As a fan of The Beatles, I have done a lot of reading on the "Paul is Dead" or "PID" theories. This movie was enjoyable to watch, but I would not call it a documentary... if anything it should be labeled as "based on a possibly true story".
There is a wealth of information online about this "hoax" and this movie should be included with other "evidence" for or against. If you really want to know about the "hoax", this should not be the only thing you look at! Personally I believe there is more to this story than just The Beatles playing a joke on the world... but who knows?
Without giving any spoilers, I will try to outline 4 "facts" presented by the movie that are wrong. However, these may be considered "spoilers" by some, so hence the post is marked as containing.
1. The time-line of recording of The Beatles albums is wrong. Example: 'Let It Be' was the last album released, but was not the last album recorded. 'Abbey Road' was recorded after 'Let It Be' but released before.
2. At around the 55 minute 50-57 second the film shows a picture from the inside cover of 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Stop the movie at this point and go find another copy of this same picture by using an internet search (or the actual album if you have it) and compare.
3. There is a point in the movie when a phone number is mentioned as a clue. The phone number is 7 digits... a UK phone number, even 35 years ago, is 10 digits (w/ area code). If one assumed London, OK maybe, but distribution of this was worldwide and this seems VERY far-fetched.
4. There is another point in the movie when a date is revealed as a clue from an album cover. This is not in UK format and even contradicts the recording at other points in the movie.
There are probably more, but there were the 4 that stood out to me.
Another question is why these recordings were sent to this specific company in the US. Newspapers, Radio, 24 hour TV news channels were around long before this recording was said to be made. Seems the BBC, CNN or the NY Times would have been a more likely choice.
So, my opinion - again as a fan of The Beatles - is that movie is not a bad way to spend an hour or two of your time, but I do not like how it was told. Is it fiction or non-fiction? You decide.
There is a wealth of information online about this "hoax" and this movie should be included with other "evidence" for or against. If you really want to know about the "hoax", this should not be the only thing you look at! Personally I believe there is more to this story than just The Beatles playing a joke on the world... but who knows?
Without giving any spoilers, I will try to outline 4 "facts" presented by the movie that are wrong. However, these may be considered "spoilers" by some, so hence the post is marked as containing.
1. The time-line of recording of The Beatles albums is wrong. Example: 'Let It Be' was the last album released, but was not the last album recorded. 'Abbey Road' was recorded after 'Let It Be' but released before.
2. At around the 55 minute 50-57 second the film shows a picture from the inside cover of 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Stop the movie at this point and go find another copy of this same picture by using an internet search (or the actual album if you have it) and compare.
3. There is a point in the movie when a phone number is mentioned as a clue. The phone number is 7 digits... a UK phone number, even 35 years ago, is 10 digits (w/ area code). If one assumed London, OK maybe, but distribution of this was worldwide and this seems VERY far-fetched.
4. There is another point in the movie when a date is revealed as a clue from an album cover. This is not in UK format and even contradicts the recording at other points in the movie.
There are probably more, but there were the 4 that stood out to me.
Another question is why these recordings were sent to this specific company in the US. Newspapers, Radio, 24 hour TV news channels were around long before this recording was said to be made. Seems the BBC, CNN or the NY Times would have been a more likely choice.
So, my opinion - again as a fan of The Beatles - is that movie is not a bad way to spend an hour or two of your time, but I do not like how it was told. Is it fiction or non-fiction? You decide.