A sign depicting the new documentary, The Beatles: Get Back
The Beatles: Get Back is a three-part documentary series on Disney+ that covers the making of the album Let It Be during the year 1970. The first episode was released on Thanksgiving Day, followed by two more episodes that same week. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89% and an audience score of 92%, Get Back is sure to be a near six hours of time well spent. This program was created in response to viewers who were familiar with The Beatles’ work/story and were interested in seeing the conflict between the band members that would later cause them to break up. Beatles’ bassist, Paul McCartney, and drummer, Ringo Starr, were a part of the production process and enjoyed being able to work with a variety of people on the documentary series. The series itself has a lot of video and audio pieces from the Let It Be film project from 1970.
The first episode, Part 1: Days 1-7, starts off with a montage and introduction to the band and shows video clips from movies, interviews, and music videos, showing the year and album that they are from. This section of the episode shows the ten years that The Beatles were together and performing music. After the montage, the documentary starts by showing The Beatles writing and practicing songs in an auditorium. The band members, crew, and others such as Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, are introduced through subtitles.
Along with rehearsing for their famous rooftop performance, the band also makes jokes as they try to write fourteen songs in three weeks. When they practice the songs, there are small subtitles in the corner saying what the song is and who wrote it. It is also interesting to see the band writing some of their famous sad songs, in contrast to the fast and energetic pace with which they practiced them. In between songs, the band shares ideas with one another, but in most cases, there are subtitles when someone speaks because of how incoherent it is.
During the rehearsals, Paul becomes more stressed out, because John usually shows up late and he is worried that he will not make the deadline for all the songs. While he, George, and Ringo wait for John to come to rehearsal, Paul sits down and starts writing the song Get Back. Paul would always be the first to come in and he would write entire songs while he waited for the rest of the band to show up. When George showed up, he would show Paul some of the songs he wrote at home.
In the middle of Part 1, The Beatles talk with their managers about where their final show is before they finally decide on the rooftop of Apple Corps Headquarters. Near the end of the episode, Paul and John are writing and practicing songs while Ringo plays along with his drums and George sits patiently. When they call for a lunch break, George says that they should get a replacement for him and that he is leaving the band. The episode ends with a picture of a page from George’s diary written that day and the rest of the band trying to figure out how they are going to replace George. They decide that they will have a meeting at Ringo’s house with George and it does not go well.
At the start of Part 2: Days 8-16, Ringo is the first to show up to rehearsal on the day after the meeting at his house. Paul and his wife, Linda, came in later. The three of them and some other managers talk about George leaving, and how John brings Yoko everywhere. Paul and Ringo share an emotional moment when they realize that the band is just the two of them for the time being.
When John arrives an hour late, he and Paul have a meeting during lunch. After their meeting, the band goes back to practicing and their manager tells them that George said that he was going to Liverpool and that he would not be back for a couple of days.
Overall, if the viewer has a good amount of knowledge about The Beatles, Get Back is an interesting watch, but it takes a while for any action to happen. The whole series is just the band practicing and writing songs and talking about the band’s health and rooftop performance. An older audience would enjoy the series more than the average teenager, because it does not follow the format of most teenage-centered television series. The trailer makes the show seem more intense and entertaining than it is. The plot points start at the end of episode one and there is a lot of stuff going on at once, so when the viewer is used to the show being boring and slow, suddenly they get all this drama that is difficult to keep up with and the viewer must go back and rewatch in order to understand.
However, at the end of episode three, when The Beatles perform their famous rooftop performance is so iconic that it is worth watching the band’s rehearsals in the episodes before. If someone were to look up a Beatles song on YouTube, they are most likely to find at least one from the same performance, any Beatles fan is familiar with this event, but they have not gotten to see what happened before the concert until now.
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