I've been a Beatles fan for 25 years now, and today marked a special and long-awaited occasion: I finally got to see Let it Be. The movie that the Beatles are apparently keeping suppressed, that I've been looking for forever to no avail. It's on YouTube, divided into 9 separate parts, which was good enough for me. I could care less about video quality, or special DVD extras -- I've been wanting to see this movie for a long long time, having heard all about it and seen all the famous clips from it.
My impressions:
I feel I understand the Beatles just a little more than I did before I saw the film.
* Everyone talks about how this movie is a document of a band breaking up; a great band that doesn't get along anymore. I think that element is a little over-exaggerated. The only onscreen argument is the famous Paul-George conversation where George is obviously a little peeved at the way Paul is trying to 'direct' George's playing on a song. In another scene, Paul has a similar conversation with John, but John seems so apathetic to the whole thing (heroin?) that there's no real drama in this non-confrontation. As a viewer I was unmoved.
* And that apathy comes across in watching this project take place. My take is that the Beatles (or Paul, because he was pretty much running the show) weren't in the Twickenham studios to record a new album; they were there to rehearse material, replay a lot of old stuff (like Besame Mucho, Lawdy Miss Clawdy and One After 909 -- stuff they wouldn't be playing if they were recording a new album) and jam together in preparation for a concert, which would be the climax of this film. Unfortunately the concert never materialized -- probably because they didn't have Brian Epstein there to coordinate that. So instead they lugged their equipment to the roof and played up there until the cops told them to stop.
I was expecting more arguments, more tension.... but instead what I got was apathy. Aside from Paul, the other guys (and I can't believe I'm referring to John, George and Ringo as 'the other guys,' but when you watch this movie, it fits) seemed to be there out of obligation. It wasn't that they now hated each other. They just didn't care any more.
It's truly "The Beatles, Warts and All." A far cry from the Ed Sullivan, "Hard Day's Night" days.