I've been looking for this movie since I became a Beatles fan in the early 90's. I'd go to video stores. "No we don't have it. Hold on let me look it up. Yes, it's been released, but no, we don't have it." I'd ask friends who were Beatles fans. "Well I have an old VHS copy, but it's not very good quality. No, you can't borrow it."
I knew from the Beatles Anthology (q.v.) that the band was breaking up, they were irritated and irritable, that John and George (particularly) did not want to do the film but Paul talked them in to it. I expected that.
Finally, I got a chance to see the movie, and here's what I didn't expect: When they started to play music, once they worked out the mechanics of the song, they had fun. There was the joy of the fellowship of being a band, still, even whilst in the middle of a messy divorce. You can see it in John's "Dig It" improvisation, or the "Rip It Up/Blue Swede Shoes/Shake Rattle and Roll Medley." And once they get on the roof, and start jamming, wow, they weren't four guys with their own problems any more, they were The Beatles. Watch them come together against the police telling them to tune the music down at the end. Is it a great movie? No, not really. It's not even a good documentary. But it has some great moments.
When you hear the story told in Beatles Anthology or other sources, things sound like they were so bad that you can't believe they got together to make one more Album (Abbey Road). You have to see Let It Be to understand how they could still make wonderful music together, and have fun doing it.
They have to release this movie.
I knew from the Beatles Anthology (q.v.) that the band was breaking up, they were irritated and irritable, that John and George (particularly) did not want to do the film but Paul talked them in to it. I expected that.
Finally, I got a chance to see the movie, and here's what I didn't expect: When they started to play music, once they worked out the mechanics of the song, they had fun. There was the joy of the fellowship of being a band, still, even whilst in the middle of a messy divorce. You can see it in John's "Dig It" improvisation, or the "Rip It Up/Blue Swede Shoes/Shake Rattle and Roll Medley." And once they get on the roof, and start jamming, wow, they weren't four guys with their own problems any more, they were The Beatles. Watch them come together against the police telling them to tune the music down at the end. Is it a great movie? No, not really. It's not even a good documentary. But it has some great moments.
When you hear the story told in Beatles Anthology or other sources, things sound like they were so bad that you can't believe they got together to make one more Album (Abbey Road). You have to see Let It Be to understand how they could still make wonderful music together, and have fun doing it.
They have to release this movie.