Blu-ray Review The Beatles: Get Back Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[John Sparks]

I love everything the beatles have done as a band and seperately but I barely made it thru that...I must have fallen asleep more times that I can count. Once was enough for me.

 

[Bartman]

I have seen exerpts on TV that didn't look like film. I'm renting the DVD from Netflix and leaving it at that.

 

[Todd Erwin]

To verify if you receive the recalled or new final version, check the UPC.

Recalled: 786936893939
Final Release: 786936894592

 

[Nelson Au]

I picked up the Blu ray set earlier this week, hard to believe I finally have a copy in my possession. I just watched Part One last night. As I don’t have Disney, this is my very first viewing. I have seen Let It Be many years ago when it was screened at college.

I didn’t have a problem with the image quality. It is what it is. If it’s blurry, it looks like it’s how it was originally filmed.

But the content was fascinating. I can see why Jackson chose to assemble a short intro with the history of The Beatles from their early school days to world wide fame that led to the 1969 project. It was for the uninitiated.

It was fascinating to see the four of them under the gun to produce new songs in a short time at the dreary Twickenham studio. It just seemed like they set themselves up for failure. But it was cool to see how they got on with each other. They were trying to be creative and it was cool to see how some of the well known songs begin to take shape. I look forward to Part 2 and the Saville Row sessions.

 

[John Sparks]

What was sad was how they treated/ignored George.

 

[BobO'Link]

I watched Part 1 tonight. I'm fine with how it looks - actually better than I anticipated and expected. I'm more bothered with how Jackson assembled the film. More often than not, performance film doesn't match the song at all. He took various shots with little concern as to matching the singing/playing and just went with general matching of who was present. It looks like he took shots from many, many, sections of a rehearsal of a single song and threw them together to make it more "palatable" to a general audience. IMHO, he failed. I'd have rather seen the raw film of an entire sequence even if it didn't provide "interesting cutaway" action. I'm more distracted by the non-matching of what's happening aurally to the visuals.

I'll likely watch Part 2 tomorrow sometime. I hope he didn't butcher the rooftop concert like he's done with the core material of the rehearsals so far.

 

[BobO'Link]

Finished part 2. While interesting, for the most part, it was also somewhat of a slog to get through. It's almost 3 hours long and has lengthy sections where little to nothing is going on. Mostly John and Paul playing song snippets of things that will wind up on "Abbey Road" or their various solo efforts (which was the more interesting parts outside working on the songs that would eventually wind up on "Let it Be"). It was interesting to see Billy Preston playing with the group but how his "joining" was presented differs from what I've always read/heard - that Harrison asked him to stop by and join them to help negate all the negativity/tension that was present. Listening to John and Paul discuss whether or not he was really "a Beatle" or just a session musician was enlightening - especially about just how he was to be paid. Since he didn't get any credit on the album (just a "thanks" on the back cover IIRC) it makes me wonder if he got paid for the gig.

Harrison just seems frustrated after years of mostly being ignored by John and Paul - I get it - with the film crew pretty much tipping the balance and bringing that frustration to the fore. Ringo's apparently just along for the ride. The segments of Paul talking about Yoko are also quite different than what I've heard/read all these years. He really doesn't seem to care about her being there, though I did like a comment one of them made (I think it was Paul) that they need to have rehersals with a "OK boys - leave the girls at home so we can get some work done" mentality. I got the impression Harrison had Patty Boyd come in simply because Paul had brought Linda most days (which felt like a response to John and Yoko) and John was pretty much attached to Yoko at the hip.

I'm seeing more examples of over scrubbing to remove grain on this chapter. It looks more like videotape than film. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I'd have preferred that less DNR was used. Colors look mostly good and it's interesting to see wardrobes and dress styles of various people in those years (yes - I lived through those years and know first hand but you tend to forget just how it all looked and how many "square" people dressed in "mod" clothing styles).

I stayed awake for the entire thing - but also started it rather early in the evening for just that reason. I'm hoping part 3 will be a bit more involving since it contains the rooftop concert.

