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6.41pm
4 September 2019
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I’ve always thought that the rooftop performance was a bit of a cop out when it came to playing live. But I don’t mind. I don’t think their hearts will really into doing an actual show. This was their way of doing it without really doing it, but still doing it.
7.51pm
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17 December 2012
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@MattWatchingWheels said
So…this has GOT to net Peter Jackson an Oscar, right?If this film wins no awards, something’s wrong.
While I would expect it has a very good chance of being in the running for the Emmy Awards and the Golden Globes, it would be a huge shock and surprise were it to get any Oscar nominations. Though there’s a good chance the Oscars will keep the same rules as they used this year, that those films which ended up on streaming services because of the pandemic but had had a planned cinema release would be eligible (the normal rules for the Oscars are that it only considers films that have received a theatrical release), and while Get Back would be eligible under that criteria had Jackson ended up with a film that was streamed, that’s not where we ended up. We got a three-part TV series instead, and while the Emmys and Golden Globes consider TV series for awards, the Oscars don’t.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
8.20pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline @meanmistermustard said
I really hope we get an expanded Rooftop section where we can chose all the different camera angles, vox pops etc to watch in full screen instead of at the same time. It’s certainly possible.
While I do hope we get a “clean” version of the rooftop on the home release, without the volume changes of the band between roof and street level, and the vox pops, and I wouldn’t object to a multi-angle version, if it turns out that the suggestion we can expect six hours of bonus footage is correct (and even though we know for Jackson six hours can equal eight), I’d rather not have a multi-angle, as it would use most of that bonus footage.
I’d rather see extended musical performances throughout the series, along with bits that didn’t make the series, than have it turn out that the majority of the bonus footage is just the different camera angles on the rooftop along with the vox pops.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
9.35pm
17 March 2019
Offline Did you review the other parts, Ron? what did you think? 🙂
10.29pm
26 January 2017
Offline Some more big highlights:
The discussion after listening back to Get Back where they decide to release it as a single.
George’s acoustic guitar through the Leslie was such an awesome sound.
George was also so on fire, helping Ringo out with Octopus’ Garden and demoing and developing Old Brown Shoe , For You Blue , I Me Mine , as well as some of his greatest songs All Things Must Pass and Something .
Seeing the Rosewood Tele, Rocky, as well as Paul’s Hofner and John’s Epiphone Casino being used on video was a real treat.
They were cracking some great jokes throughout.
Things I hope we see in the extended version:
More acoustic George – Let It Down , as well as other Dylan covers specifically I Shall Be Released and other basement tapes tracks.
Besame Mucho – I know we get it in Let It Be , but give me more of the joking around early tunes.
‘Clean Rooftop”
More tunes with Billy Preston on Organ (more of Billy Preston in general)
Generally, I liked Jackson’s choices of scenes and performances that were significant in the development of the album. If we are getting more footage, I’d really love to get some more uncut sequences of the later performances where they’re really smokin and feeling it.
Who knows how much of this is available on film and whatnot, but this is my initial wishlist after my first viewing.
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2.38am
14 June 2016
Offline MattWatchingWheels said
So…this has GOT to net Peter Jackson an Oscar, right?If this film wins no awards, something’s wrong.
It allows The Beatles to simply be The Beatles by allowing the footage to unfold. That’s what I dig about it.
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4.29am
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1 May 2011
Offline Awards are no doubt really nice to get but I think what will be more pleasing for Peter Jackson is the reaction from those who have watched it, especially the hardcore Beatles fans. We can be really savage when the product doesn’t reach our expections yet the overwhelming response has been incredibly positive.
Even with the media, aside from a handful of grumbles it’s been very positive (the Guardian one complaining it was too long with too much talking was a joke). It’s easily going to one of the must-see music documentaries. I cannot remember which publication it was but one review said that the very casual fan or those unknown to the Beatles work should watch part three and work their way backwards. Those who know more should work forwards. I think I agree with that as it can be hard going at times. The Rooftop concert would be almost impossible to not get caught up in the amazing buzz they produced and the chemistry between the four. Plus the music is sensational. For a band supposedly in turmoil and which hadn’t played live for 2 and a half years, without a proper rehearsal show or any soundchecks, it was an incredible performance. Yes, I know they had spent almost three weeks working to get material together.
