# Yesterday (2019 film) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 18, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769 "2019-02-18T15:45:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/61 "2019-06-23T01:23:16Z")
Lots and lots of songs are by any objective measure just as as as “She Loves You,” like HUNDREDS of songs. Thousands. Today the odds of one getting you noticed are a million to one. There’s nothing special about it. In the time and place it was made, it was the right song at the right time. So much of this stuff is timing. OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” - released in 2003 - is a masterpiece and was a huge hit, but in 1963 no one would have comprehended it, and if they’d delayed releasing it until 2053 people would likely find it sounded old and boring. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/62 "2019-06-23T01:44:23Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The Casablanca prankster was Chuck Ross. He sent it to 217 agents (not studios)… Ah, thanks! > [@RickJay](#): > > Lots and lots of songs are by any objective measure just as as as… What if no one ever heard of Was (Not Was)? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/63 "2019-06-26T16:25:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The Beatles of 1963-1964 are dramatically different from the later Beatles. Their music became indescribably refined and timeless; “Yesterday” would work in any year. I don’t know that all their earlier stuff would, though. It’s a fair question as to whether their songs would be huge smash hits today. But I do think even some of the very early ones would make for a successful indie singer-songwriter career along the lines of Family of the Year, Jose Gonzalez, or Peter Bradley Adams. Take, for example, one of my very favorite Beatles tunes, which Paul actually wrote in the 1950s, [“I’ll Follow the Sun”.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28d_A_NuJ7A) It would need to be extended a bit (1:48 was on the short side even then), but otherwise I would say it is timeless. > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I’d say it’s because the focus of the movie is not on an alternate history. These movies aren’t supposed to be like _The Man in the High Castle_. > > _The Invention of Lying_ isn’t about how a world where people don’t lie would develop. It’s about the character arc of an individual who finds himself surrounded by magically credulous people. > > Similarly, _Yesterday_ isn’t about what music or culture would look like without one of the most influential bands in the world existing. It’s about how an individual deals with the massive unearned fame and success that comes from having magical access to that band’s songs. > > I’m looking forward to it. Precisely. I’m willing to suspend disbelief as I might not in other time travel or alt-universe scenarios, because I think it would be less fun if they altered everything “butterfly effect” style. I am unreasonably excited for this movie, planning to see it opening weekend or soon thereafter, which I normally only do for a very limited number of “event” or “cinematic spectacle” type films (maybe two or three times a year, seeing everything else at home). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2019, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/64 "2019-06-26T19:34:41Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s a fair question as to whether their songs would be huge smash hits today. But I do think even some of the very early ones would make for a successful indie singer-songwriter career along the lines of Family of the Year, Jose Gonzalez, or Peter Bradley Adams. Take, for example, one of my very favorite Beatles tunes, which Paul actually wrote in the 1950s, [“I’ll Follow the Sun”.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28d_A_NuJ7A) It would need to be extended a bit (1:48 was on the short side even then), but otherwise I would say it is timeless. Yeah, I can see that. iamthewalrus makes a good point about what the movie is ABOUT. That’s the difficulty with fantasy and sci-fi; the needs of what the story is really, truly about often require that you shrug your shoulders about the technicalities. A world in which The Beatles didn’t exist would be different from this world in a thousand ways, but to explore that in painstaking detail just isn’t what the movie is about. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/65 "2019-06-27T00:30:15Z")
I was thinking about what I’d do in this situation and it occurred to me that I don’t actually know any Beatles songs in their entirety, just snippets and such, and I have no familiarity at all with likely the majority of their catalog. I could hum or sing a few passages here and there and if I wanted to profit from my unique knowledge, the best I could do is take it to someone with some actual musical talent and hope for a partial composer’s credit, if they didn’t just steal the idea entirely or flatly dismiss my half-remembered fragments. I’d know that there was a potential goldmine of musical compositions, but I’d be unable to recreate it in any useful way. It’d be a _Twilight Zone_ situation to be sure, and not a funny episode but one of those harsh “ironic punishment” ones. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/66 "2019-06-27T04:00:01Z")
Well, you wouldn’t just sit down and write them out. You’d remember them one piece at a time and it wouldn’t cost you a dime. Wait, that’s Johnny Cash. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/67 "2019-06-27T04:55:46Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I was thinking about what I’d do in this situation and it occurred to me that I don’t actually know any Beatles songs in their entirety, just snippets and such, and I have no familiarity at all with likely the majority of their catalog. I could hum or sing a few passages here and there and if I wanted to profit from my unique knowledge, the best I could do is take it to someone with some actual musical talent and hope for a partial composer’s credit, if they didn’t just steal the idea entirely or flatly dismiss my half-remembered fragments. Same here, and I’m a fan. But while I like the Beatles a lot, they are not and have never been my #1 favorite band. If the Beatles are the main character’s #1 favorite band, and he’s a musician – preferably a bass player – I could buy into it fairly easily. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/68 "2019-06-27T10:37:06Z")
In that Otherworld episode, despite not displaying or mentioning musical talent in previous or subsequent episodes, the two teenagers not only accurately “wrote” the music and lyrics to songs from various genres but also played the instruments. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/69 "2019-06-27T11:41:58Z")
