After 8 months of hosting the incredibly popular Eras Tour all around the United States, American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, officially announced her highly anticipated concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The tour, which commenced in 2023, has completely invaded the media, being arguably one of the most talked about events of the year. In November of 2022, over 4 million Taylor Swift fans, Swifties, attempted to register for presale for the concert. After a complicated situation with the ticket-selling platform, a majority of her fans were left disappointed and empty-handed. Since trying to acquire tickets for the actual concert was near impossible, hoping to give her fans another chance to see the show, she created Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The movie was released on October 13, 2023, and since then the popularity has skyrocketed, with fans expressing their love for the film.
The Eras Tour is the sixth concert tour by Taylor Swift. Although Swift was set to have Loverfest, based on her 2019 album Lover, the pandemic set this back indefinitely. Meaning, Swift’s last stadium tour took place in 2017-2018. The Eras Tour began on March 17, 2023, starting in Arizona, and will continue until November 23, 2024. The film is less so a documentary, and more just her concert on film. Both the concert and the film use songs that span across all of her “eras” (albums). The eras included in the film are from all of Taylor’s albums: Debut, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights. The movie was filmed throughout Swift’s short 3 day concert residency at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Although we were all disappointed we did not have the opportunity to see the actual concert, at MetLife Stadium, seeing the movie was (we believe) just as amazing of an experience. Almost all of the people attending the movie were huge Taylor Swift fans. And this was apparent. You could feel the energy and excitement from the entire crowd, creating an enjoyable environment among others with the same interest as you. Many attendees, including ourselves, dressed up in Taylor Swift merch, or in unique Taylor Swift related outfits, which was a joy within itself. Rather than just feeling like a movie, it felt like an experience. At the show, Swift was selling merchandise from the theaters, including popcorn buckets, tote bags, and cups.
Since the movie entailed 3 straight hours of Swift singing, dancing, and performing, with minimal speech and filler moments, the audience was often getting up to dance and sing along. You could see examples of this around social media from around the globe, seeing the same experience among many different theaters. This made the whole concert film experience all the better.
The film was extremely well composed, produced, and directed. The sound and camera quality was impeccable. You could hear just enough of the audience’s voices, but Taylor’s voice was still clear, while still feeling as if you were also there listening to her perform live. The switch between angles, showing both Swift, her dancers, her band, and even the baffling 80,000+ audience, made the show even more dynamic than seeing it in person.
Although the movie was a lengthy 3 hours and 15 minutes, it completely engrossed the theater, going by quickly, feeling almost too short, considering she cut a few fan-favorites from the film. Although we would not necessarily recommend this movie to someone who is not a huge fan of her music, since the point of the movie is to display and celebrate her music, the production quality was still brilliant, and we believe everyone could find something to enjoy. No matter if you deem yourself the biggest fan of Swift, or the opposite, the film was just a very fun, entertaining show. Luckily, for those who did not get the opportunity to see the movie in theaters, it will be available for rent on streaming on December 13.
