Jen

I groaned when a family member turned this on because my thought was, “Do we seriously need yet another Beatles documentary?” - but after a while I became engrossed because everything that was happening during these sessions was so different from the usual lore around the Beatles, and their dynamic was much more like a family than anything else. The entire first two and a half episodes are spent humanizing people who have become legendary, and then for the end of the final episode, we see them go out on the rooftop and be absolutely legendary. I also loved seeing the lie that Yoko broke up the Beatles be disproven on film for everyone to see. It was interesting to hear Paul sticking up for both her and John when people around the band tried to portray her as a problem, saying, “I think she’s great … It’s his decision … They just want to be near each other.” The lore that George was the “sweet one” was also disproven, which was more of a surprise to me than the disproving of the Yoko lie. There was one part during the rooftop show where the cops make their road manager turn off George and John’s amps, and George scoffs and goes and snaps his amp back on with the most punk rock attitude. 🤘 Totally unexpected. Less unexpected was George having Hare Krishnas following him around like they were worshipping him or something. Less punk rock and more Scientology-esque. I will also add that this documentary was hilarious - or more accurately that John and Paul are hilarious together. I wish there was more footage out there of the two of them just riffing off of each other and acting like complete fools. I really enjoyed watching Billy Preston just because, on top of being a talented keyboardist, he had just a nice vibe about him. There were also a lot of moments that were just interesting little vingettes that pretty much aligned with the existing lore, like George Martin stuffing the piano with newspapers when George Harrison said he wanted it to sound like a bad honky tonk piano, or Ringo falling asleep in various chairs while the rest of the band worked out song arrangements. There was one thing dragging this documentary down, and that was its length. All of the footage was essentially of band practices, and as anyone who has been to someone else’s band practice will tell you, there are few things more boring. At least a third of this documentary were just the boring parts of a months-long band practice that didn’t add to the things that were illuminated in the film or to its entertainment value. But it was directed by the same dude who apparently decided three whole movies were needed to portray The Hobbit, so no surprises there, I guess. Overall I was very pleasantly surprised and I think it was an excellent film despite being dragged down somewhat by excessive irrelevant footage.