From Amazon.com
Originally hatched in 1978 as a short film parody for
Saturday Night Live, this expanded, 70-minute mockumentary on a trend-setting quartet of British mop-tops bloomed into one of Eric Idle's better projects outside Monty Python. Taking the career (and hagiography) of the Beatles and inverting them quite nicely, Idle conjures up four doppelgangers who offer the familiar mannerisms but practically none of the intelligence of their models. If that sounds like the same gag that powered
This Is Spinal Tap (which emerged six years later), it is, with the crucial difference that Idle's lampoon is precise where
Tap was consciously generic.
In telling the saga of the Rutles, Idle (who doubles as earnest narrator and McCartney-esque Rutle Dirk McQuigley) works from a rich and immediately familiar trove of pop lore, and he has a ball revisiting and reinventing milestones from the Fab Four's fabled history. The attention to period detail helps elevate the gags further, but Idle's real secret weapon is Neil Innes, standing in as Ron Nasty, the Rutles' answer to John Lennon: it's Innes who serves as the musical architect for the wonderful Beatles parodies that give All You Need Is Cash a delicious kick, and Innes, a one-time principal in the legendary Bonzo Dog Band, is gifted enough to capture the band's lyricism and energy as well as their shifting sense of style.
With the blessing and on-camera participation of George Harrison, and wry cameos from Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, All You Need Is Cash is a perfect companion to the Beatles' own glorious screen comedies and a great antidote to sanctimonious pop documentaries. --Sam Sutherland
Review
You don't have to be a Beatles fan to enjoy All You Need Is Cash, though it certainly helps. Co-writers and directors Eric Idle and Gary Weis ruthlessly and hilariously parody the style of biographical television documentaries, and anyone who has ever watched A&E's Biography will be able to recognize the same clichs more than 20 years down the line. But, just as importantly, Idle and Weis know the details of the Fab Four's career and take tremendous glee in twisting them into new comic shapes, and songwriter Neil Innes has created a handful of songs that brilliantly turn the Beatles' greatest hits inside out (it's a shame more bands haven't had the nerve to cover "I Must Be in Love," "Doubleback Alley," or any of the other songs featured in the film, which happen to be great pop tunes in their own right as well as skillfully executed parodies). But while the touch isn't always light and the tone isn't always gentle (thankfully this was made while John Lennon was still alive and Innes could parody his well-documented mean streak without cries of disrespect to the dead), All You Need Is Cash is satire done with tremendous affection for its subject. It's worth noting that Innes was a former member of the group the Bonzo Dog Band, who appeared in Magical Mystery Tour and whose only hit single, "I'm the Urban Spaceman," was produced by Paul McCartney (under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth"), while Idle was close friends with George Harrison, who makes a cameo appearance as a reporter. The film also features several contemporaries and admirers of the Beatles, including Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, and Ron Wood, all of whom have been affected in some way by the Beatles' influence. Presenting a bizarro-world version of the biggest and best pop group of all time, All You Need Is Cash is a rock version of a Friar's Club roast -- a sharp poke in the ribs, with love and respect in its heart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
