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Home Subscribe About Us Features News Album Reviews Movie Reviews Past Movies Movie Resources Concert Reviews Book Reviews Top 10 Contact Us	All You Need is Cash Artist: The Rutles Label: Second Sight Films (Region Code 0) Time: 72 mins + 75 mins extras However you judge a parody – whether by closeness to the original, by sending up the style, by blurring fact and fiction, or involving celebrities to endorse the spoof – The Rutles are an affectionate mockumentary and a boundary-pushing success. Not only do Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, John Belushi and Ron Wood all appear in cameo roles as themselves or invented characters, but George Harrison also appears disguised as a TV interviewer. A remarkable number of people and sets involved in the original Beatles story appear in this tribute, and the Yellow Submarine animators parody themselves with a three minute section of their own. The film follows the story of “The Pre-Fab Four” as they journey from being a teen sensation in the early ‘sixties, through stardom, film-making and controversy to an acrimonious split. It begins with a take-off of the scene in “A Hard Day’s Night” where the Beatles escape a crowd by being hustled into a car, then go through that to one parked alongside, then through that into a van; but with The Rutles, the scene is extended by several vehicles. Mixing some original fan footage into the new film, All You Need is Cash follows the fortunes of Dirk McQuickly (writer and producer Eric Idle) in a Paul McCartney role, a Lennonesque Ron Nasty (songwriter Neil Innes), Stig O’Hara (Ricky Fataar) aping George Harrison and Barry Wom (John Halsey) as a moustachioed drummer, who sometimes sings. No Beatles spoof could work without some ingenious musical tributes and Innes’ work is stunning. He insists that he did not listen to Beatles songs when writing the parodies, but listened intently to the sound when making the recording (it alerted me to the regular bongos alongside the drums in the background of the early songs). Some tracks are generic, but several are unmistakeably specific songs. “Hold My Hand,” recorded on a two-track in a basement purporting to be The Cavern, is very close to “All My Loving,” while “Ouch!” does not try to disguise its genesis as “Help!”. Other movie-related songs are a psychedelic send-up of “I am the Walrus,” filmed in the same studios, with some of the same actors as the original; the anthemic “Love Life,” a plain pastiche of “All You Need is Love;” and “Get Up and Go” filmed on a roof not far from where “Get Back” was recorded. Whether it is the fur coat that Ron Nasty wears, the venue, the uncanny likeness in the sound, or the McQuickly fascial expression, such attention to detail is very funny indeed. Idle gets even more of the doe-eyed Paul McCartney look earlier in the film. This anniversary edition benefits from more minutes of extras than of original film, which means that we get a full audio commentary by Eric Idle, deleted scenes (mostly Jagger outtakes), a missable trailer, and two half-hour features about making the film and creating the music. They are all full of interesting details, and because the makers were so friendly with George Harrison (he lent some of his guitars, and got Jagger involved) the viewer gets a lot of inside information on the Beatles background. When Jagger makes his comments about the relationship between The Rutles and The Rolling Stones, he is essentially telling musical history, but substituting one name for another. This was a groundbreaking piece of work from many in the Python and Saturday Night Live teams. It has been said that without The Rutles there would be no Spinal Tap. Other than a somewhat dated python-style Eric Idle gag with a continuity announcer, time has done no harm to the film. This edition is great value and highly recommended. Derek Walker