How many hours of the Beatles is too much?
For this lifelong fan, there is no limit, although my attention span did wear a bit thin at times during the nearly eight-hours-long documentary The Beatles: Get Back.
Premiering this past Thanksgiving weekend on Disney+, the three-part series offers an unprecedented look into the legendary band's closing days in January 1969 while recording their final album, Let It Be. Directed by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, They Shall Not Grow Old), Get Back was cut from 60-plus hours of archival footage shot in 1969 for the initial Let It Be documentary, released in 1970.
While I've seen every minute of every other Beatles' film — including the eight-part The Beatles Anthology docuseries from the mid-'90s — Let It Be is the single title missing from my enthusiastic fan repertoire. And that's only because in the early 2000s, when I first experienced Beatlemania three decades too late as a tween/teen, Let It Be was unavailable on VHS or DVD. (The film is reportedly being remastered in conjunction with Get Back, although an official release date has yet to be announced.) I've been fine maintaining this cinematic blind spot, since the documentary was widely reputed to be a depressing, dismal look into the fractured finale of the greatest band of all time. John Lennon even called the album's recording sessions "miserable."
But miserable, dear reader, Get Back is not.
Apart from a tense disagreement in the first episode between Paul McCartney and George Harrison, after which Harrison quits the band for a couple of days, Get Back mostly shows a group of talented musicians and close friends having a damn fine time. They goof off a lot, and occasionally pull hit songs out of thin air, as McCartney does with the titular "Get Back."
Seeing that particular moment caught on camera is truly astounding. Because of Let It Be's expedited deadline, many songs workshopped in-studio were old unrecorded tracks (like the early Lennon/McCartney tune "One After 909") or half-baked ideas from individual bandmates.
Even though we know how the story ends, Get Back still presents plenty of fresh insight and context to the Beatles' legacy.
For one, the film's fly-on-the-wall perspective offers plenty of evidence that the John Lennon-Yoko Ono relationship, and Ono's constant presence by Lennon's side, wasn't especially disruptive to the Beatles' creative process. While maybe a slight inconvenience to the others at times, Ono hardly ever speaks, and certainly doesn't give unsolicited feedback about the music. Other Beatle partners also hang out on set; second most is Linda (Eastman) McCartney, who's often joined by her rambunctious, 7-year-old daughter, Heather.
As a former teenage Lennon fangirl enamored with his constant attention-seeking, goofball antics, at 33, I now find his behavior more annoying than funny. From the unending on-mic quips and silly singing voices to showing up late with greasy, unwashed hair in the same outfit day after day, I for the first time thought Lennon grating. While he wasn't always like this, and was often encouraged by the others, seeing McCartney try to keep the group on track in the wake of another Lennon-caused derailment got old after the third or fourth time.
The Beatle I enjoyed most — besides steady, good-hearted Ringo Starr — was George Harrison. This period saw Harrison finally blossoming into his own as a songwriter at the young age of 25. (Lennon and Starr were both 29; McCartney was 27.)
Some of Harrison's best songs — "Something," "Old Brown Shoe," "All Things Must Pass" — were in early creation during Get Back, and yet none made it onto Let It Be. A revealing moment of Harrison's discontent (besides the aforementioned row with McCartney) comes during an intimate talk with Lennon near the end of episode three. Harrison floats doing an album of his own songs, separate from the Beatles. Lennon fully supports the idea.
By the end of Get Back, as the Beatles performed live for the last time ever in that famous Apple Corps rooftop show, I was emotionally charged and physically on the edge of my seat. All the buildup — the highs, lows, laughter and frustration — led us and them to this final moment. Only when the London police, delayed as long as possible by Apple's staff, finally pop out from the stairwell and the ecstatically grinning foursome put their instruments down do I finally release my breath, there at the bittersweet end. ♦
THE GET BACK AWARDS
Best Dressed: George Harrison; Runner-up: Ringo StarrMost Reliable: Ringo Starr
Most Valuable Musician: Billy Preston
Most Disruptive (band): John Lennon
Most Disruptive (guest): Heather McCartney
Least Disruptive: Yoko Ono
Dirtiest Hair: John Lennon
Bossiest: Paul McCartney
Most Productive Songwriter (tie): Paul McCartney and George Harrison
Goofiest Outtake: "Two of Us" as sung by John and Paul pretending to be ventriloquists
Best Fan: Old man on the street: "I think the Beatles are cracking! I said, you can't beat 'em!"