 

[Tom St Jones]

I would totally disagree about the WW1 footage. Jackson was able to bring it into the modern age. Instead of some far away antique, for the first time these young men were real and we could completely understand the sacrifices they made and the conditions they endured. Colour, cleaning up frames, adding sound, and 3D created an immediacy like never before.

However it may look on your screen now, those men (and their situation) were *always* real

 

[Randy Korstick]

Have a laserdisc player and noticed on Ebay last year prices on the laserdisc starting at $500 and one seller had it listed for $1,200.

And people thought Laserdisc were expensive when this originally sold for $29.99 on Laserdisc and $59.99 on VHS.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I got mine today from Best Buy. The picture is clean and spotless. But, .... No film grain at all ! Some shots are Blurry. Close ups are better but No detail or Sharpness ! The 7.1 PCM Stereo is the best one for audio. If Let it Be (1970) gets released it will also look like this ? This will be the weakest PQ Bluray in my collection. The Little Rascals Vol.1 Bluray from 1929-1930 looks Better !

The Let it Be film would look the same. All of this was shot on 16,, film which like Videotape isn't well suited for HD. So lots of digitizing and scrubbing was done to make it look more HD.
I can watch this on Disney Plus anytime so I will only buy this on blu ray if they ever release the rumored deluxe set that also includes Let It Be and some additional unseen footage.

 

[Ross Gowland]

The Let it Be film would look the same. All of this was shot on 16mm film which like Videotape isn't well suited for HD.

It wouldn’t look the same if it wasn’t put through a ridiculous amount of video noise reduction.

In the last week I’ve watched Out 1 (part one), Cold Water and the Godard/Gorin film Lotte in Italia and disagree that 16mm isn’t well suited to HD. It looks great when treated properly.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The Let it Be film would look the same. All of this was shot on 16,, film which like Videotape isn't well suited for HD.

16mm is perfectly fine on HD - as long as you expect it to look like 16mm and not... HD.

We have no idea if "LIB" on Blu-ray would be given the Peter Jackson Scrub.

He did that for his own version of the footage. Doesn't mean Disney would also scrub something intended to represent a film released in 1970.

 

[Randy Korstick]

16mm is perfectly fine on HD - as long as you expect it to look like 16mm and not... HD.

We have no idea if "LIB" on Blu-ray would be given the Peter Jackson Scrub.

He did that for his own version of the footage. Doesn't mean Disney would also scrub something intended to represent a film released in 1970.

But the issue is people are expecting it to like HD and it won't which was my point. I was under the understanding that a deluxe version of this if released would include additional footage and the movie and the set would be done by Jackson since the whole project was his. If we are expecting Disney to release LIB on their own then I think its safe to say it isn't going to come out on Blu Ray.

 

[The Drifter]

I'm a big Beatles fan, and have numerous albums of theirs - notably Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band; The White Album; Let it Be; Abbey Road; Revolver; and Rubber Soul. Also, one of my first musical memories was hearing Sgt. Pepper's on Vinyl as a kid back in the day. I do definitely feel they are one of the best rock/pop groups of all time & that their music will never get old. It's also notable that - AFAIK - their albums have never gone out of print (OOP).

And, though it took me a year after it was released - I finally watched The Beatles: Get Back 3-part documentary about a month ago. Amazing. This was incredible, and has already become one of my favorite documentaries.

-The Picture Quality/Sound on these Blu-ray discs was stellar. They obviously put a lot of work into cleaning up/remastering the print & the audio in the production process, etc.

-The doc. was a fascinating "behind the scenes" look at the band; the creative process behind how their music/songs were written/sung; and the dynamics between the members & their management/production staff. Some comments/thoughts:

-It was interesting that Lennon & McCartney were almost the de-facto "leaders" of the group, while Starr was very low-key. Obviously there were tensions with Harrison, who left the group at one point during the doc. - but did thankfully return.

-I was amused that they were trying to figure out where to have their "free concert" & couldn't come to a consensus on where to play. So, they finally decided to have the concert on the roof of the studio where they were recording their last album (Let it Be) - in the cold January weather. Very simple solution, but not one you expected they would have chosen ahead of time.

