Photo Courtesy of The Independent
Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary of The Beatles’ footage of their “Get Back” sessions aired on Disney+ Thanksgiving weekend. After Jackson came across 60 hours of footage from the filming of the 1970 feature film “Let it Be,” he decided to restore and condense it down to a nine-hour miniseries. The project, which Jackson describes as a “documentary about a documentary,” took him around four years to complete with the help of surviving Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Richard “Ringo Starr” Starkey as well as the widows of the deceased: John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono and George Harrison’s wife, Olivia Harrison. Though the documentary was set to air in 2020, it was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 1970 film, “Let it Be,” showed the group working on their upcoming album with the working title, “Get Back.” The film depicted many tensions between the members of the group which Jackson discovered to be heavily manipulated when the footage was made available to his team. Jackson’s version, which was picked up by Disney+, portrays footage of the 21 days of studio sessions leading up to their album, the “Let it Be” film and final live performance as a foursome. Most material used in the “Let it Be” film was not recycled for “Get Back.” Instead, the footage shows lighthearted and intimate moments of the musicians and those close to them. Every moment of the film is raw and unfiltered, much to the original disapproval of Disney+ who wanted to censor several moments from the documentary. Jackson told Radio Times, “The Beatles are Scouse boys, and they freely swear but not in an aggressive or sexual way. We got Disney to agree to have swearing, which I think is the first time for a Disney channel.” The streaming platform decided to allow the profanity with a content warning at the beginning of each part.
Each episode, which is about three hours in length, is filled with jam sessions of the development of the band’s famous songs including the title of the film, “Get Back,” “Let It Be” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” Audiences see the dynamic between the four members with each other, as well as with the others on set with them. A charming moment in the third part shows Paul and Linda McCartney’s daughter, Heather, dancing around Apple Corps studio while the band plays. The silly interactions between her and Paul McCartney stand out as one of the more joyous parts of the documentary compared to emotional moments shown toward the end of the first part and the beginning of the second.
“The Beatles: Get Back” is a wonderful depiction of the famous band toward the end of their run. Fans of the group will appreciate Jackson’s authentic and lengthy footage and those who are not as familiar with Beatlemania will find themselves wanting more. After over 50 years, this is just the thing to popularize the fab four among all generations once again thanks to Jackson’s phenomenal and tireless work.
