nasty. Every move he makes, every word he says, the way he looks, the way he sings, the way he talks... He IS John there. Wonderful, even in all the serious movies that featured someone portraying John, I have never seen anyone do so very well.

Yes we've seen these type of movies of wannabe copycat bands or solo artists. Just look at all the Elvis's. Yet this film otherwise, known as The Rutles (I was quite surprised this film had another name) is ostensibly a film of initiative, enthusiasm, and color, but falls flat, where it failed to humor me at all, but it wouldn't many others. To be blunt, I found it quite disappointing when it's steered by some of the Monty Python team who are capable of much better stuff. The Rutles are of course a copycat band of The Beatles, and yes there is that copycat Abbey Road crossing cover, also made fun a little bit of in Trainspotting. The Rutles seemed to be this kind of famous, struggling and under appreciated band, with many a bad critique. Actually the presence of Mick Jagger commenting on them, brought some sanity to this overindulging misfire of a film. Eric Idle is great though, not only doubling as a pesky reporter, and Rutles star, but about three other + roles, really showing us what character acting's about, it's disappointing he was wasted in this forgettable show. Jagger was the best thing about it, the other attributes being Idle's versatile performances, and the presence of Paul Simon. Too, one scene with the unforgettable, John Belushi, just made me realize, we lost a king the day the guy died. This was just one of those films, that had a thank god it's over thing going, while being forgettable too. Watch punk Idle just near the closing, wearing the biggest safety pin, you'll ever see in your life.