-The whole doc. was obviously leading up to this roof-top concert, which was amazing. Though this took place before my time, it would have been incredible to have been there & heard this unexpected Beatles concert - even if you couldn't see it too well from the street

 

[The Drifter]

Part 2:

-Not at all surprising that the concert caused a lot of people to stop what they were doing (in the streets below) and listen - this obviously included employees at some of the local businesses. It was clear that a lot of people were happy that they were hearing the Beatles playing live - for free.

However, it was also not surprising that the authorities responded to numerous noise complaints from some residents/businesses in the area. And, because of this they ultimately ended up getting the concert shut down. I was surprised at how polite the authorities were about all of this. I suspect a lot of this was because the concert was being put on by The Beatles, who were not only hugely popular at the time - but were probably also considered a UK "national treasure". Also, given that they knew the whole thing was being filmed - the authorities had to be careful how they handled this - LOL.

-Being a huge fan of the late Peter Sellers & most of his films, it was amusing seeing him make a short "cameo" in the doc. - though he didn't say much.

-Though the band obviously put out a lot of amazing, iconic albums - I'm glad they broke up when they did. Re: what we saw in this doc., I got the strong impression that they were beginning to go their separate ways at that point. And, I don't know that the quality of their work would have been as good (as it had been previously) if they had continued as a band for even 5 more years. However, I guess we'll never know.

-I have never seen the Beatles 80-minute documentary Let it Be (1970). I've heard about it over the years, but it's never been available on home video since the VHS/Laser Disk days. Apparently, plans were in place to release this to DVD/Blu back in 2018, but due to the making of "Get Back" those plans were shelved. Since "Let it Be" is not available in any easy-to-watch format at this point - and also since the footage from the film is probably all/mostly included in "Get Back".... I'm passing on trying to find a way to watch this. I.e., even if you were to find this streaming somewhere, it sounds like the picture/sound quality would be average - at best.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Part 2:

-Not at all surprising that the concert caused a lot of people to stop what they were doing (in the streets below) and listen - this obviously included employees at some of the local businesses. It was clear that a lot of people were happy that they were hearing the Beatles playing live - for free.

However, it was also not surprising that the authorities responded to numerous noise complaints from some residents/businesses in the area. And, because of this they ultimately ended up getting the concert shut down. I was surprised at how polite the authorities were about all of this. I suspect a lot of this was because the concert was being put on by The Beatles, who were not only hugely popular at the time - but were probably also considered a UK "national treasure". Also, given that they knew the whole thing was being filmed - the authorities had to be careful how they handled this - LOL.

-Being a huge fan of the late Peter Sellers & most of his films, it was amusing seeing him make a short "cameo" in the doc. - though he didn't say much.

-Though the band obviously put out a lot of amazing, iconic albums - I'm glad they broke up when they did. Re: what we saw in this doc., I got the strong impression that they were beginning to go their separate ways at that point. And, I don't know that the quality of their work would have been as good (as it had been previously) if they had continued as a band for even 5 more years. However, I guess we'll never know.

-I have never seen the Beatles 80-minute documentary Let it Be (1970). I've heard about it over the years, but it's never been available on home video since the VHS/Laser Disk days. Apparently, plans were in place to release this to DVD/Blu back in 2018, but due to the making of "Get Back" those plans were shelved. Since "Let it Be" is not available in any easy-to-watch format at this point - and also since the footage from the film is probably all/mostly included in "Get Back".... I'm passing on trying to find a way to watch this. I.e., even if you were to find this streaming somewhere, it sounds like the picture/sound quality would be average - at best.

I remember as late as early 2020 reading in a different HTF thread that LET IT BE (1970) was still supposed to be subsequently released on Blu-ray sometime after the release of the GET BACK documentary. My guess is between COVID pushing back the release of the GET BACK documentary by 12 months, followed by Disney+ getting involved killed that idea permanently. Too bad.

