The Beatles: Get Back
The Beatles: Get Back is such a monumental piece of work that it's quite hard to describe and discuss it. In my mind, The Beatles: Get Back represents so much to The Beatles and their story. This is the ultimate piece of Beatles content outside of maybe the Anthology compilations. While it may not be as informative to the entire history of the group like The Beatles Anthology, or as iconic as the A Hard Day's Night movie is, it serves as the most authentic piece of Beatles related media by far. It also doesn't have the need to tell you the history because it is the history. The Beatles: Get Back is over 7 hours of footage chronicling the Get Back sessions that would eventually morph into The Beatles final album, Let It Be. While on paper it might seem just like an extended version of the 1970 documentary Let It Be, Get Back is so much more. The biggest problem with the original Let It Be film is that it feels more like a collection of various songs The Beatles recorded with very little context or information given. Get Back changes Beatles history by not only showing basically the entirety of the Get Back sessions but also providing much needed context and information as to how the Beatles functioned as a band. The Beatles: Get Back is a Non-Stop Showcase of The Beatles doing what they do best and creating great music. It's a true insight into what the band was like. The common belief is that this was a time of turmoil and hardship for the band and not even a full year later, they would essentially be broken up. But in this footage it shows that even in the supposed hard times, The Beatles were still massively energetic and creative people who loved being around each other and having fun. And of course it all culminates into the incredible rooftop performance which might just be the most iconic performance in the history of modern music. Seeing the Beatles write, reharse, rehearse, and then rewrite all these songs and then finally see them in their finished state being performed on top of the Apple Corps rooftop is some of the most satisfying and best stuff I've ever seen. The work that Peter Jackson did compiling all of this footage and basically rewriting this era of The Beatles is remarkable. That being said, I think some of the footage restoration doesn't look that strong. It certainly looks better than the original release of the 1970 Let It Be documentary but often everyone looks airbrushed in. This is made even worse by the recent restoration of the original Let It Be documentary which looks outstanding. I kind of wish we had a version of Get Back that looks like the Let It Be restoration. But after a while it's something that I got used to and can't really complain about because the content of the footage is so remarkable.