Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is an American concert film, released October 13th, 2023 in theaters worldwide. The film features songs from all ten of Taylor Swift’s albums covering different “Era’s” of her life during her rise to stardom. The film is a nearly 3 hour experience of songs and dancing documented from The Los Angeles portion of Taylor Swift’s international stadium tour, “The Era’s Tour”.
The original set list was complete with 44 songs divided into 10 different acts, with extravagant sets and costumes embodying each album. Taylor is joined on stage by her band although she also plays live guitar and piano throughout the film, with her dancers and her background vocalists. 5 songs, “No Body, No Crime” with Haim, “Long Live”, “Wildest Dreams”, “The Archer” and “Cardigan” were cut from the film.
A big part of the concerts is bracelets. When people arrive at the stadiums for the in-person concerts they are given light-up bracelets that flash colors to match each set and make shapes in the audience. These are also shown in the movie and add color to the background of the show. Along with this, many people make friendship bracelets with song lyrics and album colors to trade with one-another not only at the in-person shows but at the movies.
The first portion of the movie covers songs from Lover, Fearless, Evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red, Folklore, and 1989. Some highlights include “All Too Well (10 minute version)” from Red, “Enchanted” from Speak Now sung in a purple ball gown, an emotional performance set around a dinner table of “Tolerate it” from Evermore with one of Swift’s background dancers, Raphael Thomas as well as a heartwarming tradition shown at every concert where Swift gifts her hat during the song “22” to someone from the audience, the child featured in the film being Kobe Bryant’s daughter, Bianka Bryant.
Towards the end of the show, when only the Midnights Era, Swift’s latest album, is left, there is the acoustic section of the set. The acoustic section features two “surprise songs” one on guitar and one on piano. This is a tradition Taylor has also done in previous tours where she picks two songs from her large discography to play at each concert. Making an individual and unique experience for each show. I won’t spoil the movie’s surprise songs for readers but the two choices spread across the evolution of Taylor Swift’s song writing very nicely.
As someone who went to a Sofi Stadium show and also went to see the movie a couple of times, I noticed a few differences between the two. I really enjoyed seeing different angles of the show, both up close and even above the stadium in the movie, whereas being at the concert the view was more minimal and I relied on the screens to see the performers up close. I also enjoyed seeing clips of the crowd and fans that I wasn’t able to see in-person. Overall both in the theater and in the stadium it felt like a community event. The Eras Tour Concert Film has left a majority of theaters but will be released on demand to rent in the US, Canada and other countries on December 13th, 2023 in honor of Taylor Swift’s birthday. The on demand version of the film will include “Wildest Dreams”, “Long Live” and “The Archer”, three songs that were cut from the setlist in the movie and not shown in theaters. I would recommend this movie to any Taylor swift fans or concert lovers who enjoy watching longer films especially those with music!
