Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/07/restored-beatles-film-let-it-be-to-start-streaming-on-disney-tomorrow.html
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I went through a period when I was hunting down bootlegs of various musician’s projects such as “Cocksucker Blues” by the Stones (blur for epithet; that film definitely should not be rereleased) and got my hands on a copy of Let it Be that I never watched because of the really poor quality. I had always read that a lot of the anti-Yoko sentiment came from her portrayal in LiB, so I’m hoping that has been cleaned up a bit. After watching Get Back, I really wished that Jackson had stitched together a 90-120 min version for those who couldn’t devote such a massive amount of time to the entire piece. This should be a good proxy.
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I saw this film in the theater in the mid-70’s, on a double bill with “Gimme Shelter” At the time, I did not think it was depressing or painted the band in a negative light. It was fun seeing them play!
Also, it was way less grim than “Gimme Shelter”
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I’ve seen the Stones’ CS blues film on YouTube before,. It’s not good, and has some very uncomfortable moments.
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After watching ‘Get Back’, I got the impression that Michael Lindsey-Hogg had a vendetta against the band and cut the most claustrophobic, depressing story he could pull out of the footage, essentially removing his own tone-deaf part in the proceedings and setting the tone to match his own disappointment with the cancellation of the live show.
There are some nice moments in Let It Be, like John and Yoko dancing in the studio, from what I recall, but the mood of the movie overall matched the Apple Records logo on the LP label for the vinyl release, which was a red apple with a rotten core. It really goes to show how much of a difference editing can make when you look at the Let It Be movie compared to Peter Jackson’s Get Back, even accounting for the longer run time Jackson had. Jackson’s cut portrays the studio locations as bustling businesses with a team of studio and label workers and not just the band sequestered in an isolated room. Jackson even gives this sense of place to the rooftop concert, you feel the Apple Corps offices as a real live space where the characters move through, Lindsey-Hogg had the cameras and even shot the footage, but he didn’t have the visual juice to use it to help tell the story.
I’d love to see what Jackson would be able to do with a 90 minute cut of the footage, or other directors, for that matter. There are distinct story threads in Get Back, John’s disinterest and just how things transform when he steps up, George’s skepticism about the whole project, Ringo holding things together, and Paul (somewhat unsuccessfully) trying to lead things without being a jerk, and the role of the documentarian himself (shades of Spinal Tap). Lindsey-Hogg does not come off as a very sympathetic character in Get Back, yet he managed to film some remarkable footage, even if he left it on the proverbial floor.
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In Get Back there was some annoyance with Yoko being in the studio, but everybody’s partner was in the studio at one point or another. It was nicely recontextualized by Paul saying how he understands that Yoko and John just want to be together, and how wild it would be if 50 years later Beatles fans thought they broke up because “Yoko sat on an amp or something” (paraphrasing).
I haven’t seen Let it Be in years but I still remember how dark and dour it was. It completely soured me on the album as well because all I could think of is how miserable they must have been recording it. Get Back really changed my mind with all of that. It’ll be interesting to see how a rewatch of Let it Be will feel.
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