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8.46am
6 July 2016
Offline I really love that song Madman which I’d never heard before or even heard of. I wonder why John didn’t pursue it? I guess he never revisited it in the solo years?
Anyone know how John got to take the solo on Get Back ? It seems odd particularly as they were trying to placate George but I must say John’s lead playing is surprisingly good.
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12.35pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Leppo said
I really love that song Madman which I’d never heard before or even heard of. I wonder why John didn’t pursue it? I guess he never revisited it in the solo years?Anyone know how John got to take the solo on Get Back ? It seems odd particularly as they were trying to placate George but I must say John’s lead playing is surprisingly good.
Pretty sure it was because George quit and they were kept rehearsing. However John did take lead occasionally, as did Paul, so it’s not uncommon.
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3.16pm
24 August 2021
Offline I’d really like to see articles, interviews and BTS footage about the audio and video restoration work Jackson and his team did.
I’m sure some of that will be in the Blu-ray version, but I’d really like to read it in publications like Wired and Sound on Sound, like there were for the “demixing” of the Hollywood Bowl tapes, or how SOS has had articles about all major Beatles releases since Live At The BBC .
4.50pm
24 March 2014
Offline Leppo said
I really love that song Madman which I’d never heard before or even heard of. I wonder why John didn’t pursue it? I guess he never revisited it in the solo years?Anyone know how John got to take the solo on Get Back ? It seems odd particularly as they were trying to placate George but I must say John’s lead playing is surprisingly good.
I wish they’d have been filmed while rehearsing and making new songs, oh wait…
Apart from all the restoration, AI, the split camera thing at the rooftop and all that jazz … i’d love to see more of the creative process and less of the watery eyes, the Dick James, Peter Sellers…
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5.52pm
4 September 2019
Offline Leppo said
Anyone know how John got to take the solo on Get Back ? It seems odd particularly as they were trying to placate George but I must say John’s lead playing is surprisingly good.
I had read years back someone saying Paul gave John the solos on Get Back as a peace offering of sorts. But that may well have been BS. They seem to be getting along just fine in this. I was looking forward to seeing how it was that he came to play the solos, but they never showed it. Then when Paul decided he wanted two, and then three solos, John said he only had one. But there was never any suggestion to give George on of them, I thought that was odd.
George seems very subdued and under the shadow of John and Paul, I guess it would be hard to find room with those two giant egos. I’m also very surprised at what a good mood John seems to be in most of the time. My impression after watching Let it Be years ago was that he was mostly out of it. But he’s very engaged here.
I also liked that song Madman, wish they or John would have done something with it. I also kind of liked Fancy My Chances With You.
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Leppo6.48pm
17 March 2019
Offline Toxic34 said
I’d really like to see articles, interviews and BTS footage about the audio and video restoration work Jackson and his team did.I’m sure some of that will be in the Blu-ray version, but I’d really like to read it in publications like Wired and Sound on Sound, like there were for the “demixing” of the Hollywood Bowl tapes, or how SOS has had articles about all major Beatles releases since Live At The BBC .
Fun fact: In the original Audio, The Beatles would strum their guitars to drown out the camera mics for things they didnt want recorded. So Peter Jackson’s team eventually developed an AI to separate Guitar sounds from voices and remove them. Over time it got so good they were able to reduce almost all the noises they needed completely. So, when they named the AI, in honor of HAL from Space Odyssey they named it….MAL! 🙂 PJ said every time they had to remove audio they said “See if Mal can do it!” MAL CAME BACK TO BE THE GOPHER OF LEGENDS AGAIN! 
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KyleKartan11.52pm
3 July 2020
Offline MattWatchingWheels said
Toxic34 said
I’d really like to see articles, interviews and BTS footage about the audio and video restoration work Jackson and his team did.
I’m sure some of that will be in the Blu-ray version, but I’d really like to read it in publications like Wired and Sound on Sound, like there were for the “demixing” of the Hollywood Bowl tapes, or how SOS has had articles about all major Beatles releases since Live At The BBC .
Fun fact: In the original Audio, The Beatles would strum their guitars to drown out the camera mics for things they didnt want recorded. So Peter Jackson’s team eventually developed an AI to separate Guitar sounds from voices and remove them. Over time it got so good they were able to reduce almost all the noises they needed completely. So, when they named the AI, in honor of HAL from Space Odyssey they named it….MAL! 🙂 PJ said every time they had to remove audio they said “See if Mal can do it!” MAL CAME BACK TO BE THE GOPHER OF LEGENDS AGAIN!
