Mr. Movie | A long & winding — but very worthwhile — road
In early June of 2019 I went to the concert of a Beatles tribute band. I sat next to two 15-year-old girls who knew the words to all of their songs.
A few days later I had my then 6-year-old and 4-year-old granddaughters with me while on my way to screen Danny Boyle’s semi-science fiction film about everyone forgetting The Beatles ever existed.
We sang Beatles songs all the way there.
I was 13 when The Beatles first took the world by storm. Today, I’m 72 and their staggering popularity can’t really be explained.
Casual music lovers and those more in tune to the art form will tell you the explanation is from the diversity of their music.
Every album was radically different than the one before.
Producer, director, writer, Peter Jackson’s three-segment documentary comes out of the original plan for The Beatles album, “Let it Be.”
The band decided to film the sessions. The plan was to do a concert somewhere to finish the album off. We all know that didn’t happen.
It became a 1:21 minute movie in 1969 and — though recorded before Abbey Road — it was the last album released as a band.
Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and more) took the 55 hours of film, did a long edit, and puts you in the recording studio for the 21-days it took to record the album.
At this writing I am 2/3 of the way through the second segment and wasn’t able to finish before posting this review. I have, however, seen enough to recommend the film for fans, and for non-fans.
Though it is self-indulgent to the max, there are lots of nice surprises. I won’t ruin them, but the movie puts several rumors to rest.
For years we’ve been told about how acrimonious their relationships became. The footage shows four guys who — while maybe sick of spending so much time with each other — still love playing music.
“The Beatles: Get Back” is also hard to watch. That Lennon was murdered, and that neither he, nor Harrison, nor Linda McCartney are no longer with us is sad.
The movie shows them so full of life, love, hope, dreams — and, of course — to some, like me, the most incredible music of all time.
Rated R for language, smoking and mature themes. It can be streamed on Disney+ TV.
Rating: 5 out of 5
