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- 2021
- PG-13
- Disney+
- 2021
- PG-13
- Disney+
Summary Peter Jackson's three-part Beatles documentary features hours of edited and restored film from 1969 by Michael Lindsay-Hogg as the Fab Four created the songs that would appear on Abbey Road and Let It Be.
- 2021
- PG-13
- Disney+
- 2021
- PG-13
- Disney+
The Beatles: Get Back
Season 1 Premiere: Nov 25, 2021
8.7
Where to Watch
Summary Peter Jackson's three-part Beatles documentary features hours of edited and restored film from 1969 by Michael Lindsay-Hogg as the Fab Four created the songs that would appear on Abbey Road and Let It Be.
Where to Watch
All Seasons
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
85
89% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
11% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
85
89% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
11% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Glorious. ... “The Beatles: Get Back” is an astonishingly up-close and engrossing view of Paul, John, George, and Ringo and their creative process.
Seeing all of this footage is a revelation, not just for how it provides a necessary counter to the prevailing narrative, but also because the visuals look like a total dream, pristine, sharp and clear, with no fuzz or distortion.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 114 User Ratings
8.7
88% Positive
100 Ratings
100 Ratings
7% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
5% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 114 User Ratings
8.7
88% Positive
100 Ratings
100 Ratings
7% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
5% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Not only the restoration is breathtakingly successful, but also the integration of countless sound recordings, photos and "secret" conversations shows how the "boys" ticked and wrote, rehearsed and rehearsed 14 new songs. The documentary shows the renewed meeting of the Beatles for a live album which was continuously and officially documented and then developed into their last legendary (roof) live concert. This can actually be seen for the first time in full length, including camera recordings on the police operation that was created around the concert! In retrospect, it is really amazing that all this has been fully documented. Small drawback: Part 1 of this documentation comes to 157min, part 2 to 174min and part 3 to 139min. You should perhaps have created 10-12 episodes from these three parts. However, this is whining at a high level ;)
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This was probably the greatest thing that a Beatles fan could ever receive.
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What’s startling about “Get Back” is that as you watch it, drinking in the moment-to-moment reality of what it was like for the Beatles as they toiled away on their second-to-last studio album, the film’s accumulation of quirks and delights and boredom and exhilaration becomes more than fascinating; it becomes addictive. ... In the end, “Get Back” is better than good. It’s essential, an extended love letter to everything that made the Beatles real.
A hypnotic treat for music scholars and Beatles megafans. But even with the absorbing undercurrent of suspense around the band's fate, Get Back is still eight hours of watching some guys sitting around in a room.
The Beatles: Get Back is clearly a labor of love for director Peter Jackson, but it plays as one of the clearest forms of fan worship there ever was, letting the band members act and speak for themselves in a natural format true to even the smallest moments of this crucial period in their history.
A Beatles buff won’t need any salesmanship to know Disney+ is the place to be this weekend. And even a more casual fan might want to drop in on “Get Back,” just to get a peek at what all the fuss was about and why they still seem relevant over fifty years later. Because “where they once belonged” is where they’ve always been.
‘Get Back’ is not even definitive as a documentary about the making of the Let It Be album. If anything, it’s the definitive volume of footage about it, but as a coherent, watchable story, this ain’t it.
