All hard-core Beatles fans know what the "Get Back Project" was. It was long known that there were many hours of film and sound recordings from Twickenham and Apple Saville Row just left laying in boxes in the archives. What we have here in Peter Jackson's Get Back is a fantastic treasure. It's actually a work of great craft - a loving homage - inspirational and insightful. Genius.
In early 1969, The Beatles' "Get Back Project" was a nebulous creative idea, and it's worth going back to see how this project arose, and how and why what was done was done. Suffice to say that the film (Let It Be) that came out in mid 1970, doesn't bear much resemblance to what the band originally invisaged. They hated it, the fans hated it, I hated it. It's a poor piece of work (5/10).
The Beatles finished live performances in August 1966 because they (especially George) felt they had lost something. They felt they could create much more, but away from the demands and dislocation of live tours. They had already shown themselves what they could do in the studio with the Rubber Soul and Revolver albums.
There then followed arguably the greatest explosion of musical creativity of the 20th Century...
It's well known that the 1968 double album The Beatles (we know it as the White Album) is generally a collection of songs where the Beatles played for each other as "session" musicians. Often they were not in the studio together, and didn't create things together. Although it's brilliant, the White Album is very much understood by Beatles fans as the beginning of the end. They couldn't even agree on the cover art for the album - that's why it's blank.
The band, especially Paul, understood that there was a need to "get back" to creating and making music as a band all together in the same room. They understood that the fans hadn't seen them live for years and wanted to give them something. So there was a tacit agreement to make another film capturing The Beatles creating real music on the spot, in the studio. They also nebulously agreed that there would be a live performance, a TV show, or TV documentary shows, and performances to go with the film and album release. So, in January 1969 the cameras and recorders started rolling. That's the basis of "Get Back".
Straightaway we are impressed by the exceptional quality of the visual image and superb sound. Most of this material had been in the vaults since 1969-70. Somehow, Jackson and his team have restored it. Incredible. Also incredible is how Jackson has crafted a form of narrative which more clearly fits the situation for the band as it really was in January 1969. He and his creative team weren't there - so quite how they have managed to do this so believably is beyond me. They have used just what was laying around in the reels of film and boxes of archive material, and the story comes through. Genius.
Back in late 1968/early1969, the band was really beginning to fall apart. The idea of Get Back was for the band to be in the same room together and see what would happen. The hope was that The Beatles would somehow stick themselves back together again. It didn't work. There was no steer. We hear the band lamenting the loss of Epstein as a leader. Early on we see Paul trying, gently, to direct the band's energies. This is EXCEPTIONAL. Brilliant - we are in the room with The Beatles. Amazing.
It was never really clear what The Beatles intended to be the outcome of the Get Back project. They couldn't agree on anything. In the end they withdrew back to their HQ at Saville Row and set up a recording studio there. The intended live show finished up on the roof as the now iconic "Rooftop Performance". Beautifully captured here with many new camera angles and new unseen footage. Superb.
When it was all over, the huge box of material from the Get Back sessions - photos, film and sound was enigmatic. Nobody really knew what to do with it because nobody really knew what The Beatles had intended. The band themselves didn't know. It was also "unfinished". The band rejected various proposals. The individuals, John, Paul, George and Ringo moved on quickly to their own projects.
In the end - John left the band in September 1969 and financial needs meant that some kind of product had to be issued. But "Get Back" rolled on into 1970 still unfinished. A further track was completed in January 1970 and the whole lot given to Phil Spector to sort out. The thing morphed into "Let It Be" as an album and film and was eventually released in May 1970 - 16 months after the sessions we see here.
With an 8-hour set, "Get Back" is a long binge. But if you are a Beatles fan this is a must-see. I'm sure it's a lot nearer to what the band had in mind at the time. Sure - we get the tension - but we also see the incredible creative engine and warm family which was The Beatles. We are sat next them. We see the band enjoying their work direct from the playback machine and having a laugh. I had tears in my eyes many times.
Thank you Peter Jackson and your team. You have given us a fantastic treasure.
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