CHEERS!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

-I have never seen the Beatles 80-minute documentary Let it Be (1970). I've heard about it over the years, but it's never been available on home video since the VHS/Laser Disk days. Apparently, plans were in place to release this to DVD/Blu back in 2018, but due to the making of "Get Back" those plans were shelved. Since "Let it Be" is not available in any easy-to-watch format at this point - and also since the footage from the film is probably all/mostly included in "Get Back".... I'm passing on trying to find a way to watch this. I.e., even if you were to find this streaming somewhere, it sounds like the picture/sound quality would be average - at best.

I have Let it Be on Blu-ray but what is on the Blu is a rip from the laser disk. I believe all of the copies of the film that are available on Blu or DVD are the same rip from the laser. Also my copy of it on Blu has been horribly butchered so it can be called a special edition. What they did was took a bunch of interviews with the band members and cut them into the film with a lot of random video laid over the audio. The clips they chose to use are primarily the guys ripping each other so it becomes even more of a depressing slog than it was in its original form. I mean Let it Be the movie was about the band falling apart and on the verge of break-up. In the longer documentary you see more of that, particularly George's frustrations and his intention to leave the band and Paul and John discussing replacing him.

I always liked Let it Be as a fly on the wall peek at the Beatles making the record, plus I really like the record itself. I do really like Peter Jackson's picture as it is a more balanced look at the band working. Ringo in the original Let it Be film always looks pretty disengaged, George looks unhappy most of the time, John seems to be just semi interested and Paul looks like the only one enjoying himself to the point where it almost looks like some sort of Paul solo record. I don't think it was what Beatles fans imagined a recording session would be like. Really, in Jackson's film it looks obvious that Preston really saved the entire thing because when he arrived they all look much happier.

 

[Sam Favate]

I remember as late as early 2020 reading in a different HTF thread that LET IT BE (1970) was still supposed to be subsequently released on Blu-ray sometime after the release of the GET BACK documentary. My guess is between COVID pushing back the release of the GET BACK documentary by 12 months, followed by Disney+ getting involved killed that idea permanently. Too bad.

CHEERS!

I don't know that I would blame Disney for the absence of Let It Be. The Beatles themselves (well, Paul and Ringo) both said LIB would be issued alongside Get Back when the time came. Peter Jackson even talked about a longer cut of the GB movie, so maybe if that happens, LIB would be included. It's unfortunate it was left out, but of course the blu-ray that was issued had no extras at all, and at this point, that's all LIB is to Paul and Ringo -- an extra.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I don't know that I would blame Disney for the absence of Let It Be. The Beatles themselves (well, Paul and Ringo) both said LIB would be issued alongside Get Back when the time came. Peter Jackson even talked about a longer cut of the GB movie, so maybe if that happens, LIB would be included. It's unfortunate it was left out, but of course the blu-ray that was issued had no extras at all, and at this point, that's all LIB is to Paul and Ringo -- an extra.

At the time the 12 month delay in finishing and releasing the GET BACK documentary due to COVID was announced in the spring of 2020, I recall thinking along the lines of "Damn, I'll bet the planned subsequent release of LET IT BE (1970) will probably get lost in the shuffle, now!"

In my opinion, that sadly unavoidable pandemic related delay was the number 1 factor in an official LET IT BE Blu-ray not seeing light of day.

CHEERS!

 

[The Drifter]

Thanks for the info. on the Beatles Let it Be doc. As we know, it hasn't been available via physical media since the VHS/Laserdisc days. Though it sounds mildly interesting, IMHO the only 80-minute length doesn't sound like it allows for a lot of time to delve into the subject matter.

Conversely, all three parts of Get Back are collectively an extremely impressive length for a doc. - and clock in @ a little less than 8 hours. Nice. I really like how GB is much more comprehensive (to a certain extent) and is a fascinating "fly on the wall" look at the band & the making of an iconic album.

And, while some may not like long running times like this - I not only like them, I strongly prefer them. I myself always try to watch the longer cuts of films, and always like it when deleted scenes end up being added back into "director's cuts" of movies.