Peter Jackson Beatles docu to span 6+ hrs, début on Disney+

[Bob Jersey]

The project, based on Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Let it Be, and once planned to be cut down to two hours for theatrical release, documents the final, and actually not-so-tumultuous, period of the Fabs' togetherness... including the entirety of that rooftop concert... another postponement brings its release date to around Thanksgiving, even more footage is believed to be planned as extras when the home video is ready, and a companion book will arrive in October...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/peter-jacksons-the-beatles-get-back-headed-to-disney-for-thanksgiving-bow-1234969639/ (link)

B

[PGage]

I spent much of my TV-watching time this week binging “Get Back” (it’s closer to 8 hours than 6), and it greatly exceeds my mildly optimistic expectations. I have linked below my favorite review (which is to say, the one I most agree with). 

It is a stunning achievement, often thrilling, sometimes heartbreaking. It is not precious, and gives us plenty of warts for everyone (except maybe Ringo). Despite the opening sentence of about 4 of the reviews I read, I doubt anyone other than my ten-year old self really thought Yoko broke up the Beatles in any simple way, so I don’t think absolving her of that blame is a major accomplishment. What is a major accomplishment is that I came away from this liking her a little (though still, not her screeching).

One of the take homes from this is the possibilities afforded by streaming. I think this was originally going to be a theatrical film, and even a long one would have been little more than a third of what we have here. Perhaps this could have played as a mini-series on HBO, but I doubt it would have the same impact in 8 or even 4 weekly installments, and I suspect most people who watch the whole thing now will see it in a week or two at the most.

One of the things I did during the pandemic lockdown was listen to every Original Beatles album in chronological order, mostly while writing my chart notes or waiting out no-shows.  What struck me most is how much better “Let it Be” was then I had remembered. The last Beatles album released, it was the first one I ever listened to start to finish the week it was released, though with childish, 9-year old ears. By the time I got to junior high school the conventional wisdom, which I totally parroted, was that LiB was inferior Beatles. Listening again last year to the entire album (or albums) I found that I rated almost every track as very good or superior. In that context, watching this mega doc was a special treat.

And by now, with the LOTR, that amazing WWI documentary, and this master work,  Peter Jackson has to be seen as one of the great filmmakers of his generation. 

https://variety.com/2021/music/opinion/get-back-beatles-essential-rock-documentary-peter-jackson-1235120784/

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/8b74c185-8951-4b11-aa5c-8ded913f2342n%40googlegroups.com.

--

Sent from Gmail Mobile

[Dave Sikula]

We finished it tonight and my main reaction (other than thinking it's marvelous) was frustration and sadness that they weren't able to overcome their differences (which seem minuscule here, but who knows what was going on when the cameras were off?) and continue creating together. I'm not thinking they should have been "The Beatles" uninterruptedly until 1980, but who knows what occasional reunions might have achieved?

And, yes, Yoko does seem like she's a one-trick pony, and that trick isn't very interesting.

--Dave Sikula

On Friday, December 3, 2021 at 8:57:42 PM UTC-8 PGage wrote:

I spent much of my TV-watching time this week binging “Get Back” (it’s closer to 8 hours than 6), and it greatly exceeds my mildly optimistic expectations. I have linked below my favorite review (which is to say, the one I most agree with). 

It is a stunning achievement, often thrilling, sometimes heartbreaking. It is not precious, and gives us plenty of warts for everyone (except maybe Ringo). Despite the opening sentence of about 4 of the reviews I read, I doubt anyone other than my ten-year old self really thought Yoko broke up the Beatles in any simple way, so I don’t think absolving her of that blame is a major accomplishment. What is a major accomplishment is that I came away from this liking her a little (though still, not her screeching).

One of the take homes from this is the possibilities afforded by streaming. I think this was originally going to be a theatrical film, and even a long one would have been little more than a third of what we have here. Perhaps this could have played as a mini-series on HBO, but I doubt it would have the same impact in 8 or even 4 weekly installments, and I suspect most people who watch the whole thing now will see it in a week or two at the most.

Sent from Gmail Mobile

[PGage]

There is a great moment when Paul observes how stupid it will seem so in 50 years that the Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp. Of course that’s not why they broke up, but like most good relationships that fail it does later seem stupid.

What’s magical about this particular moment in Beatle history (January 1969) is that even though the Let It Be film kind of fixes this as a crisis period, it really is more of an oasis between crises, when they were still able to work together and make great music. Things had been worse in 1968, and will soon get much worse.

The financial and management issues that will soon add unbearable pressure are hinted at in the documentary, but one of the biggest pressures that is not mentioned at all is Lennon (and Ono’s) heroin addiction (though John’s withdrawal and apathy in part one might easily be a result of this). They had been fighting like, well, brothers, for more than a decade by this point, but their conflicts became toxic because heroin addiction made John uninterested, unpredictable and prone to irrational rages. It was not so much that Paul couldn’t forgive him for this, but that because of it they could no longer communicate and resolve their issues.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/f302a399-c57d-4bdc-b871-715cbb91df1bn%40googlegroups.com.

