Holding back the years
The images in The Beatles: Get Back are mostly unknown to the general public. They were filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in January 1969 and these 150 hours of audio and 60 hours of video have never had any other use than film Let it Be, lasting about an hour and twenty and appeared in 1970. If the original film showed a group crossed by conflicts and on the verge of separation, it was an editorial choice supported by some extracts only. Peter Jackson for his part wanted to show not the tragedies which plunged the group into separation, but on the contrary the daily life of their association during a pivotal period, the one preceding their separation.
Thanks to this exhumation of the images, the total immersion in the intimacy of the Beatles is total. Everything you ever wanted to see from one of the most legendary bands in rock history is here. Bowl cuts, guys who smoke like carters, meter-long reels, Yoko Ono who never says a word, but stares at John Lennon all the time. Everything is there.
Loving and mischievous, Lennon is a real sun
Somebody to love
But in this room where we are a fly capable of capturing all the details and the most personal moments, it remains above all one thing, the Beatles. They are there, and the camera does not prevent them from being fully themselves for our greatest pleasure. You will see them play there, a lot, seriously or to relax (both are a delight), but also discuss the cultural news of their time, talk about the Rolling Stones, joke, but also wonder about the future. of the project, and of the group.
Peter Jackson managed to brilliantly restore these imotages which naturally revolve around the four members of the group an overwhelming majority of the time. And they are, each in their own way, stellar. Paul McCartney and his creative genius a bit “control freak”, John Lennon in love, light, ethereal, laughing, Ringo Starr in love with the camera and prankster, sometimes a bit lethargic, or even Georges Harrison, already aware that he will be brought to leave the group to give posterity to its productions; they have never been so authentic, pure and accessible. This original material is a real diamond.
George Harrison had to leave the group to give his own productions a future
More than brilliant musicians, they are also talkative people, not eager for discussions. And discussions, there will be. Because the four friends are at the center of a huge project of which they do not measure the ins and outs. They must indeed prepare their first live concert in almost 2 years, writing and rehearsing a new 14 song album which will constitute their new live album. All in two weeks.
Their inability to accomplish their goals then pushes them to discuss and wonder what they want for the future of the group, the opportunity for some of the members to show, politely, that they no longer feel they can continue like this. First anticipated to herald a concert and a live album, their exhausting recording session plunges them into endless high-flying shots until they decide to do an impromptu concert on the roof of Apple Corp. The rest is legendary.
Ringo Starr is accommodating and dreamy, but most of all, a camera lover
Welcome to the machine
Peter Jackson’s staging is virtually invisible, for better or for worse. We obviously expect a lot from the director of one of the most successful trilogies in the history of cinema, but the latter wanted to give pride of place to his original material, leaving only the choices of the extracts. .
He wanted to deal with the subject with a chronological approach, leaving us in the company of the group day by day, using a calendar to show us the time remaining until the deadline. He further detailed a quick history of the group in the first episode, but the point of the documentary is not to trace her.
Workaholic, Paul McCartney writes and composes with frightening efficiency
He only wishes to deal with the pre-separation period of 1969, which ends with the two excellent albums. Abbey Road and Let It Be, but also by the last appearances of the group (the most popular obviously being the illegal concert on the roof of Apple Corp, entirely present in the documentary). In this sense, the series is a declaration of love for its subject matter, which is not treated in such a way as to be entertaining, but to be as comprehensive as possible.
As a reaction to the 1970 film which largely dramatized the group’s situation, Peter Jackson decided to oppose it as much as possible. First of all by eclipsing sequences like the arrival of Allan Klein (Rolling Stones manager who wanted to take care of the Beatles after the death of their original manager) or even the slamming of Georges Harrison’s door, evoked off-screen. He respects his original material all the more by allowing himself (at the turn of a postponement of one year from the release because of the pandemic) the passage from the film to a series, allowing him to go from 2 to 8 hours of content.
Come to assist the group at the request of George Harrison, Billy Preston helps them considerably
Remember the time
And this comprehensiveness in his enterprise of anthropology of the history of the group, Peter Jackson pays off. Because the end result is sometimes dry. Not only does the story last nearly 8 hours, but a large part of it is devoted to rehearsals, by definition repetitive. Some songs will enter the spectator’s psyche of their own accord or forcibly to the point of confronting their sanity., to start with Get Back Where Don’t Let me Down. To make matters worse, the story has only three sets, the last of which, the roof of Apple Corp, only takes up a good half hour.
The viewer will only see the dark Twickenham hangar and the Apple Corp studio, or almost.. And if a nebula of extras, technicians and people who do little more than enjoy the presence of the group is systematically present, their role is minimal. So certainly, the Beatles assure. But they are not actors, whose purpose and embrace the camera and entertain us.
Our Monday mood is Ringo Starr during rehearsals
The documentary lacks rhythm and storytelling. And these two remarks are explained in the same way. Peter Jackson wanted to do justice to this episode of The Beatles’ career by trying to undo what Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s previous documentary did., that is, to focus on their separation, and to show their dissensions in a somewhat Manichean and very linear way.
Peter Jackson on the contrary wanted to show as much as possible of these moments when the Beatles are “right” there, in order to show that the group, in its lengths and in its daily life, got along well. And for that, he needs time.
In episodes 2 and 3, he can afford to take his time, since there are narrative issues intrinsic to the history of the group, such as the departure of George Harrison or the preparation of the concert on the roof of Apple. Corp. But the first episode, which tells of their installation in Twickenham, lacks stake, narration, and past the stage of sublimation by the aura of the four musicians, it is long.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney pass the buck under the omnipresent gaze of Yoko Ono
Shine on you crazy diamond
The Beatles : Get Back deserves special criticism. More than entertainment, it is above all a piece in the history of music (not to say anthropology musiclae) which is not to be judged on the basis of its ability to entertain.
The exhumation and restoration by Peter Jackson of these images are of public interest, since they were, in fact, not accessible to the public until then. Whether the series is good or bad, it at least allows to extend the extracts that we have of the group, of which only two living and active members remain.
The Beatles : Get Back is to be recommended in its entirety and as quickly as possible to the most loyal spectators of the group. The spectator who is not an aficionado of the young premieres will have to be satisfied with a minimalist documentary which chooses to limit its contribution in postproduction so as not to alter the purity of its basic material. And this one is a real diamond.
Sharing their privacy, we would almost forget their status as international stars
To all fans of the group, this documentary is for you. It is a dive into the most total privacy of the unfiltered group. You will witness the sometimes incongruous birth of some of the pieces you cherish most, such as Let It Be which is born in an innocuous way around a few minutes spent by McCartney in front of a piano, under the pensive gaze of Ringo Starr.
We have never had access to images of such value, and no matter how dry the documentary is, there is a mass of everyday moments in the group, of rehearsals, of smoked cigarettes on a guitar, it is essential. But for those who have never succumbed to Beatlemania, it will also (sometimes) be painful.
The 3 episodes of The Beatles: Get Back have been available since November 27, 2021 on Disney +.
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