This past summer, Taylor Swift commenced her highly anticipated Eras Tour. The Eras Tour has had some of the most attended shows in history, the opening night in Glendale, Arizona broke the record for the most-attended concert by a female artist in the US with 69,000 fans.
On August 31, Taylor Swift announced that there was going to be the Eras Tour Concert Film- releasing on October 13.
This was amazing news for Swifties both those who had seen Swift in concert and those who weren’t able to.
I was one of the lucky fans who was able to see the Eras tour back in May, and I was able to go to the movie as well.
Swift has had three other concert films- one for reputation, Speak Now, and 1989.
Like her three other concert films, the movie was the concert. There were no behind-the-scenes or special features- although there were some bloopers during the credits. The movie was filmed during Swift’s time at SoFi stadium in Los Angeles.
Differences between the film and concert performance were to be expected. When you go to the actual concert, there are openers. The show I attended featured Gracie Abrams and Phoebe Bridgers. However, the movie starts right when Swift’s set opens.
Swift’s concert is about 3.5 hours, which would make a very long movie. So sadly there were some cuts to fit the time frame for a movie; “Cardigan”, “The Archer”, “No Body, No Crime” ft. HAIM, ”’Tis the d*mn season”, the “Seven” monologue, and “Long Live” were all not shown in the film. The show that I went to was before she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) so “Long Live” was not on the setlist at the time.
Much like the actual tour, the movie opens with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” in the Lover era. Watching the intro on the big screen was such a beautiful experience. The cinematography made the anticipation of seeing her unveiled from under those purple petals even more intense.
Being at the actual show was an out-of-body experience that could never compare to watching it in a theater, but seeing Swift up close was enthralling. My seats were far away and to the side of the concert. Consequently, I couldn’t see the big screen when I was at the actual show. Seeing it blown up on a movie theater screen was amazing.
My experience at the theater was amazing, and I know some people were in completely silent theaters. However, at the theater, I was in, everyone was singing and dancing, people dressed up and brought friendship brackets to trade. It had the same ‘safe’ atmosphere as the concert.
Swift’s songs are the same at every concert, unless she brings one of her openers on stage, besides the acoustic surprise song set. I kept the surprise songs a surprise until I saw them in the theater. I won’t spoil them for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, but the song Swift played on the piano is one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs ever, so it was such an enchanting experience to see it in such high definition and with my best friend who also loves that song.
One of my favorite things about Taylor Swift and her tours is that she changes outfits throughout the show. For the eras tour specifically, she has a new outfit for each era, and for some eras, she has multiple variants.
My two favorite eras that Swift performs are reputation and Folklore. The cinematography for reputation was insane. They had a cameraman run around Swift when she was standing on an elevated stage and the result was captivating. During the Folklore era, she performs the song “August” and while she sings she runs across the stage, and her flowy dress dances around her. It was amazing to see live, but seeing it in the theater up close was so magical.
As expected, the quality of the film was amazing. You could hear Swift’s voice and the up-close shots were able to capture every single detail of the complex tour. There were cuts to fans in their seats, always smiling and dancing, and you could feel that they were having a wonderful time.
Taylor Swift has created another way for her fans to feel connected to her and each other and has given some who weren’t able to see her live an opportunity to live out the experience.