Taylor Swift's career-encompassing Eras Tour is presented in an epic new concert film in Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Filmed during three shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, Taylor Swift performs a show encompassing songs from each of her ten albums. Each of these different eras encompasses the different musical styles Swift explored during her career, ranging from her country beginnings to her modern pop sounds.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Synopsis
Directed by Sam Wrench (Billie Eilish: Live at the O2, Lizzo: Live in Concert), Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is not the first Taylor Swift concert film, but it is notable for the fact that it has been given a wide theatrical release, surpassing studio distribution in favour of the film being self-distributed by AMC Theatres and Cinemark in the United States (and Cineplex here in Canada). The film was shot in August 2023 during Taylor Swift's first three of six shows at SoFi Stadium in the Greater Los Angeles Areas, concluding the tour's American leg.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour consists of ten mini sets focusing on each of Taylor Swift's ten albums. Different set designs and costume changes accompany each of these eras. The approximately 3h15m length of the Eras Tour concert set is condensed down to 2h48m runtime, with the film using some seamless editing to remove the gaps between the different eras.
My Thoughts on Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
It seems like we are amid a renaissance of the concert film. In addition to the wide release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, we are less than a month removed from the release of the 40th anniversary remaster of Stop Making Sense and just over a month away from the release of Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce. What were once direct-to-video releases for hardcore fans, might now become the new event cinema, as evidenced by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour exceeding $100 million in presales alone.
With tickets to see Taylor Swift live being incredibly hard to come by, going for thousands of dollars on the secondary market, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour might be the best chance for many to see this career-encompassing show. Indeed, cinemas are relaxing some of their rules to allow the film's screenings to have more of a concert atmosphere. The result is a crowd full of “Swifties,” made up predominantly of teenage girls, singing and dancing a lot to Swift's big hits, including “You Belong to Me,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and “Shake It Off.”
In some ways, the filmed presentation enhances the production design of the different acts of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The most visually interesting sets belong to Swift's two pandemic-era albums “Folklore” and “Evermore,” with the former featuring an on-stage cabin and the latter featuring a pagan forest aesthetic. Another show highlight was a ten-minute rendition of Swift's 2011 power ballad “All Too Well.”
Throughout her nearly two-decade-long career, Taylor Swift has evolved from a teenage country star to one of the biggest musical acts in the world. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour allows Swifties to see this evolution played out on stage without having to shell out thousands to see the star live. Of course, Taylor Swift's most hardcore fans will probably do that anyway.
