As the common Swiftie saying goes, I have lost the “Great War.”
I lost it a great number of times, actually. I lost it last November; I lost it in June, in July, and in August.
To put it into terms that everyone else can understand, I never got tickets to see Taylor Swift perform live at her Eras Tour.
It was something that I still will not come to terms with. There is still a part of me that thinks I will be able to somehow miraculously obtain tickets to see her in 2024 when she comes back to the United States. I will continue to feed my delusions and pray that I’ll be one of the tens of thousands in the stadium screaming my heart out as I watch her sing all of my favorite songs.
But, for now, watching her on the big silver screen will suffice.
I was bouncing off the walls with excitement after I saw the announcement that Swift was releasing a movie for the Eras Tour. It was filmed in the same fashion as her movie for her Reputation tour, so I knew that there were not going to be any behind-the-scenes aspects, just what was performed.
Excitement was buzzing throughout the theater as my friend and I took our seats, tightly clutching our Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour 40 oz cups. Even the ads beforehand were building up the anticipation—almost all of them had some correlation to the movie.
The film began with the same screen that everyone at the concert saw. It was a clock counting down from 13 seconds with an audio of all 10 of her albums combined. From there, it jumped immediately into the Lover album.
Excitement was buzzing throughout the theater as my friend and I took our seats.
Right away, I was entranced. Swift, of course, had a strong part in that, but the camera work was insane too. There were so many incredible angles throughout the entire night. I saw every bit of the stage, and I loved it when the camera would do circles around Swift while she was singing. I also loved that they included the crowd in the movie, too. Not only did they get wide shots of everyone at SoFi Stadium at the concert—including the people outside listening—but they also got close-ups of fans singing, dancing, and crying. It was such an amazing concept to include everyone, especially since Swift is constantly doing things for her fans; this was a perfect way to thank them.
Not only was the cinematography in itself impeccable but also, the sound quality was unbelievably clear. Besides listening to Swift’s music through my headphones, I have never heard her so clearly, even when I saw her live during her 1989 tour. The crowd did not muffle her voice, and you could hear the rawness of her performance. Truly, I have never heard anything like it before.
Something that I would always look forward to during the US leg of Swift’s tour would be her surprise songs. My friend and I would hop onto a TikTok live at 10:30 p.m. each night and freak out over which surprise songs we would lose—even though I didn’t have tickets. The question for the movie was which surprise songs would Swift put in the film? Swift did six shows in Los Angeles, CA, and the first three were the ones that were filmed, and she used snippets from all three in the movie.
When it came time to find out, I was losing it. I knew that some of my favorites were sung during those three nights, but there was one night in particular I hoped she’d use. Starting with “Our Song” on the guitar from Taylor Swift leading into “You’re On Your Own, Kid” on piano from Midnights was all I was wishing for. Thankfully, that was exactly what she did, and I could not have been happier.
The entire three hours of the movie were incredible. I loved having such a good view of all of the dancers and their costumes, along with seeing the sets and props used throughout the concert. For those of us Swifties who lost the “Great War” and didn’t get tickets to the live thing, or for those who simply want to reminisce, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is the perfect movie for everyone to enjoy themselves.
