This week, Disney+ premiered the remastered version of Let It Be, the 1970 film which chronicled the Beatles’ recording sessions for what would end up being their final album of new material. It’s also the film that provided the raw stock for what would become Get Back, the 8-hour documentary which premiered in 2021. Many people have said a lot about Let It Be over the years. Most if not all of that has come from people who weren’t able to see it in its initial form. After 54 years we can finally look at this film and decide if it truly deserves the reputation critics gave it.
If you really want to know the backstory of Let It Be, you’ll watch Get Back. Get Back is a vastly superior film documenting a month when The Beatles planned to produce a live concert album. That plan didn’t work out, and out of the ashes came the Let It Be album and accompanying film. By the time the film premiered, The Beatles themselves had dissolved, and enthusiasm for the ideals which permeated youth culture in the 1960s was rapidly fading.
As a result, critics panned the film. Distributors pulled it and for a long time you could only watch it on bootleg video of one sort or another. I think the first time I saw it, it was on a copy of a copy of a VHS. A few years ago, I watched it on Vimeo. A recent Google search turned it up here. This is how we all came to have a relationship with this film, for most of our lives.
And then, Peter Jackson got the opportunity to look at the original 16mm film negatives and magnetic tape audio recordings. He found that with 2020s technology, it was possible to create high-quality masters, and even extract audio that was impossible to hear before. The result of that effort was Get Back, but in creating that 2021 film, it became clear that the 1970 film could benefit from the same treatment.
And now, we get to see that result. We can see the film in a way it couldn’t be seen in 1970. The film that premiered in 1970, according to contemporary accounts, was dark, grainy, and muddy. Today, it’s not. Does that make a difference to our perception of it?
Having watched Let It Be, it’s an interesting document of the time. It’s not terribly good, to be honest. It’s choppy and there’s no context to the story. Supposedly this is because The Beatles demanded cuts that removed all of the important events that took place. George quit the band. I mean, that’s huge, and you don’t see it in the film at all. The film’s presentation is bright and clear unlike its 1970 release. This only highlights the feeling of malaise and boredom from The Beatles. There are so few light moments and they’re presented as misty memories, as if you were smiling at a happier day while you were terribly sad.
I think reviewers of the time got it right. Yes, when the film came out, The Beatles were over and many people felt that “the 60s” themselves were dead. Surely that colored the critics’ perceptions. But despite that, I think they got it right. At the time, The Observer wrote,
I’d say that pretty much matches my feelings about the film too.
Other online reviewers, both professional and amateur, have said that the film’s poor reception was undeserved. The general feeling today is that people were just sad about The Beatles breaking up so they projected that into the film. I disagree. Simple as that.
What’s most interesting is that Let It Be and Get Back are such vastly different films despite being based on the exact same source material. Maybe they wouldn’t have been if original filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg had been allowed to make the film he wanted. But Let It Be shows the world a group of tired musicians, assumes the viewer knows why, and tries so hard to hide the tension under the surface that it only amplifies it. It’s an uncomfortable film to watch, more so because it’s slow, ponderous, and unimaginative by 2024 standards. The only thing you can say about it is that it’s compact, at under 2 hours compared to Peter Jackson’s sprawling Get Back.
Get Back tells the actual story. It starts with the idea that there will be a live concert album and behind-the-scenes documentary. As days go on, it becomes obvious that the live concert can’t happen. The musicians don’t want it. The logistics are impossible. Everyone’s running out of time. There’s genuine tension in the dialogue about what comes next. Along the way though, you get to see 4 men who grew up together, willingly enjoying the process. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes they get nostalgic or silly. But throughout it, you get a feeling that they understand each other. Of course they do, they’ve spent a decade together.
Of course the penalty you pay for really knowing the story is that it takes over 8 hours to tell. If you’re not a Beatles diehard, this is going to be a tough sell. Get Back demands that level of commitment, and sometimes it doesn’t pay off. Watching the 75th rehearsal of “Dig a Pony” (not the group’s best song anyway) is tough even for a true fan.
Not the best album or the best Beatles film, Let It Be served in 1970 as a way for people to put the past in perspective. The future of music and culture was going to be very different. For the next five decades, people could still love The Beatles, but it was never going to be a love based on anything current. From the moment that film premiered, it was always going to be nostalgia.
In recent years, The Beatles have, surprisingly, suffered in popular perception. There are now four generations of adults who grew up never knowing the group as a current thing. Rather, depending on who you hung out with, you may have not heard much of them at all, or you may have thought of them as almost classical in nature, like Beethoven or Brahms. Today though, as GenZ dominates and Gen Alpha waits in the wings sharpening its teeth in preparation, the overall feeling has changed.
It’s common to hear younger people say The Beatles weren’t that good. That they lived in a time where real creativity wasn’t possible, that there wasn’t real diversity in the listening experience, and where “experimental” was often just a code word for “bad.” I’m not sure I believe any of that, but I do believe that good music affects people different ways at different times. If today’s young people don’t see any resonance in 60-year-old music, I don’t blame them. On the other hand, if greybeards like me want to occasionally look back at songs that defined their lives, that’s ok too.
For me, Let It Be (2024) gives me the opportunity to think about other types of music, perhaps even current music. It tells me that I don’t need to live in my Beatles era, as the kids would say. I can visit it, but I can feel closure about it if I want. So I’ll thank both Lindsay-Hogg and Jackson for that, and move on.
