Peter Jackson Beatles documentary

I've really enjoyed it so far. Yeah, there's not much new here, but I think Peter Jackson has done a pretty good job bringing everything together so there's some context and structure. The biggest surprise is how unfiltered it is for a Disney+ show, with stuff like the early "No Pakastanis" versions of Get Back and John's bit about wanking.

I do think it would be easier to digest in smaller segments, like maybe an hour each, but I've sat here like an idiot two days in a row watching each part straight through.
 
smurfco said:
I understand what you're saying but I don't think that was it... I knew most of the anecdotes Paul shared with "filthy Santa Claus" Rick Rubin on that McCartney 3 2 1 thing and still found it captivating and ate each episode up.

For this, I think maybe "disappointed" is a better word than bored. For months this has been pitched as a revelatory new take on the Let It Be movie / era, and how the original film was edited to show them in a negative light but didn't tell the whole story - or even the real story. But watching it, my feeling was basically that it was a longer, HD version of Let It Be. Which is fine, and still worth having, but (like you) I still found that it made the atmosphere look tense and uncomfortable, shoehorned scenes of Lennon laughing be damned. Listening to them fuck around on their instruments was interesting at first but after a while I was like "play a whole song" and got tired of them just fucking around. I haven't watched parts 2 or 3 yet but I felt like you could have edited Part 1 down to an hour (instead of two and a half) and not lose anything.

TL/DR: I was expecting something besides a longer, HD version of the movie I'd already seen.
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Yeah. Yr take is pretty close to mine. There’s no real revelation—just more stuff. And so much fucking around. Watching “Get Back” get written from initial vamp to final thing is pretty cool. But it doesn’t really demystify it or add context, really.

The Beatles are so studied and the legacy is so fussed over that there’s precious little that could happen that would be fresh. The cleaned up Esher Demos were the last thing from Apple Brand Beatle Product that I was really excited to get. And I kinda wish the Harrison estate would have provided a nice sounding All Things run through demos without all the alternate mix/take session stuff. I don’t wanna have to buy a $9,000 box set or whatever for a nicer sounding package of what you can hear on YouTube.

So yeah, the restored footage here is great. But it’s looooooooooooong and still everyone seems bitchy and edgy and for the life of me I don’t know why Yoko even wanted to sit in on all this.
 
Acadiafall said:
I watched that WW1 footage he digitally enhanced. Mind blowing stuff, it looks like it was filmed yesterday. It really does make a difference.
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Was that called "WWII In Color"?


I would like to see the Beatles thing. I think the feuds that were played in the media were pumped up a lot... at least that's what I got from interviews with George Harrison.

One thing that I always found odd was the "Paul thinks Ringo is a shite drummer" thing and all kinds of drummers saying "I love Ringo's drumming". Hey...I love Ringo's drumming too.
 
smorgdonkey said:
Was that called "WWII In Color"?


I would like to see the Beatles thing. I think the feuds that were played in the media were pumped up a lot... at least that's what I got from interviews with George Harrison.

One thing that I always found odd was the "Paul thinks Ringo is a shite drummer" thing and all kinds of drummers saying "I love Ringo's drumming". Hey...I love Ringo's drumming too.
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It's They Shall Not Grow Old. I haven't watched it but I'd like to. World War 1 in Colour is pretty amazing - especially the first episode with all the prewar footage from the cities. I think you can still find it on YT.
 
Peter Jackson is not an adherent of brevity. But I'll still watch it, or at least try. I've sat through enough long pointless rehearsals getting nothing done, so it might hit a nerve.

Anyone question Ringo as a drummer should watch the Ron Howard Eight Days a Week film. Ringo is driving the band, hard.
 
The complete rooftop footage is great stuff, but man it was a long haul to finally get there. Not that I didn't enjoy the rest of it, but I don't see myself rewatching any of the other bits anytime soon.
 
I watched the first part and enjoyed it, and it is nice seeing that at that point they could still enjoy each other company at times. But it is a bit boring. there are pieces here and there that are very cool - and seeing that these 'genius' songwriters just kind of winging it through some songs that eventually became classic tunes is nice. But I'm not sure I will watch the rest of it straight through. It is so obvious that they were just going through the motions at this point. John is high as a kite and checked out most of the time. George is sick of being ignored by John & Paul. Paul is trying to hold everything together, but his ego can't get out of the way long enough to let anyone else gel around him. They are a mess. It truly is surprising they made to this point in their career at all. They should have taken a year off, but I do not think that was a option.
 
I usually don’t care about Yoko, but I can physically feel her buzz kill presence and how it’s affecting the whole process. I know, real novel insight on my part.

George’s mind is firing on all cylinders, Paul is too stoned, John can’t be himself with his harpie on his shoulder, and Ringo is clearly bored as fuck.

Watching this with my kids is fun though. And the look of the film is lovely.
 
I have not watched that new documentary, but I did see this album cover for the first time recently and I think it is wonderful:

george martin.jpg
 
They should have cut this thing down to a 90-minute deal re: the rooftop. Frame it as everyone knows about the tension with a quick cut montage about the arguments, John’s addiction, George leaving, the two meetings, the move back to Apple, Magic Alex fucking everything up, Billy joining and then the tension is AND YET these fucking guys can’t figure it out.

And then show how close the rooftop came to not happening—but it’s great that it did. Sprinkle in the fact that they started conceiving of the Abbey Road stuff and solo work at this time—i.e., they weren’t out of ideas. Then big celebratory full rooftop concert and a postscript re: the 4/4/4/2 meeting and the possibility that it could of continued if you want to tell a general audience some interesting stuff and open up some what if day dreaming.
 
It was presumably a huge success--it broke a few of the Never Disney lot in my orbit, and they'll go on paying a monthly tribute until the sun implodes. Armchair quarterbacking the champions of the century is futile.
 
Chicken Man said:
It was presumably a huge success--it broke a few of the Never Disney lot in my orbit, and they'll go on paying a monthly tribute until the sun implodes. Armchair quarterbacking the champions of the century is futile.
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Well, I’m borrowing Disney to watch it. So the mouse can suck it. I'm just talking from a good doc/history perspective.

I also think that Apple/Disney/Jackson should make the restored footage and all the source material available to academics just like how people donate their papers to universities/archives for posterity. Fat chance, I know. But still, all the people profiting from this have more money than they and their kids can ever spend.

Disney should go back to ruining Star Wars.
 
I made it to just about an hour of the first episode, had to turn it off. Watching a band hang out in an uncomfortable room noodling aimlessly and occasionally rehearsing something that sounds decent is excruciatingly boring, even if said band is legendary. It almost caught my attention when Paul started noodling into the creation of Get Back, but not enough to keep watching.
 
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