My problem with ‘Midas Man‘, released in 2024 and directed by Joe Stephenson, is that – starting with the posters – it is marketed as ‘a MUST watch for Beatles fans’. Those Beatles fans who will come to see it because of this advertising will be disappointed, because they will not learn anything they did not know about the Beatles and they will not even be able to hear the sound of their favorite group because the film producers did not have the rights to use the original music. This film is a cinematic biography of a musical personality, but this is not one of the Big 4 but Brian Epstein – the man who discovered them and became their agent and promoter during their years of ascension. The Beatles are not the heroes of the film but the background against which Brian Epstein’s biography is told to us. ‘Midas Man‘ is the biographical film dedicated to Epstein’s personality and to his short life full of contradictions. Nothing more, nothing less.
The meeting that changed the destiny of Brian Epstein and the four boys from Liverpool took place in a club in the basement of a building in Liverpool in 1961, but the story begins a few years earlier, when the young man who worked in his father’s furniture store convinced him to diversify his business and also sell music records. When he discovered the sound of the group that already called itself the Beatles and understood the effect it had on the young audience, Epstein decided to become their manager and promoter. The film follows the young people’s struggle to be noticed by the major record companies, their rise to the British and then American charts, concerts and tours in America. Four years later, the Beatles were at their peak. Like King Midas in legend, Brian Epstein had turned them and everything around them into gold. But he was the one who paid the personal price.
A few episodes known to all fans of the band are mentioned, but these are not the focus of the authors of the script and the director. The main character is Brian Epstein and the filmmakers have emphasized two main important threads in his biography: his Jewish origin and his sexual orientation. It was not easy to be gay in England in the early 1960s, when same-sex relationships were still illegal and revealing them could lead to criminal convictions and social ostracism. This aspect seemed to me to be well reflected in the film and acted with drama but also with sensitivity by Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. Less inspired and more superficial was, in my opinion, the cinematographic treatment of Epstein’s Jewish identity. Taking aside the stereotype of the business-savvy Jews, to what extent did his origin influence his career and relationship with the Beatles? If it did – it is not very visible in the film, if it did not – why did the topic occupy so many minutes on screen? As a side note: the memorial service dedicated to Epstein in London took place at a synagogue located right on Abbey Road. The band members attended this service (but not the funeral in Liverpool). The music was Jewish, inspired by Psalms and other traditional songs. None of the Beatles’ music. And none of those were in the film. The cast is excellent, the five actors chosen to embody the band members are very well matched in physiognomy and it is clear that they have seen many documentaries of the Beatles studio recordings. Watching Emily Watson is always a pleasure, and the appearance of Jay Leno as Ed Sullivan, his predecessor on American television, is a nice gig. More a document of the early days than a film ABOUT the Beatles, ‘Midas Man‘, despite its shortcomings, is quite interesting even for those who are not necessarily fascinated by their music. It could have been much more.