The Beatles: Get Back is a film that reveals all the secrets behind the recording of Let It Be...
Содержание
"The Beatles: Get Back" is a documentary film by Peter Jackson, which tells the story of what really happened during the recording of Let It Be inside the band... The title is actually a reference to the album, the working title of which was Get Back. In his work, Peter Jackson attempts to revise Lindsay-Hogg's work in order to prove that there was a friendly camaraderie among the band members in the studio....
This project was announced back on 30 January 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Beatles rooftop concert! Jackson's team have been given over 55 hours of footage and 140 hours of audio taken from the original project (this will also include the full 42-minute rooftop concert). As the director himself commented, he was "relieved to find that the reality is very different from the myth... Of course there were overshadowing moments in the Let It Be recording process, but... where without them? They are in any team, in any job..." In short - the main task of Jackson and his team is to take a fresh look at that period in the Beatles' history, which is considered to be terribly dark....
About the film...
In the 50 years since the Beatles broke up, seemingly every known scrap of their history has been scrutinised and prepared for public use - every minute of studio recording, every radio broadcast, home recording and concert tape! Every photo, interview, document and snippet of footage... Everything, with one huge exception: the film Let It Be... Thanks to it, for millions of listeners, Let It Be is Depression-era. We see our favourite Beatles disintegrate before our eyes... And it's truly awful.
There is indeed some magic among the nearly 60 hours of film and even more hours of music created by the Beatles in January 1969... But watching Let It Be (1970) is like watching a couple in the weeks leading up to their divorce... But The Beatles: Get Back is different. Originally conceived as a spontaneous rock documentary "as alive as it can be in this electronic age" - it shows the band having finished recording the White Album and trying to have fun while working on new material! We see Paul and George arguing, John and Yoko still in a fog, it seems....
Naturally, the sound and visuals here are about three times brighter than the original film - the sound is cleaner, much brighter... There are more pastel colours here than muddy browns and blacks... But what's great is that the mood is also three times brighter! "Get Back" is a counterpoint to the sombre "Let It Be", an alternate history that makes you wonder what you think of the original....
The film has a lively supporting cast - long-time producer George Martin, less familiar figures such as Jones, keyboardist Billy Preston, long-time assistant Mel Evans, Ringo's first wife Maureen... We also see Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney laughing heartily together. And yet, there is a kind of idyll between them all... It's as if they are one big family. Maybe not the friendliest, but definitely united....
Manufacturing ...
It had long been clear that "Let It Be" was something that the band members and their heirs had been reluctant to revisit for years. All other official Beatles films have been lavishly reissued, countless documentaries (both authorised and illegal) have been made, but Let It Be has been quietly out of circulation for years... And as the 50th anniversary of its release approached, many wondered how the band would approach what is essentially the anniversary of their death.
The remaining Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as - Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison - are also involved in the film. McCartney said:
"I'm really pleased that Peter has delved into the archives and decided to show people the truth..."
For his part, Ringo Starr said:
"We were just goofing around and playing music! It wasn't at all like it was shown in the earlier film..."
In a brilliant move, the Beatles hired a man who knows how to create a climactic finale: maestro Peter Jackson, whose last project was They'll Never Grow Older, a fascinating documentary about World War I based on meticulously restored footage from a century ago... Jackson commented on his work on Get Back:
"Basically, it's a montage of moments that give you a taste of the spirit of those days..."
Conclusion...
Watching Get Back is like finding a box of old photos or hearing a story that reveals how much your aunt and uncle really loved each other or how cool your mum was... You can think of the original Let It Be as a standalone narrative and Get Back as its counter-narrative. As in life, they're both true. Jackson knows there is no story without good and bad. And for a generation that grew up with the Beatles as virtual family members, this film will be especially important....
