The Beatles: Get Back (2021) perfectly encapsulates a fascinating chapter in The Beatles' music history with their conception and recording of what would eventually be their final studio album, Let It Be. Perhaps a little too perfectly for it is very long, mind you. Nevertheless, this documentary series gives audiences quality time exploring the individual Beatles members' psyches and creative processes while at work. Beatles fans will be overjoyed at being immersed in reliving music history in real-time and riveted by the meticulous work the band put into creating all-time hits like "Let It Be", "Get Back", and "The Long and Winding Road". This documentary also takes the time to debunk a few longstanding myths surrounding the band's break-up, like the extent of Yoko Ono's involvement with the band during the recording process, but I will get to that later.
The Beatles: Get Back features nearly eight hours of never-before-seen-footage and audio clips of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in action during a twenty-one-day period where they compose their soon-to-be iconic songs inside a soundstage for an eventually-scrapped television special and record the numbers at the Apple Corps headquarters, culminating in the famous rooftop performance atop the studio for scenes initially shot for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg (who frequently appears throughout this series as a minor antagonist with the band members).
As stated earlier, this documentary dispels much of the longstanding rumors about The Beatles' final recordings together being incredibly tense and conflict-heavy. While conflict is present, the overall atmosphere is much more playful and emotionally intimate, like a close-knit family. For instance, the members are seen joking around, making vocal impressions, covering other artists' songs, and breaking into impromptu jam sessions. This documentary also sheds light on the band members' unfiltered personalities. For starters, John was the snarky jokester and one half of The Beatles' songwriting power couple between him and Paul, Paul was the group's unofficial music director and co-ordinator, George was the budding solo artist ready to branch off, and Ringo was the calm and level-headed one throughout the sessions' highs and lows. Also, cameo appearances from The Beatles' music producer George Martin, John's wife Yoko Ono, and actor Peter Sellers (one of Ringo's costars in the 1969 film adaptation of Terry Southern's novel The Magic Christian) make these scenes from the past all the more priceless.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy director Peter Jackson has created yet another visual and listening experience for the ages. His master storytelling skills for epic-scale productions shine here, as audiences are seamlessly transported back in time to moments once thought to be forgotten to the ages. The patience and endurance required on Jackson and the filmmakers' ends to go through every piece of archival material to find a narrative for the documentary are astounding and a testament to their filmmaking and technical experience and expertise. The digital restoration of the never-before-seen footage is a story all on its own, for according to Jackson, The Beatles had long been suppressing the release of the said film upon the release of the Let It Be movie project, which had misrepresented much of the overall creative process as a tension-filled clash of egos. However, a completely different picture eventually gained access to over sixty hours of raw footage and over one-hundred-and-fifty hours of audio recordings from 1969. The documentary's lengthy segments of talking amongst each other did leave me yawning at specific points, not because of the documentary, but because I stayed up late upon viewing it.
Speaking technically, the subject of using Digital Noise Reduction (DNR, for short) on historical footage is a controversial one, for some believe it robs the analog film stock's identity of its organic film grain via digital removal to resemble a modern-day crystal-clear picture quality. Here are my two cents on the matter. At times, I took issue with the DNR, especially during certain closeups on a person's face, which look somewhat waxy. At other times, I was so immersed in the life-like quality of the scenes playing before my eyes that I often forgot about personal technical preferences regarding film preservation. Now granted, every filmmaker has their code on how to restore film footage, but keeping the original materials' vintage look is an absolute must in most cases.
Minor gripes about the length and technical methods used for the footage's restoration aside, I was left with the impression that I somehow knew more about each Beatles member on a personal and creative level, instead of merely believing the myths that surrounded potential reasons behind The Beatles' breaking up, like Yoko Ono's role in the recording process. The documentary reveals that she never actively interfered with the band's creative process. Instead, she quietly sat next to her husband, reading a magazine or knitting without interrupting or micromanaging the creative process in any way.
This documentary could not have been released at a better time as Disney+'s subscription numbers appear to be leveling off following its initial success. There is foul language, casual chain-smoking, R-rated jokes, and so on. Which begs the question: if the family-oriented Disney had to be convinced by the surviving Beatles members and Jackson to keep the Beatles' casual swearing and smoking intact, thus resulting in a viewer discretion warning at the beginning of each episode, what exactly is the point of Disney keeping Hulu? Overseas, Disney+ includes plenty of mature content like 20th Century Fox's Alien and Predator movie series and a more comprehensive array of National Geographic documentaries and docuseries that would be key to attracting a broader audience in the United States. However, I understand that this issue is more of a contractual obligation that Disney needs to fulfill until a specific time before the company can do as it pleases content and service-wise.
At the end of what you can call "A Hard Day's Night", The Beatles: Get Back is an absolute must-watch for Beatles fans, music lovers, and film historians. With the unforgettable tunes comes an equally memorable viewing experience. This documentary is, without doubt, one for the history books, and one that should be required viewing for seeing the whole picture on not only the making of The Beatles' final album but what made The Beatles the enduring one-of-a-kind musical group that they were and continue to be years later.
Final Score: 10 out of 10
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