Gareth Lord

Ok, lets start with the important stuff. You have to be huge Beatles fan to love this. Else, it can be a little arduous at times because its very long with seemingly little happening (especially episode 1). A re edited equivilent of what came to be the Let it Be film may have been more appealing to some. However, its great for people wanting to know the intracate inner workings of the band. The dynamics are really clear in part one. Paul is the driver, the enthusiast, who was really trying to steer the group towards his vision. John is far less vocal, almost disengaged and fed up (although that changes in episode 2). George has ideas, great songs, but becomes disenchanted when they are not received as well as he'd hoped. And Ringo, is just... Ringo, laid back, flexible and always likeable. They jam old songs, create new ones and battle ideas all under great pressure. The development is fascinating and the dynamic ever changing. What emerges is legendary. Some songs they jam and could have been something great like 'commonwealth' but never see light of day. Others will later emerge as something else such as jealous guy. Thats the beauty of this film. It also shows that they just wrote songs without a concept first as it features many an embryo that would later appear on abbey road. The episodes get better. Episode 1 is the weakest. Episode 2 improves greatly with john coming more alive and it features an interesting secret recording of mccartney saying that lennon has always been the boss. George returns in this episode after walking out and when billy preston enters things get even better so if bored of episode 1 skip to 2. But its not for everyone and i can see how this might be just too long for some fans. Thats why im giving it 3/5. I love it but i would still have loved it at half its overall length.