Curious whats possible nowadays. Always baffling!!
meanmistermustard said
Yes, I know they had spent almost three weeks working to get material together.
Well one had to ask what other bands would get together in 3 weeks. They worked for 3 weeks and wrote, composed and arranged some of their most famous songs. Its mindblowing and stunning how good they were. If you think about it many groups wouldnt get one song together nowadays in 3 weeks, no matter an whole LP full of them!
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1 May 2011
Offline I’ve read in a few places, not just Beatles/music forums, people (not always Beatles fans, some only know a handful of tracks) commentating that one of the real surprises they have seen from part one is that they are simply four guys messing about whilst trying to record an album. They make stupid jokes, argue, talk about boring daily life and often seem to be doing nothing. Then an early song appears that they know (even solo) and they are surprised it’s here in it’s rudimentary form and somehow they’ve got something. One of the biggest shocks and joys for many has been Paul aimlessly riffing on his guitar to pull out what becomes ‘Get Back ’.
My wondering. Will the documentary help people humanise the Beatles as a band and individuals to the extent that they will be re-evaluated and reappraised for how good they were? Over the years the Beatles have almost become held up as the ultimate giants of music, carved in stone, that it can become almost tossed aside flippantly. I’ve even seen comments over the last few days where people have had to positively rethink their opinions of each individual due to how they are on screen.
[That all might read terribly. I’ve got no idea how to type it.]
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2.46pm
8 January 2015
Offline meanmistermustard said My wondering. Will the documentary help people humanise the Beatles as a band and individuals to the extent that they will be re-evaluated and reappraised for how good they were? Over the years the Beatles have almost become held up as the ultimate giants of music, carved in stone, that it can become almost tossed aside flippantly. I’ve even seen comments over the last few days where people have had to positively rethink their opinions of each individual due to how they are on screen.
That’s a really good point to start my little review off with @meanmistermustard, thanks! Because that’s exactly my hope. I think and hope that’s the desired effect. I finished watching the 3rd part today. I think the film is an enormous achievement, the best thing Jackson has done: taken another man’s movie and remade it as a better, almost tonally opposed movie. He has the advantage of better technology and 50 years of past history but that doesn’t change the fact that Hogg had the material but could/would not build this narrative. On the other hand, had he tried in 1970 he might well have been overruled on several points because of raw feelings from certain parties at the time. We can never know. What we do know is that this film has, in terms of Beatleology, rehabilitated Paul and Yoko (as if they needed it), exploded many Beatle myths, destroyed much cod Beatles criticism, illuminated their creative process, and really importantly, allowed the people closest to them like Mal and their partners to be seen and heard, and not least of all, humanized the Beatles themselves, their humour, their interplay and the reality of their presence. Such cultural artifacts like this film come along rarely because the editorial art is quite a strange one and to succeed on the scale this has is unheard of.
It’s as if MLH’s movie was a peep-show of vignettes behind a glass pane and Jackson’s put you in the room with real people doing real things. My favourite bits were of course the rooftop concert itself and many silly Beatle jokes, BILLY PRESTON, and there was one George Martin joke that totally caught me by surprise in the 1st part when they were discussing possible stage designs and he suggested they “put a barbed wire entanglement down the front”. I had to stop for a while because I was laughing so hard. Speaking of Martin, he did rather well, hanging about while Glyn Johns got all the blame for Get Back /Let It Fail and then within a month Abbey Road , all rather suspicious hmmm. And last but not least the wonderful Mal and his anvil. You’re going to regret that John, stop singing it 
edit: ok technically its a 3-part TV series but you watch, Jackson will edit it into a theatrical straight to bluray release and that will get an Oscar!
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3.16pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Jackson has already said that there was no way to tell the story he wanted with something of the length that would work for a theatrical release, @ewe2. It seems quite the opposite in fact, with sources suggesting that the DVD/Blu-ray/UHD Blu-ray will contain 6 hours of bonus footage.
I really don’t get why people keep banging on about it getting an Oscar.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
4.04pm
8 January 2015
Offline Ron Nasty said
Jackson has already said that there was no way to tell the story he wanted with something of the length that would work for a theatrical release, @ewe2. It seems quite the opposite in fact, with sources suggesting that the DVD/Blu-ray/UHD Blu-ray will contain 6 hours of bonus footage.I really don’t get why people keep banging on about it getting an Oscar.