I’m gonna be biased in my review because I absolutely adore The Beatles. You don’t need to love The Beatles to enjoy this but there’s a lot more to appreciate if you like them. We haven’t seen much of The Beatles in an intimate way at all and this is the first time we have. We had glimpses during the 1970 film Let It Be but that focused on the negative aspects of the Get Back Sessions. This defeats those rumors. The Beatles start out being grumpy but none of them liked the Studio but once they switched over, the atmosphere immediately changes. They become much more friendly and joyful. They act like best friends because they were. Part of the joy of this documentary is watching their album Let It Be come into fruition and it’s amazing. It’s incredible watching Paul McCartney create the backbone to their hit song Get Back in under a minute. There are also tons of scenes showing them working on songs that would eventually make their way to their album Abbey Road and it’s incredible hearing the origins of those songs. Peter Jackson did an amazing job putting all of this footage together even if some of the restoration work can look a little weird sometimes. The best part of this documentary is the ending. The Beatles iconic Rooftop concert has never been viewed in its entirety since it was filmed in 1969. And now, we have all 45 minutes of the concert. The way the concert is put together and the fact that we can watch the whole thing makes the rooftop concert set piece my favorite sequence of all year. It’s truly incredible to see something like this for the first time in over 50 years in the way it was intended. They also added footage of the police trying to shut the concert down which I didn’t know existed. I couldn’t help but smile for the entire runtime. It does have a long runtime which can definitely look imposing to some viewers but it’s worth every minute. Please check this out if you enjoy music history and The Beatles. It’s an absolute treat.
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(Mauro Lanari)
Only those who ignored almost everything about the Beatles can write "you never knew their complete story until now", otherwise Jackson proposes to us for 468 minutes very little that was not already known to scholars and music lovers. If "Let It Be" is the twelfth and last studio album of the Fab Four, there will be a reason: it is the worst record of a band now in disarray, which will also have been able to find the alchemy to compose, arrange and produce in the first 3 or 4 weeks of '69 a mountain of tracks, but those that ended up in the album are barely 12 and show an undermined capacity for songwriting. During the London concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters in Savile Row, a passerby admits that he adores the Beatles, but not those who were playing, what they had become. So it must be recognized that the director could have synthesized their sunset and the sunset of an era of rock in the standard time of a film, otherwise this TV miniseries is dripping with details useful just for fan(atic)s. Jackson deserves credit for trying to handle such an overwhelming material and teaching newbies something. However, leaving out the reasons for the dissolution, despite having almost 5 hours to explain the title of the disco, he preferred to omit such an essential information and choose for his work the misleading title of another song, energetic, amused and funny, while the tone that McCartney expresses with "Let It Be" is crepuscular, that of the full awareness of having reached the end of the line, separated at home/studio and ready for the inevitable divorce. And in fact, at every pause of the recordings, the 4 compete to already plan their future as soloists, like Lennon who tries "Child of Nature", the future "Jealous Guy", in general indifference. With time the group's positive superadditivity had turned into negative, it is sufficient to look at the album cover with them 4 well divided and separated. Does anyone remember the similar bitter conclusion of The Police with "Synchronicity" in 1983? Historical revisionism, cunning attempt, shrewd operation for affecting as little as possible the persistent idolatrous Beatlemania? There is something out of tune, a lot.
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A unique insight into the creative process of one of my favorite bands in days gone by. Otherwise not much of interest going on. Get Back is another reminder that it was the music I loved, not the musicians. Between Paul's insufferable arrogance and John's vapid, empty-headed celebrity "activism," I learned long ago these guys were just great rockers, not the paragons of wisdom and virtue they've been made out to be by impressionable rubes. They were simply brilliant at what they did. Nothing more, nothing less. The more I learn about these guys (or most famous/historical figures) the more let down I am when the curtain gets pulled back. I guess John was right about one thing, there's a bit of nowhere man in all of us. The Beatles turned me on to all kinds of other, more highly evolved forms of music. Truly amazing, unique and innovative creators that never made it commercially. Although I eventually became bored with them and all mainstream music in general, I can at least be grateful to the Beatles and a few other great bands of my youth for opening my musical doors of perception. It's no fun listening to the same old songs over and over again, but this old film footage does offer a new perspective on a few old favorites. Get Back? No. Movin' On.
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Production Company:
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Apple Corps
- WingNut Films
Initial Release Date: Nov 25, 2021
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: PG-13
Genres:
Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
• 5 Wins & 5 Nominations
Online Film & Television Association
• 2 Wins & 5 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