Seeing the descriptions of this movie (e.g. modern-day kids go crazy for Baby Boomer music) reminds me a bit of Stephen King’s “11/22/63”, where a guy who’s born in the '70s is nostalgic for the Kennedy presidency and '50s malt shops. Wait…what? I mean, there are probably a few people in the world that fit that description, but that would be pretty unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/70 "2019-06-27T12:04:15Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Seeing the descriptions of this movie (e.g. modern-day kids go crazy for Baby Boomer music) reminds me a bit of Stephen King’s “11/22/63”, where a guy who’s born in the '70s is nostalgic for the Kennedy presidency and '50s malt shops. Wait…what? I mean, there are probably a few people in the world that fit that description, but that would be pretty unusual. I read “11/22/63” and don’t recall the main character being nostalgic for the 50’s and 60’s - he was friends with an older guy who had lived through that era and really cared about it, but the main character didn’t even know much about the Kennedy era (until he wound up there). Once there, he enjoyed some parts of the past, and hated others (which seems pretty realistic). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/71 "2019-06-27T12:57:44Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Seeing the descriptions of this movie (e.g. modern-day kids go crazy for Baby Boomer music) reminds me a bit of Stephen King’s “11/22/63”, where a guy who’s born in the '70s is nostalgic for the Kennedy presidency and '50s malt shops. Wait…what? I mean, there are probably a few people in the world that fit that description, but that would be pretty unusual. One of the biggest pushes of current far-right parties in Europe is nostalgia for an era which never existed, by people who were born decades after that fabulous time was over. During the last electoral campaign, Spain’s far-right populist party Vox appropriated a 1985 punk-pop song which made fun of people nostalgic for Spain’s Golden Century… (Los Nikis, _El Imperio Contraataca_ - “The Empire Strikes Back”). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/72 "2019-06-27T13:16:37Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I read “11/22/63” and don’t recall the main character being nostalgic for the 50’s and 60’s - he was friends with an older guy who had lived through that era and really cared about it, but the main character didn’t even know much about the Kennedy era (until he wound up there). Once there, he enjoyed some parts of the past, and hated others (which seems pretty realistic). Agreed. He liked milkshakes made with real milk, for instance, but was appalled by segregation. He liked the friendliness of small-town 1963 Texas life but pushed back against its judgmentalism and small-mindedness. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/73 "2019-06-27T13:25:26Z")
Is Brian Epstein going to be portrayed in the movie? His management and marketing of the Beatles lead to the Ed Sullivan show and much of their early success. George Martin the “Fifth Beatle” produced & arranged the Beatles from the beginning. His influence on their sound is striking. > **[George Martin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Martin)** > > Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "Fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles' original albums. AllMusic has described him as the "world's most famous record producer". Martin's formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices complemented the Beatles' rudimentary musical education and relentless quest for Ma... I hope both men are portrayed in the movie. It would make it much more believable that someone else could be the face of this music. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/74 "2019-06-27T13:44:38Z")
Both Epstein and Martin would be dead by the (apparently) present-day setting of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/75 "2019-06-27T14:06:03Z")
Right. The scene in the trailer that hooked me is when he is playing a Beatles song on acoustic guitar for his friends, and they are like “OMG, that song is so good!” He responds “well, sure: it’s one of the greatest songs ever written” and she is like “well, let’s not get carried away: it’s no ‘Fix You’”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/76 "2019-06-27T14:08:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Both Epstein and Martin would be dead by the (apparently) present-day setting of the movie. Agreed – everything I’ve been seeing about the film indicates that it’s set in the present day, and that the main character of the film suddenly discovers that he’s the only person on the planet who remembers the Beatles. So, given that, there really wouldn’t be a role for Martin or Epstein in the film. Even if either of them were still alive in the present day, the film’s presence suggests that neither man would remember having ever known the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/77 "2019-06-27T14:18:55Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > …the film’s presence suggests that neither man would remember having ever known the Beatles. “Premise,” not “presence.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/78 "2019-06-27T16:59:55Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Same here, and I’m a fan. But while I like the Beatles a lot, they are not and have never been my #1 favorite band. If the Beatles are the main character’s #1 favorite band, and he’s a musician – preferably a bass player – I could buy into it fairly easily. From what I’ve seen, the character is a fan but the Beatles probably aren’t his all-time favorite band. One of the plot points noted in the reviews: He tries to “write” “Eleanor Rigby” but realizes he doesn’t remember all the words. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/79 "2019-06-27T17:29:21Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > From what I’ve seen, the character is a fan but the Beatles probably aren’t his all-time favorite band. One of the plot points noted in the reviews: > > He tries to “write” “Eleanor Rigby” but realizes he doesn’t remember all the words. “Number Eight? Number Eight? Number _Eight?_ No, that’s not it…” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769/80 "2019-06-27T18:02:41Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > I Wanna Hold Your Hand and She Loves You, probably too slight and twee to hit in 1969, let alone 2019. Let’s write us a kiddie pool! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yesterday-2019-film/829769.md?page=5)