I Marvel at Creativity
I have been sitting on this piece for a few months as it felt a bit incomplete. Today (Saturday the 12th of March), I decided to rewatch the movie “Yesterday” as I wanted to introduce my 10-year-old son to this movie. I introduced him to The Beatles very early and thought he might get a kick out of the movie. I also wanted the film to be fresh in my head as I finished writing this article about it. After the movie had finished, I jumped on The Wordle word of the day and was taken aback as I thought this to be an odd opposite coincidence. The word of the day is “Today.” I then decided to finish this article.
I love the movie “Yesterday,” or moreso the premise behind it. This is one of those movies which makes you come away from it wondering how someone or somebody can be so “bloody” creative. I mean on multiple levels—first, the person or people who thought up this screenplay. Second, I love The Beatles and find them to be master musicians.
I don’t mean to say that the plot is all that creative. It is pretty typical and straightforward when I think of it. You have a struggling artist with quite a bit of talent about to give up on his dream of being a successful musician. As he rides his bike home after what he has deemed his last failure, the world experiences a mysterious global blackout, which directly causes a bus to collide with him. Our protagonist, Jack (played by Himesh Patel), wakes up in the hospital a bit banged up, missing a couple of teeth, and with his manager Ellie, played by the lovely Lily James, at his bedside.
Where the creativity begins is when we find out this musician has been given a gift. Here, the movie begs the question, what if you were the only one in the world who had any knowledge of The Beatles? How would you use this knowledge? It most certainly helps if you have a good voice, some amount of musical talent, and, more importantly, a good memory. Let’s face it; the Fab Four were lyrical geniuses.
Why The Beatles, some may ask? This supergroup is arguably one of the most prolific groups of all time. With more than 300 songs under their belt as a group, it is fair to say they were a force to reckon with. This amount of high-quality pieces in such a short period is nothing short of extraordinary. This was all done in a short period of roughly seven years. The Beatles exemplified the word prolific.
To say Jack could become a “Rock God” would be an understatement. I am reminded almost daily just how unique a group The Beatles were. This movie reinforces it on so many levels. The influence they have had on artists through the ages is immeasurable. On some level in the film, they allude to this, with the world having no knowledge of the band Oasis. As many can attest, Oasis was heavily influenced by The Beatles. No Beatles could mean no Oasis. I am confident the list could go on and on.
While watching the movie, it is apparent the film is about three separate loves. We learn early on that Ellie has always loved Jack. It takes Jack the entirety of the movie to realize he loves Ellie. More importantly, the world loves The Beatles, and Earth is a much better place with their music being a part of it.
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