This series may consist of only three episodes but the total running time adds up to over eight hours. Even if it’s The Beatles, it gets boring watching four guys muck about the studio just doing their own thing. I’m not a particular fan of the group but I persevered anyway, treating it as a kind of inside look on the creative processes of genius musicians as well as their group dynamics. Plus of course it’s fun to listen to their performances as they experiment with different variations and even do covers of other people’s music to warm up or relax.
After a few years of refusing to tour, in 1969 The Beatles decided to work on a new album while allowing for the entire process to be filmed, culminating in some kind of live performance. The results would be released in 1970 as the feature documentary Let in Be. Naturally there existed plenty more footage across the 21 days this project lasted so when director Peter Jackson was granted access to it, he restored the footage to modern standards and edited it to create this series. In a way, this is merely an expansion of the previous documentary which I have admittedly not seen. But some critics have noted that while the original film seemed to emphasize the dissension among the members of the group, this longer version provides a more nuanced view. As Ringo Starr commented, there are hours and hours of footage of the four of them playing music and visibly enjoying their time together. They even joke in the studio about the tabloids making up stories and exaggerating their disagreements with each other. Yet we can also see the four drifting apart as they each have their own interests and lives to lead.
Beginning at the spacious Twickenham Film Studios, the series shows The Beatles gather to present their new music to one another and rehearse them. They all pretty much hate it there due to its poor acoustics and the large, impersonal space and soon decamp to the new studio made for them at their own Apple Corporation. There they are also joined by the keyboardist Billy Preston. As with the original documentary, the series ends with the now legendary rooftop concert in London, above their own studios. In between, we watch them play music, joke with one another and discuss their future. John Lennon constantly has Yoko Ono by his side while Paul McCartney is only occasionally joined by Linda Eastman. The first episode ends with the drama of George Harrison abruptly announcing that he is leaving the band. The others are confused for a while but eventually convince him to return though those private meetings aren’t shown here. Throughout the series, their plans for a live performance are constantly watered down. Their producer at first talks up an outlandish plan to hold a concert at the ruins of a Roman theatre in Libya. None of the band members are keen to leave the country though and so they eventually end up on their own rooftop.
As not much of a music aficionado myself, one of the most impressive things here is how incredibly talented and creative all four of them are. George Harrison arrives one morning and starts a conversation about a television show he’d watched the night before. One show segues into another in his memory but the confusion serves to inspire him to write a new song and soon the other members start working on it with him. This eventually turns into the song I Me Mine. Then there’s how they spend many, many hours working on the song Get Back, playing around with the lyrics and at one point changing it into a protest song even as they know that there’s chance of that being the final, published version. It’s fascinating to watch this creative process play out in almost real-time and of course to them getting an idea for a new song is a regular, everyday kind of thing. This is the kind of long, extended process that couldn’t have been captured in a shorter film.
As for the signs it provides on why they broke up, it is striking how Yoko Ono is invariably at Lennon’s side but it seems wrong to say, as per the popular imagination, that her presence disrupted the group. McCartney himself talks about how the group has felt unbalanced since the death of their long-time manager Brian Epstein and they lost their father-figure. He says he doesn’t want to be the father-figure of the group and yet he is the one always trying to get the group to be more ambitious and enthusiastic, not wanting them to get into a rut of repeating themselves. It’s also telling that Harrison is the one who quits here. Watching them play together, it’s all too clear how The Beatles are really the Paul McCartney and John Lennon show. They play and harmonize together effortlessly, Lennon readily takes instructions from McCartney and they even ape each other’s gags, leaving the other two out. Ringo Starr seems mostly content to just sit back and be the drummer. Harrison though seems to be chafing at not being regarded as an equal as he matures as a musician and becomes more productive as a songwriter. He does seem to enjoy playing and he helps Starr out with composing the melody for the song Octopus’ Garden but it was clear that he also wanted to leave to do his own thing outside of the group. Of course, it’s not just Harrison as we also see Lennon and Ono being ecstatic about his divorce and McCartney playing with Linda Eastman’s daughter Heather from her previous marriage. Everyone is just getting older and changing.
While the cameras had full access to The Beatles at the two studios, it’s still important to acknowledge that they know they are being filmed and so are comporting themselves accordingly. Important discussions such as trying to convince Harrison to come back take place in Harrison’s home and are not shown. Their Apple Corporation is in financial difficulty and they need to make money, but that isn’t talked about here. You can tell how circumspect the members of the group are when it comes to matters of money and their financial interests. The whole series is really long and even if you like The Beatles, you might get bored of them performing the same song over and over and over again. I wouldn’t care to repeat the experience but, all the same, this was an illuminating experience.