[two...@gmail.com]

It was near impossible to get reliable information about the Beatles or the individuals at the time of, or following their breakup. We knew them mostly from the radio and a bit from TV. I don’t remember they did movies until they aired on TV years later. Anything that appeared in newspapers or magazines about them either related to marketing them or came from sources too remote to be reliable. In those days the only people who would immerse themselves in the breakup story were rabid fans and the stories that came out were tailored to them.

I heard repeatedly in the schoolyard that Yoko broke up the Beatles and I didn’t care enough to form a critical opinion or to make the effort to find out if it was true. It really took the internet with its instant access to tons of materials to get a better sense of what happened.

On Dec 4, 2021, at 8:37 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYLH35otpmeFOYHt29JGncva92TqTMnEE7iJuVcbtGK9CA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Kevin M.]

I’m moving slowly through “Get Back,” but I am enjoying it… just lots of other stuff to do, not to mention lots of other stuff to watch. Regarding the “Yoko broke up the Beatles” trope, what strikes me is that George, Paul, and Ringo had five decades to set the record straight, and they sort of talked about it without talking about it on the Anthology series that aired on ABC (was it 25 years ago?), but none of them ever seemed to say “we were four grown men who chose to go our separate ways… quit blaming Yoko.” In the first episode, people were more annoyed by George’s Hare Krishna friend just sitting alone in a corner than they seem to be with Yoko 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/50F0722F-2304-4FA1-840E-AAC554B8DFD8%40gmail.com.

--

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Steve Timko]

“Get Back” was great. Total nostalgia rush. “Let It Be” was probably my least favorite Beatles album from the second half of their releases, but I like it much better now. I loved hearing the seedlings of what would become the second side of “Abbey Road,” which I think is the best second side of any rock album. And George Harrison is singing a song – I can’t remember which, maybe “Something” – and he has the wrong lyrics. You want to scream out the lyrics he ended up using.
One thing drilled into my head was that Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. In a sense she did, in that John seemed to want to collaborate with her instead of McCartney. The Atlantic described it as six divorces going on at once and that’s apt. There were lots of problems   -- nothing major, it seemed – but it was more than one fracture. A common story was that McCartney directed “Get Back” as a rebuke of Yoko. It started as a song protesting British nationalism, with “Get Back” mocking criticism of immigrants. There one cute anti-Yoko moment. Yoko warbles some sort of singing. Then McCartney’s daughter mimics Yoko’s warbling and looks back at her with a twinkle in her eye.
All of the Beatles except Harrison look so vibrant. Even though Harrison was the youngest, he seemed a little sickly. I wanted to get some steak and potatoes in him.
John was sharp and seemed like he was a lot of fun. It’s sad a dark period of addiction awaited him for the next eight years or so. Ringo seemed a bit more handsome than I remembered. Paul did not look comfortable in the beard.
Lots of cameos. There’s Alan Parsons running the tape machine. About four years later, Pink Floyd would release the Parsons-produced “Dark Side of the Moon.” Peter Sellers is filming “The Magic Christian” with Ringo and stops by for some odd conversation. There’s the inspiration for “Layla.” Billy Preston was more than a cameo. He was just a teen when he ran into The Beatles in Hamburg and stopped by to say hello and played a significant part of the album. I haven’t seen the “Let it Be” movie, but Ringo makes a quip in a promo for “Get Back” that the director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, made a point to give himself a lot of screen time in “Let it Be.”
Peter Jackson deserves accolades for keeping the documentary interesting over several hours. Maybe he had such good material he couldn’t fail.
Just as a side note, everyone seems to have good teeth but then one Brit comes along inn the second episode and perpetuates the British stereotype of having bad dentistry.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4CHei6A2W7P5PY46KkJwvgsUDfmNp9%2BwsF9KydnxDs4Ew%40mail.gmail.com.

[PGage]

Again, while it’s been the equivalent of a social meme since the White Albulm, I don’t think many people have seriously ever thought that Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles. She is just the most visible example of how, in their late 20s, other things were becoming more important to them than the band.

 Also disagree about your take on Lennon, who was already addicted to Heroin by this time, and often looks it. He is often apathetic and uninvolved. During one of Paul’s many scoldings of his mates for not being productive, John whines that singing one of the solos tired him out, and he couldn’t work any more most of the day. That’s at like, age 28. That’s heroin, which had more to do with the break up of the Beatles than Yoko (except to the extent that she was his heroin buddy). 

I loved the doc, and came away liking a Paul more, and John (drama Queen) and George (soiled youngest son) less, though his songs during this period are classic.

And I like Maxwell’s Silver Hammer…

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAH5J8yy_iLSyuYrM_3CDNA2x7G64rpQCsF6z0ChSGw0_DwYuyg%40mail.gmail.com.