Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle (2005)

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The remarkable life of the man who played bass for one of the biggest bands in rock & roll history comes to the screen in a fascinating documentary produced to tell the tale of original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe. It was in 1959 that the Liverpool art college student first made the… More The remarkable life of the man who played bass for one of the biggest bands in rock & roll history comes to the screen in a fascinating documentary produced to tell the tale of original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe. It was in 1959 that the Liverpool art college student first made the acquaintance of like-minded artist and musician John Lennon. Fast friends from the very start, the pair began making music together when Lennon convinced Sutcliffe to use the proceeds of a painting he had recently sold to purchase a bass guitar and begin playing with fellow musicians Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Soon joined by drummer Pete Best, the ambitious band would subsequently land a contract playing their unique brand of music at some of the seediest clubs in Hamburg. With success on the horizon and the future looking bright, however, Sutcliffe would soon stun his fellow musicians by leaving the band to focus on his art and spend more time with his fiancée, German photographer Astrid Kirchherr. His health subsequently taking a turn for the worse, Sutcliffe fell into a seizure-induced coma in early April 1962 and later died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the tender age of 21 -- just one year before the Beatles blasted to the top of the charts with their groundbreaking release Please Please Me. Now Beatles fans can finally find out the true story of the man known as the "Lost Beatle" in this documentary featuring interviews with those who knew Sutcliffe best, including former fiancée Kirchherr, early Beatles manager Allan Williams, Rod Murray, American art historian Donald Kuspit, and Sutcliffe's sister and onetime roommate Pauline. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi