14 October 2023
Even prior to Friday’s release of “The Eras Tour,” Taylor Swift’s eras have been well documented on film.
The pop megastar has released concert movies and filmed specials corresponding to almost all of her artistic periods during the course of her 17-year career, which culminates in “The Eras Tour” concert film, which is expected to shatter box office records for music docs when it hits theaters Friday.
Each of the movies are a snapshot of a moment in time for the 33-year-old Swift, whose self-titled debut album was released in 2006. And they serve as a reminder that ever since her career took off, there’s never been a moment when she’s not been huge.
In anticipation of “The Eras Tour,” here is a look back at Swift’s seven concert movies and documentary projects to date, and a ranking of where they fall in order of importance to her career and overall achievement.
7. ‘The 1989 World Tour Live’ (2015)
The document of Swift’s 2015 tour, filmed in Sydney, captures her slickest pop production up to that point, but director Jonas Åkerlund’s (Madonna’s “Ray of Light” video) over-stylized visuals rely on quick cuts and slow-motion glam shots that continually take viewers out of the show’s flow. There’s also an overemphasis on the tour’s guest stars, showing how everyone from the Weeknd to Lisa Kudrow made cameos at specific shows. Of all of Swift’s tour docs, this is one the one that deserves a “Taylor’s Version” do-over the most.
Revealing factoid: In one of the interview clips that is spliced into the show footage, Swift says her stylistic makeover on “1989” came as a direct result of 2012’s “Red” losing the album of the year Grammy to Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories.”
6. ‘Taylor Swift: City of Lover’ (2020)
This one-off Paris concert to celebrate the release of 2019’s “Lover,” filmed in front of a crowd of 2,000 fans, was significantly scaled down from Swift’s previous outings and let her perform her new songs without all the bells and whistles of a stadium production. Songs such as “Death By a Thousand Cuts” and “The Man,” the latter performed with just an acoustic guitar and a spotlight onstage, benefit from the small arrangements, and Swift seems comfortable with the downsizing. “City of Lover” remains a tiny document of an era cut short: the COVID-19 pandemic shelved live performance plans and Swift’s scheduled series of Lover Fest dates, and most fans wouldn’t get a chance to hear these songs live until the Eras Tour rolled around.
Cruel factoid: “Cruel Summer,” which has become the album’s most popular song, was not one of the eight “Lover” tracks performed during this show.
5. ‘Journey to Fearless’ (2010)
Part concert film, part peek behind the scenes, this three-part doc looks at Swift’s ascension from young singer-songwriter to country music superstar as she headlines her first concert tour. There’s a softness to it that makes it feel like a record company promotional video, but it does offer a glimpse into Swift’s world as she puts her first tour together — viewers see her see her stage for the first time — and as she messes around with her friends backstage and visits her local Walmart to buy her new CD at midnight on release day. At this point her star has already taken off, but fame, superstardom and acclaim is all shiny and new. The footage of her stepping up from arenas to her first stadium concert on the tour’s back end catches her at a key moment from which she’d never look back.
Revealing factoid: We learn Swift’s mother, Andrea, is the one who draws the number 13 on Swift’s hand before her concerts.
Taylor Swift performs onstage on the first night of her “Eras Tour” at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 31, 2023. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
4. ‘Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour’ (2018)
Are you ready for it? Swift’s massive “Reputation” outing is documented in this bombastic Netflix special, taped during the final night of the tour’s U.S. run in the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Snakes are the theme of the evening: There are giant inflatable snakes on stage, snakes wrapping her microphone, and at one point she flies over the crowd inside what looks like the ribcage of a king cobra. As a tour, it was Swift’s crowning achievement up to this point in her career, with Swift playing the would-be villainess who is too sweet for her fangs to leave a permanent mark. Director Paul Dugdale captures the spectacle in all its glory, balancing the production’s colossal scale with the way it touched individuals in the crowd.
Special guests: In addition to appearances by tour openers Charli XCX and Camila Cabello, who join Swift during “Shake it Off,” Tiffany Haddish appears via pretaped video to deliver the spoken word interlude from “Look What You Made Me Do.”
3. ‘Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live’ (2011)
Lots of hair flips. The “Speak Now” tour is when Swift went supernova, and part of the young performer communicating to larger and larger audiences meant whipping her hair back and forth, Willow Smith-style. This tour is achingly sincere, but it’s the moment where she’s truly living out her dreams in widescreen fashion and realizing her real-world powers. There’s an endearing theater kid, costume drama, “let’s put on a show!” kind of staginess to it all, never more so than when Swift — Green Day lyrics scrawled down the length of her left arm — is banging on a giant bell that looks like a leftover AC/DC stage prop. But when the fireworks go off during “Dear John,” it’s a moment where the pyrotechnics match the power of her storytelling. There was no stopping her after this.
Telling quote: “I tend to write a lot of songs about love and relationships,” Swift says from the stage. “That tends to be the main topic covered.”
2. ‘Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions’ (2020)
It doesn’t get much more intimate than this: during the pandemic, Swift sat down with producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner in a remote upstate New York recording studio to play her album “Folklore” live for the first time with her collaborators. “I think it’s really important that we play it,” Swift explains. “I think it will take that for me to realize it’s a real album.” What follows is a lovely rendering of the quiet, acoustic-based album, intercut with Swift and her partners discussing their work and the meaning of the songs. Crickets chirp in the distance, a small bonfire glows in the background. It’s the cardigan of Swift’s career documents.
Revealing factoid: “Epiphany” was almost Swift’s Michael Jordan moment. “I had just watched ‘The Last Dance’ and I was thinking all in terms of sports and winners and underdogs and things like that,” she says. But she pivoted and drew inspiration from her grandfather’s World War II experience instead.
1. ‘Miss Americana’ (2020)
Swift’s most open and honest portrait to date follows the making of her album “Lover” and her transition out of her 20s and into her 30s. She discusses topics such as her struggles with eating disorders, her tumultuous interactions with Kanye West and her terminal need for approval. “My entire moral code, as a kid and now, is a need to be thought of as good,” she says. Director Lana Wilson balances Swift’s inner loneliness with her political awakening and her lending of her voice to causes in which she believes. It’s a stark, telling portrait of Swift’s world, her psyche and what makes her tick.
Revealing factoid: Swift admits to never having eaten a burrito until she was 27 years old.
‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’
MPA rating: PG-13 (for some strong language and suggestive materials)
Running time: 2:48
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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