The Beatles - Let It Be (2024)
Sure is wonderful to see a cleaned up ‘Let It Be’! One might think that this 1970 film would be superfluous after six hours of ‘Get Back’, but this important part of the Beatles story has been unavailable officially (and treated with too much revisionism) for far too long. Not to mention the only commercial release of it (1982) was a terrible, cropped, washed out version.
So much of the bad rap for this film came from the Beatles themselves. Yes, it documents the beginning of their last year as a band. But beyond that, more importantly, it documented a rough and ramshackle start leading to a handful of outstanding documented studio takes, and the Rooftop Concert, which is truly one of the greatest triumphs of their career.
Equally as important, Let It Be contains the footage of them tracking the songs they didn’t play on the roof, the following day. Get Back kinda glossed over that session.
Anyone who has ever been in a band knows that the bickering here is pretty mild, just as versatile musicians know its best to accommodate the wishes of the songwriter/ bandleader. I don’t think Paul comes across badly at all. He was energized, and was trying to get the others excited and creatively engaged.
I first saw this at the Bijou Theater in Hermosa Beach as a kid. That place is legendary; saw every Beatles movie, Hitchcock films, and so much more at this groovy old theater. I knew something was awry when I got ahold of a copy of the VHS tape a few years later, then eventually kept a working laser disc player around to keep this one in the archives and easily viewable. The chopped picture was always a bummer; a bootleg did it’s best to restore the whole image, but a lot of the quality was really bad. Thankfully, this Peter Jackson restored version is as good as it’s ever gonna get.