TL;DR:
- The Beatles’ Help! is racist against Eastern culture and bigoted against Hinduism.
- The film depicts Hindu worshipers of Kali as bloodthirsty and has white actors playing Eastern characters.
- Despite this, the song “Help!” is great and topped the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Beatles‘ Help! is not a good movie. In addition, it’s painfully racist in multiple ways. However, the film also produced the band’s beloved single “Help!”
The Beatles ‘Help!’ is a mockery of Eastern culture and Hinduism
The Beatles’ movie Help! just isn’t funny. The film tries to be strange but it doesn’t reach the heights of Monty Python, Douglas Addams, or other great British surrealist humor. In addition, none of The Beatles put much effort into their performances.
But that’s not the real problem with Help! The worst thing about it is the way it portrays Eastern culture. The plot revolves around an Eastern cult that commits human sacrifices in honor of Kali, the Hindu goddess of death. Like the later film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the film unfairly stigmatizes Hinduism. John Lennon even comments on the villains’ “filthy Eastern ways.” This is shocking, considering George Harrison’s later conversion to Hinduism.
Why The Beatles don’t get more criticism for the racism in the film
The casting is also a problem. The two main members of the Eastern cult are played by Eleanor Bron and Leo McKern, both of whom are white and not “Eastern” in any sense of the word. This phenomenon of casting white actors to play people of color did not start or end with The Beatles’ Help! While the Fab Four were innovative and ahead of their time in so many ways, they were sadly very much of their time when they made Help!, regurgitating prejudices and stereotypes of the time.
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Many older films have been criticized for their racism, including Gone with the Wind and Song of the South. Why has Help! escaped that sort of scrutiny? Perhaps because it doesn’t matter much today. It arguably has been overshadowed by other Beatles films like A Hard Day’s Night, Yellow Submarine, and The Beatles: Get Back. Considering it’s so offensive, it’s unlikely the movie will have a renaissance.
How the song ‘Help!’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom
While the movie leaves much to be desired, at least it produced one of the Fab Four’s most famous songs. “Help!” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. The tune appeared on the album of the same title. The album Help! topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, staying on the chart for 46 weeks.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Help!” peaked at No. 1 for three of its 17 weeks on the chart. On the other hand, the album Help! topped the U.K. chart for nine of its 39 weeks on the chart.
The song “Help!” is great — but the movie deserves to be forgotten.
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