The post STREAMING SATURDAY: Let It Be appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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The story of Let It Be
If you really want to know the backstory of Let It Be, you’ll watch Get Back. Get Back is a vastly superior film documenting a month when The Beatles planned to produce a live concert album. That plan didn’t work out, and out of the ashes came the Let It Be album and accompanying film. By the time the film premiered, The Beatles themselves had dissolved, and enthusiasm for the ideals which permeated youth culture in the 1960s was rapidly fading.
As a result, critics panned the film. Distributors pulled it and for a long time you could only watch it on bootleg video of one sort or another. I think the first time I saw it, it was on a copy of a copy of a VHS. A few years ago, I watched it on Vimeo. A recent Google search turned it up here. This is how we all came to have a relationship with this film, for most of our lives.
And then, Peter Jackson got the opportunity to look at the original 16mm film negatives and magnetic tape audio recordings. He found that with 2020s technology, it was possible to create high-quality masters, and even extract audio that was impossible to hear before. The result of that effort was Get Back, but in creating that 2021 film, it became clear that the 1970 film could benefit from the same treatment.
And now, we get to see that result. We can see the film in a way it couldn’t be seen in 1970. The film that premiered in 1970, according to contemporary accounts, was dark, grainy, and muddy. Today, it’s not. Does that make a difference to our perception of it?
A new review of the film
Having watched Let It Be, it’s an interesting document of the time. It’s not terribly good, to be honest. It’s choppy and there’s no context to the story. Supposedly this is because The Beatles demanded cuts that removed all of the important events that took place. George quit the band. I mean, that’s huge, and you don’t see it in the film at all. The film’s presentation is bright and clear unlike its 1970 release. This only highlights the feeling of malaise and boredom from The Beatles. There are so few light moments and they’re presented as misty memories, as if you were smiling at a happier day while you were terribly sad.
I think reviewers of the time got it right. Yes, when the film came out, The Beatles were over and many people felt that “the 60s” themselves were dead. Surely that colored the critics’ perceptions. But despite that, I think they got it right. At the time, The Observer wrote,
The film is a bore. It’s supposed to show how the Beatles work, but it doesn’t. Shot without any design, clumsily edited, uninformative and naive, it would have destroyed a lesser group. Yet, there they are, singing away, charming the pants off the most cynical of pop-music haters.
I’d say that pretty much matches my feelings about the film too.
Others have been kinder, but I stand by what I write
Other online reviewers, both professional and amateur, have said that the film’s poor reception was undeserved. The general feeling today is that people were just sad about The Beatles breaking up so they projected that into the film. I disagree. Simple as that.
What’s most interesting is that Let It Be and Get Back are such vastly different films despite being based on the exact same source material. Maybe they wouldn’t have been if original filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg had been allowed to make the film he wanted. But Let It Be shows the world a group of tired musicians, assumes the viewer knows why, and tries so hard to hide the tension under the surface that it only amplifies it. It’s an uncomfortable film to watch, more so because it’s slow, ponderous, and unimaginative by 2024 standards. The only thing you can say about it is that it’s compact, at under 2 hours compared to Peter Jackson’s sprawling Get Back.
Get Back tells the actual story. It starts with the idea that there will be a live concert album and behind-the-scenes documentary. As days go on, it becomes obvious that the live concert can’t happen. The musicians don’t want it. The logistics are impossible. Everyone’s running out of time. There’s genuine tension in the dialogue about what comes next. Along the way though, you get to see 4 men who grew up together, willingly enjoying the process. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes they get nostalgic or silly. But throughout it, you get a feeling that they understand each other. Of course they do, they’ve spent a decade together.
Of course the penalty you pay for really knowing the story is that it takes over 8 hours to tell. If you’re not a Beatles diehard, this is going to be a tough sell. Get Back demands that level of commitment, and sometimes it doesn’t pay off. Watching the 75th rehearsal of “Dig a Pony” (not the group’s best song anyway) is tough even for a true fan.
Let It Be isn’t a good film. But it’s a good way to move on.
Not the best album or the best Beatles film, Let It Be served in 1970 as a way for people to put the past in perspective. The future of music and culture was going to be very different. For the next five decades, people could still love The Beatles, but it was never going to be a love based on anything current. From the moment that film premiered, it was always going to be nostalgia.
In recent years, The Beatles have, surprisingly, suffered in popular perception. There are now four generations of adults who grew up never knowing the group as a current thing. Rather, depending on who you hung out with, you may have not heard much of them at all, or you may have thought of them as almost classical in nature, like Beethoven or Brahms. Today though, as GenZ dominates and Gen Alpha waits in the wings sharpening its teeth in preparation, the overall feeling has changed.
It’s common to hear younger people say The Beatles weren’t that good. That they lived in a time where real creativity wasn’t possible, that there wasn’t real diversity in the listening experience, and where “experimental” was often just a code word for “bad.” I’m not sure I believe any of that, but I do believe that good music affects people different ways at different times. If today’s young people don’t see any resonance in 60-year-old music, I don’t blame them. On the other hand, if greybeards like me want to occasionally look back at songs that defined their lives, that’s ok too.
For me, Let It Be (2024) gives me the opportunity to think about other types of music, perhaps even current music. It tells me that I don’t need to live in my Beatles era, as the kids would say. I can visit it, but I can feel closure about it if I want. So I’ll thank both Lindsay-Hogg and Jackson for that, and move on.
The post STREAMING SATURDAY: Let It Be appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
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