Fans of The Beatles continue to be treated to projects that look back and refresh, reimagine, and add to their musical legacy with projects that take a deep dive into key passages in their musical and personal evolution, while often offering deep social, political, cultural, and musical context.
The most significant visual project to appear since Ron Howard’s 2016 film Eight Days A Week is Peter Jackson’s Get Back. The three-part series, that looked at the Let It Be period and used a healthy amount of material from the Let It Be film shoot, appeared on the Disney Plus channel in November of 2021. The series is now available on DVD and as a 3-Disc Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition.
The only difference between the two, other than the format, is the Blu-ray edition comes with four color collector photo cards of each Beatle. The box is well designed and sturdy. In every way, it has the feel of a Criterion Collection box. That company would have known how best to integrate extras and create a product that would have received more attention and sold more copies. There are no extras on these packages. The box was originally released on February 8th this year, but it was immediately pulled from release due to technical issues with the audio. This was not fully resolved in the short term and it took months before it was finally released on July 12, despite an announcement stating it wouldn’t come out until December 31 of this year.
The Get Back series is a monumental work and may be the most close-up view of the group since the 1995 Anthology film series. The segmentation into three parts works well. Part one chronicles the beginning of the Get Back project. It shows the band at Twickenham studios in London, in early January of 1969, rehearsing for what was to be some kind of televised concert featuring new music performed in a stripped-down, back-to-basics approach. This part most reflects the group’s fractured relationship, uncertainty about its new direction, and ultimately its near dissolution with George Harrison walking out on the group near the end of this section. There are moments in this part that can be a bit tedious, but for die-hard fans of The Beatles, it’s fascinating.
Part two finds George Harrison returning to the fold and the group leaving Twickenham for their own Apple Records location, where in the basement they come up with an ad-hoc rehearsal space/recording studio to work on new songs for a new album. The arrival of keyboard player Billy Preston adds a more upbeat tone to the proceedings and it is here where more of the group’s humor, camaraderie, and musicianship begins to flower. The setting eschews the dark, shadowy look of Twickenham in favor of well-lit shots of the group’s mostly bright white basement studio space and the iconic green carpet that was underfoot throughout the mythic Apple headquarters.
The third part culminates in the group’s historic rooftop performance. Seeing the group polish its songs and get into a more confident and fully realized musical mode makes this section really shine. Watching the rooftop concert, in its entirety, is a thrilling reminder of what a tight little group they were in their heyday. It’s an exhilarating coda to the group’s time in the public eye. The concert also offers a unique time capsule of those last heady days in London in the 1960s.
It is not the end of the series, though, as there is more footage, including the songs they filmed and recorded the next day back in Apple’s basement studio. Unfortunately, they feel a bit tacked on, with credits running over the music. This was most likely done to differentiate the end of the Get Back series from the Let It Be film. And, speaking of the Let It be film, that movie is still out of print. This box set would have been greatly aided by the addition of that movie finally being made available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Fans of The Beatles were also disappointed that there were no extras included with this box. Also, the audio of the rooftop concert is still only available as a digital release. A fourth disc of the Let it Be film, extras and a Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mix of the rooftop concert would have helped make this a bigger seller. And that takes nothing away from how good this box is and no doubt most fans of The Beatles by now have this set in their collection. The series won five Emmy awards and certainly was one of the biggest television events of the fall. It will be interesting to see what, if any, future releases related to Get Back and Let It Be are released.
Another excellent film related to The Beatles now available on DVD and Blu-ray is The Beatles and India. The film looks back on the time The Beatles went to Rishikesh, India in February of 1968 to study with the Maharishi. Reynold D’Silva is the film’s producer, and when he was working with George Harrison’s Handmade Films he had wanted to make a film on the group’s time in India.
The film is directed by Indian author and political journalist Ajoy Bose. His book Across the Universe: The Beatles in India, from 2018, was the impetus for the film. His treatment of this material is to be applauded and he has created a timeless cinematic experience. He takes the topic seriously, without any fanboy glibness, yet reflects the joy and openheartedness of the group’s immersion into the music, culture, and spirituality of India.
This film must be seen on Blu-ray, as it is beautiful to look at and reflects the colorful and earthy tones of the country. The film includes an abundance of footage of the group’s time in India, and portrays the group’s story and pilgrimage, but also offers the voices of many others who were there. There is a great deal of never-before-seen footage and an audio interview with George Harrison from 1966.
Seeing the original sites where The Beatles stayed in Rishikesh juxtaposed with footage of them now is fascinating. Along with the group’s exploration of the various aspects of Indian culture and religion, the period was very fertile creatively for them and most of the White Album was written in India. Owing to the fact that the group really only had acoustic guitars and were ensconced in a tranquil environment, they were influenced to write many songs on acoustic guitar, resulting in music that was far removed from the electronic psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. This was a key turning point for the group and maybe one of the last times the members were truly united and happy to be together, before they experienced all the pressures of Apple and major changes in their personal lives.
When looking at films about The Beatles whose release was not from or connected with the group in some way, it is clear that this is one of the best in recent memory and is a must-have for fans of the group.
The Beatles: Get Back
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The Beatles and India
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