I just finished watching the 3-part, 8-hour Beatles documentary “Get Back” on Disney+. The film shows The Beatles in January 1969 composing, rehearsing, and recording songs for what would become their last released album, “Let it Be” in 1970.
The original 2-hour documentary film, “Let it Be” was released in 1970 and was a bit depressing because it showed the group on the verge of breaking up. For “Get Back”, Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Ring trilogy) took a fresh look at the over 70 hours of film and created the 8-hour documentary that shows a different perspective on those 30 days in January 1969. Yes, there was discourse (George actually quit the band for 4 days), but the expanded film shows them talking things out, collaborating, cracking jokes, and enjoying each other.
The film also shows the prominence and influence of Billy Preston. Billy visited The Beatles while they were rehearsing and brought some unifying spirit to them. He spent 20 days rehearsing with them, adding his exceptional keyboard to most of the songs on the album, and became the 5th Beatle on “Let it Be”.
Part 1 of the film, which lasts 3 hours, shows the first 7 days of The Beatles coming together to produce an album that would be recorded live, and culminate in a live concert. The concept was to eliminate studio recording tricks and overdubs, and “get back” to when they were first recording music. It’s amazing to see Paul sitting down with his base guitar and composing “Get Back”. It shows the genius that was Paul McCartney. And it’s hard to believe that they were only 25 years old (George), 26 (Paul), and 28 (John and Ringo) when they recorded this.
Part 2 of the film, which also lasts 3 hours, shows them composing and rehearsing. You see and hear the songs coming together, and they begin recording takes. This part was a bit long for me, but who am I to critique Peter Jackson!
Part 3 of the film, the last 2 hours, focuses on the famous concert The Beatles gave on the rooftop of their Abbey Road studios. It’s quite magical to see them perform live, and see people gather in the streets and on rooftops to see and hear them. They disrupted the street traffic and businesses, and police eventually showed up to shut them down. The Beatles were the original “influencers” and “disrupters”.
If you’re interested in seeing how The Beatles formulated and composed songs, collaborated, and created an album and movie, then you’ll enjoy “Get Back”. If you don’t want to invest 8 hours, at least watch Part 3, and enjoy the rooftop concert and the recording of the final songs for the album.
“Get Back” brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart. I loved seeing them as natural human beings, arguing sometimes, working out their differences, laughing, smiling, and being the greatest musical group of all time.
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