☮️ Get Back: 7+ hours of Beatle-Mania
What’s up everyone?
Earlier this week, Disney dropped one of the most anticipated documentaries of the year, containing unseen footage from over 50 years ago of The Beatles’ last act together titled ‘Get Back’ 🎸
Set in January 1969, the documentary starts off with the disclaimer of the film-makers having to sift through 60 hours of video and 150 hours of audio footage in order to edit the documentary 🎥
Who’s at the directorial helm of the entire project?
Sir Peter Robert Jackson 🇳🇿
Doesn’t ring a bell? Think of a 60-year old 3-time Academy Award winning New Zealander, credited with creating one of the most visually appealing science-fiction films in King Kong 🐻, and not one but TWO epic trilogies: Lord of the Rings 💍 and The Hobbit 🧒
With his films having grossed $6.5 Billion combined, Jackson knows what he’s doing, and having given access to unseen footage from arguably the greatest band of all time, the documentary was a match made in heaven for music and film fans.
I must admit, when I sat down to begin watching it, I was bogged by the insane run time of 7+ hours, broken up into 3 parts and being interrupted in between for representational footage over the audio clips 🎙
However, for Beatles’ fans, it’s like being a kid in a Candy Shop 🤤
Starting off with the brief backdrop of their meteoric shot to fame over the 60s, it quickly dives into how the New Year of ’69 brings with it a 3-week project for The Beatles.
Fresh off the success of The White Album, and despite murmurs of discontent within the band, all 4 of them- Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, agree upon one final album- consisting of 14 songs to be written and recorded within 21 days, ending with their last ever public performance
With this gargantuan task set ahead of them, the documentary dives into lengthy video and audio clips of the 4 trying to keep creative differences aside and finish this seemingly impossible album in 3 weeks ⏳
At this point, the documentary can go either two ways if you decide to give it a shot ⬇️
As a passive fan, you’re hooked for the first one hour or so, simply for the visual aesthetics of seeing the four of them in colour & flesh, in a manner never seen before, & takes you back to London in the late 60s 🏴
However, I would imagine it could get mundane after a point, especially with a major chunk of the doc being representational video/images over audio clips, and their reactions in between takes 🎬
If you do manage to get through the dragging bits, there are some absolute gems hidden in between, and according to me and probably the rest of the Internet, it revolved around 1 person: Sir Paul McCartney
Watching the four lads still in their 20s, trying to scrape an album together within 3 weeks is like a group of students preparing for a school project, and McCartney inevitably is the one guy who ends up doing all the work 😅
Lennon is too distracted with Yoko Ono (present at all times in Studio), Harrison is heavily influenced by Indian Spirituality and Classical music ever since their trip to India, and Ringo is well.. Ringo 🤷♂️
The ‘de-facto’ leader of the bunch, a matter of much annoyance to Lennon and Harrison, it’s clear to see that McCartney drives much of the creative influence of The Beatles, and almost seems like the only one to give a shit about the project.
Him conjuring out one of the best selling Beatles’ singles of all time: ‘Get Back’ out of thin air is the craziest thing you’ll see this week 🤯👇🏻
https://twitter.com/BeatlesEarth/status/1465707030690156547?s=20
He’s almost like the CEO of this multi-billion dollar enterprise that is The Beatles, and getting to watch bits and pieces like this, into the minds of a creative genius like McCartney is truly a treat to the eyes
At 7+ hours long, there’s so much to uncover here, with tensions flaring up between rehearsals to the point that Harrison quits the band briefly, Lennon and McCartney taking shots at each other and the live performance venue undecided.
However, as we know it, t he entire project culminated with The Beatles performing on the rooftop of their own studio: Apple Corps in London, their last ever public performance, with the London police hilariously trying to shut the concert down 👮🏻♂️
In one of his interviews, director Peter Jackson said that his biggest fear before taking on this project would be to find out that as a life-long Beatles fan, his idols were actually jerk-offs on camera in real life 📷
However, as he himself breathes a sigh of relief, there is nothing else further from the truth.
Watching the chemistry between the four of them is a treat, and even if you’re not a massive music fan, give it a shot for understanding the work that goes behind the creative process 🎶
As a wannabe cinephile, coming across films that leave a permanent mark on you is a rare feeling, and this one is definitely up there in that bracket
I know what I’ll be binging this weekend, have a good one folks ✌🏻
Originally published at https://incentify.substack.com on December 3, 2021.
