Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version): A front-row seat to a gargantuan cultural phenomenon

The movie, directed by Sam Wrench, was filmed last August at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles during the first three shows.

Such was its dream theatrical run that, to no one’s surprise, ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film quickly topped the charts, becoming the highest-grossing concert film to date with a whopping $261.7 million in global earnings.

Swift, who has 14 Grammys to her name and was named Person of the Year by Time last December, then decided to release the film digitally via Universal Pictures, making it available to stream on rent. It dropped on her birthday on December 13 with three additional songs that did not make it to the theatrical cut—Wildest Dreams, The Archer, and Long Live.

Taking further her desire to ensure that ‘The Eras Tour’ is more easily accessible to all, Swift has now released a new expanded Taylor’s version of the concert film on Disney+ Hotstar. The media conglomerate reportedly shelled out $75 million to acquire the concert film’s global streaming rights.

At three-and-a-half hours, it boasts of seven bonus songs. Cardigan from Folklore features in the main concert film. Meanwhile, Death by a Thousand Cuts, Maroon, You Are in Love, I Can See You, Our Song, and You’re on Your Own Kid have been included in the 30-minute acoustic section that follows after the post-credits.

It’s inexplicably surreal to watch Swift, now 34, perform You Belong With Me and Love Story, mega-hits from her 2008 album Fearless which came out when she was only 18. Even after over a decade and a half, they hit just as hard and are just as much fun to sing along. ‘The Eras Tour’ has become an epochal moment in the contemporary zeitgeist not only because of how exquisite and immersive an experience it is—the visionary conceptualisation, the starry, singular production design, and Swift’s unmatched, unreal musical prowess, athletic stamina, and stage presence—but more so because it brilliantly taps into and dials up nostalgia.

When Swift sings of love and heartbreak, calls out patriarchy, plots revenge, or reflects within through her songs, in telling her story, she gives voice to the unmitigated, unaddressed emotions of those of her countless devotees. Each of the eras that she evokes so beautifully on stage doesn’t just depict a distinct time in her life, it also makes everyone watching and listening to her make magic revisit days when they would listen to that particular song on loop.

It’s a transcendental performance. Swift plays with space and time. She pricks at old, forgotten memories and makes them resurface. She resurrects people who were once indispensable but are now nowhere in your life. It’s like a chance leafing through your college slam book that you once kept under your pillow. Even if the pages have faded and you have left behind the pals who filled it with kind words and teen promises, you’re glad that Swift, who was there with you then, is still with you now, doing her thing—providing a rousing background score to your life, underlining every phase with her magnetic, powerhouse talent, making it bearable, even memorable sometimes.

Although it’s a concert film with generous shots of a packed stadium and fans overcome with emotion, watching ‘The Eras Tour’ from the snugness of your home is a deeply intimate, satisfying experience. In the middle of the act, Swift declares, “This tour has meant more to me than anything I’ve ever done or been a part of in my life.” It won’t be a stretch to say that most of her stans who have had the privilege to watch ‘The Eras Tour’ live
 share her sentiment.
 To quote her song Karma, it’s not for nothing why so many fade but she’s still here, as invincible as ever.