“The Beatles: Get Back”A three-part documentary series by Peter Jackson asking the simple question: “How much do you love The Beatles?” It’s a simple question that requires an honest answer. “a lot” if you’re going to sit through another supersized Jacksonian trilogy, in which the “Lord of the Rings” maestro gives us three installments that average more than two-and-a-half hours each to dig deeply in the Beatles’ rocky journey through January 1969.
Then, if you don’t know the answer, “a lot,”As it is with many of us, you may be asking yourself a second question. How amazing would it have been if Peter Jackson had captured the Beatles making one of their greatest albums instead of one of their worst?
No, the Fab Four did not have any documentary cameramen in the studio. “Rubber Soul”Oder “Revolver”Oder “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”Or the White Album “Abbey Road.” The blanket coverage – more than 60 hours of video and 150 hours of audio – came in early 1969 as the Beatles rushed through the recording of an album that was eventually released as “Let It Be”In 1970, 16 months after the recording was made and a month before the group disintegrated.
These classic songs are still available. “Get Back,” “Across the Universe”The title track and the intro. “Let It Be” is a haphazard album recorded during a stressful period in the band’s existence. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was hired to film the three weeks. He was there to document everything. “back-to-basics”Album and then their first concert live since 1966.
The cameras rolled, the Beatles almost broke up and the concert turned into a 42-minute performance on the roof of the band’s London headquarters, a gig about which none of them were particularly enthusiastic. Lindsay-Hogg made the 1970 documentary from his footage. “Let It Be,” a grim chronicle of a fracturing band that didn’t satisfy the group or the audience.
The recent years have witnessed the “Let It Be”Paul McCartney-driven album has had a few makeovers “Let It Be… Naked”Version that was released in 2003 to a box set with five discs featuring alternate takes and remixes.
It is possible to think of “The Beatles: Get Back” as Jackson’s film version of the box set: It expands the “Let It Be”Film to show that there was more to January 1969 than what we saw in the movie. And with access to all of the original footage and no two-hour time constraints, the filmmaker has both restored the footage to startling clarity and produced a massive seven-hour-and-48-minute look at 22 days in two studios and on one rooftop.
It’s exhaustive and it’s exhausting, and for a certain type of Beatles fan (like, I suspect, Jackson himself) it’ll be an irresistible delight. It’s thrilling to be in the room as Paul McCartney and John Lennon find the right light touch for “Two of Us,”Or to see George Harrison helping Ringo Starr write his new song “Octopus’ Garden,”To see or to speak “Get Back”You will begin to see the results. Remember Jojo? He left Tucson, Arizona to find a new home. His last name was once Jackson, which didn’t leave enough syllables in the line to give him a hometown.)
While Lindsay-Hogg’s film is widely considered a downer, Jackson’s is too many different things to be summed up that way. It shows the bonds between the band and the pressures they were under; it also includes Harrison’s moment of resignation. “See you ’round the clubs,”It also includes montages that highlight the joy these men shared in playing music together.
McCartney also makes a joke about people who will be able to predict the future, referring to the fact that the Beatles broke apart. “because Yoko sat on an amp,” in other conversations he goes out of his way to defend the relationship between Lennon and Yoko Ono, who spends much of the movie sitting silently by Lennon’s side.)
Each episode begins with the following: “Get Back”Includes title cards that concede “Numerous editorial choices had to be made during the production of these films”Then, they promise. “At all times, the film-makers have attempted to present an accurate portrait of the events depicted and the people involved.”
It does feel like a true picture of people who couldn’t stop squabbling and who overthought everything, but who also had a bond that came from sharing favorite records and spending countless nights doing shows in dingy clubs – until those clubs turned into stadiums and they became the only four people on Earth who really knew what it was like to be a Beatle.
What is the deal about “Get Back”Jackson is a perfectionist, and can’t leave anything out. This may deter some people. To embrace these near eight hours, you need to completely surrender to his pacing, to glory in every day of the Beatles’ sessions at Twickenham Studios and then at the smaller recording studio in the basement of their Apple headquarters. While you might wish the boys would be more quiet and let their instruments play on occasion, the film is reliant on those endless conversations between McCartney and Harrison trying to get the right chord.
The first episode starts with a 10-minute history lesson. It begins in 1956, when Lennon, then 16, formed the Quarrymen of Liverpool. It continues on for 10 minutes, before it slows down to settle in 1969. The band has been booked into a big soundstage at Twickenham to make an album and plan a show, Lindsay-Hogg has the run of the place and nobody’s very happy with the acoustics or with the very vague plans for their return to live performance.
Lindsay-Hogg is a central character, and he doesn’t come across very well: While the Beatles seem inclined to keep things simple, he can’t stop harping on his grand idea to sail an ocean liner full of Brits to Syria and do the show in some ancient ruins by the seaside at Sabratha. Mind you, this is supposed to take place in three weeks.
The episode’s first episode is almost entirely set at Twickenham. Songs pop up randomly: old rock ‘n’ roll covers, Dylan songs, some tunes that’ll end up on “Let It Be”Oder “Abbey Road” and others that are destined for ex-Beatle solo albums: John’s “Gimme Some Truth,” Paul’s “Another Day,” George’s “All Things Must Pass.”
It’s awfully scattershot for all but Beatles obsessives, even if there are plenty of fun moments and even a few revelatory ones. Jackson allows this to unfold at such a pace that I began to wonder if anyone was still watching the opening history lesson section.
It’s also tricky because, as the opening titles admit, Jackson was working with 150 hours of audio and 60 hours of video – which means that it’s pretty common to notice that a Beatle’s lips aren’t matching what we’re hearing, and that the filmmakers have re-created the scenes using different video to almost match what we’re hearing.
Part 1 comes with a cliffhanger in George Harrison’s exit from the band, and Part 2 finds the group (spoiler alert: George came back) moving into the smaller and friendlier confines of Apple Studios, where they’re joined by keyboardist Billy Preston. They’re happier there and the music-making gets more energetic, but it’s also rough and sloppy and a little angry.
The longest episode at two hours and 53 minutes, this is also the toughest to watch at times: It’s not intimate as much as it’s claustrophobic, with the musicians crammed into a small room with no space and no relief from each other or from their deadlines.
Part 3 is the shortest, and lasts just two hours and 18 mins. It is basically the countdown to the concert on the roof. There are tons of discussions about whether it is worth it. Ringo says yes, George says no and Paul says that he is desperate to see all this work come to an end. SomethingMore than one album.
The entire 42-minute performance on the rooftop is available in “Get Back”Not the shorter version that served as the finale “Let It Be” – but considering that the songs Lindsay-Hogg left out were simply the second versions of “I’ve Got a Feeling”And “Don’t Let Me Down,” it’s debatable whether we’ve gained all that much.
But that’s typical of the series. Peter Jackson loves this group, he loves to show as much of their early 1969 activities as possible and he enjoys long trilogies. Like Smaug’s cave in Jackson’s interminable “Hobbit” movies, “The Beatles: Get Back”You will find an incredible amount of treasure in this area, and it is worth the effort to wade through.
The three episodes of “The Beatles: Get Back”The premiere will be held on consecutive days starting on Nov. 25,.