Michael Lindsay-Hogg continued to film tirelessly. When his documentary “Let It Be” was finally released in May 1970, the Beatles were already separated.
For many fans, “Let It Be” degenerated into an unloved, depressing break-up film. Although it documents creative work processes, it also documents bad moods, quarrels between Paul McCartney and George Harrison or conflicts with Yoko Ono.
The Beatles hated “Let It Be”. It went down in history as swan song on the collapse of a century band.
In fact, the zealous Michael Lindsay-Hogg had shot a total of almost 60 hours of film material and also produced around 150 hours of sound recordings, of which only 80 minutes ended up in “Let It Be”. The rest of the material disappeared in the vault for the next 52 years – until Oscar winner and Beatles fan Peter Jackson unlocked it again: Jackson set about re-viewing the image and sound recordings and creating a three-part documentary called “The Beatles: Get Back” to compile for 120 minutes each (available on November 25th, 26th and 27th at Disney+).
The result – as far as you can judge from the view of only 40 activated film minutes – looks exquisite. The restored 16 mm recordings of the Beatles, which are hanging around the studio, fooling around or playing songs, radiate a freshness as if they were made yesterday.
The intimate close-up view of the young faces of John, Paul, George and Ringo alone is stunning, not to mention the (private) conversations.
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