I know its not going to happen, I’m just having fun 
But it’s a nice irony isn’t it, just like the project it’s documenting. A TV special that got made into a film, ends up being a film that got made into a TV special instead about an album that ended up being half-done and played live on a rooftop and canned because it reminded the principals too much of how badly things were going. I mean, MLH can keep polishing that turd as much as he likes, I know Jackson’s series isn’t really a film but I’m going to call it that because to me it’s the real one now and as far as I’m concerned Hogg’s one is historical value only.
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6.09pm
Reviewers
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1 May 2011
Offline I think by Oscar people just mean getting recognition by the awards people.
As said above, I think the reward comes more from the fans and viewers comments than by select groups, many of whom may well be voting for other reasons. But that’s just me. If ‘GB’ went completely ignored and won nothing it would make as much difference to me as if it won everything possible. It’s about the value it has to yourself and it’s legacy ultimately that matters.
Same as when Beatles records get broken nowadays. I don’t care. It’s nice they had them but I highly doubt in 50/60 years time the other party will be as highly regarded. I get more of a kick out of reading the entries as The Beatles did it first with so much else.
An example is that Ladbaby could become the first UK music act to have four Christmas number ones in a row. Congratulations and all that but it doesn’t stop all four songs being instant utter s**t and unlistenable whereas the three Beatle tracks, almost 60 years old, will always be classics.
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3.17pm
17 March 2019
Offline Personally. I want it to win awards because…it deserves to! This film is an amazing historical and technological achievement. Some of said technology was developed for the sole purpose of this project, and therefore it should be considered a breakthrough in film restoration. That deserves recognition and honor in the form of an award, and thats not even including the actual footage and it’s content.
From what I know, most of what PJ left on the cutting room floor is largely inconsequential dialog that would not be considered a loss in terms of information (despite the fact we Beatles would gladly take every minute we can get, of course!) So having said that, you have to consider that Get Back is – unless something unlikely yet earth shattering surpasses it one day – the most definitive and complete account of this period in the band’s story that’s readily available for wide public viewing. It gives a context to things most fans have had to turn to biographers or bootleg tapes to learn about, and puts all of that in such a clear picture that we no longer have to speculate as to where and how it all fits in. This is the kind of thing Beatles fans in the 90’s and early 2000’s like me could only dream of, and it’s significance can’t be overstated.
Let us not forget there was a time when no one at Apple seemed to want anything to do with the Let It Be film. All people like me ever had to grow up on were awful VHS rips of MLH’s movie and various second-hand accounts from books and news articles. The more educated fans among us should count themselves lucky they were able to piece all of this together without GB for so many years, because for people like me, all we had were rumors of bitter resentment from Paul and a distracting presence from Yoko. Things we had to tell people were not the case for years with no actual footage to back it up. Now we have it at long last. Yes, the narratives won’t entirely die and I’ve already read many poppycock excuses such as “Yoko obviously paid PJ to not make her look too bad in the film.” or “The Nagra Tapes show the real fighting.” – but those things can be so much more easily debunked bow than they were before. Simply put: This film is going to change the way A LOT of people look at The Beatles and who they were as people thanks to the narratives it helps destroy, and for someone like me who’s been an advocate for John Lennon for my entire adult life, I can tell you firsthand that this is a major win for the preservation of truth. To no longer have to hear the “Checked out” strawman is nothing short of a long overdue relief.
The same goes for Paul as well. No longer do i have to correct someone by myself when referring to Paul as a “Tyrant” or “Bully” in the studio! At last, people can give Paul the RESPECT he deserves for trying his hardest to rally the band through uncertainty. It’s about damn time!
MLH deserves credit for capturing this footage, but PJ should get all the awards he’s able to be nominated for for this. It would have been so easy to do as many of us feared and give us a sterilized, watered down “Happy” Beatles movie, and it would have been equally as easy to let one’s own feelings regarding certain narratives allow confirmation bias to paint a rather skewed picture of these events. Thankfully, neither of those things happened – at least not to any extent that would warp the truth. For my money, that’s a monumental accomplishment a lesser person may not have been able to pull off.
I can’t wait till younger fans discover this movie. It’s gonna be great. 🙂
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