Anyone see the Beatles documentary?

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Some thoughts:

1. The fact that most of their songs are pretty much thrown together might seem like chaos but it shows just how much innate talent they had as songwriters.
2. Yoko was nowhere near the she-devil many have portrayed her as. She mostly sat and watched, and seemed to enjoy hanging around the future Linda McCartney.
3. It was George, not Paul or John, who started the ball rolling toward the breakup. In fact, it appears they did everything they could to keep George around long enough to finish the album.
4. Supposedly Disney wanted to take out all the scenes where the Beatles were smoking. Do that, and they'd have about two minutes of footage.
5. And why did they play Get Back three times on the rooftop?

I've watched parts 1 & 2. Spoiler warning I guess.

I'm riveted by it, despite not really liking most of the Beatles music. It was never played in my house growing up and I never saw their movies or anything so they're a pretty abstract concept to me.

I've been blown away by the footage. It's mesmerising. A bit like that WWI footage Peter Jackson worked with, it really brings the era to life and you realise that it really wasn't that different from now. McCartney looks very stylish. It's a bit like watching Celebrity Big Brother.

In the first part I was struck by how much Paul McCartney was the driving force. It didn't seem like anyone else wanted to be there. And watching him noodle his way towards "Get Back" was one of the most amazing depictions of creativity in action I've ever seen.

Lennon seemed stoned to me throughout the first part. In the second part I actually found him quite annoying. I didn't know he was like that. But I still prefer his songs, generally.

McCartney and Lennon are both geniuses, I think. But in very different ways. McCartney seems to just hammer away, throwing ideas out all over the place until something incredible happens. Lennon seems to be more instinctive and better when he has something to kick off. He'll take someone else's idea and make it immeasurably better.

I knew how Yoko was perceived by some Beatles fans but I had no preconceptions of her. I did think it was weird to have her sat next to John constantly throughout those practice sessions, even if she wasn't interfering in any way. I can see how it could come across as controlling. But I liked it when Paul was saying that he thought they just 'wanted to be near each other' and it wasn't a problem unless the rest of the Beatles made it one.

Paul seems like a genuinely nice guy to me and I felt quite bad for him as the person who seemed most invested in The Beatles and this album/show. The bit at the end of the second part where the producer suggest to him they play on the roof and his face lights up as he realises it's all going to be okay was a great bit of catharsis.

I'm really looking forward to part 3.

i wish they'd just release it on disc.

Okay, I've seen part 3 now. I don't have anything to add other than:

In response to thought 5 - why play "Get Back" 3 times on the roof, my thinking is that the first time was a warm up/systems check. The second time was a take - they were recording it live for the Let It Be album remember, iirc that second time was the take they used on the album.

The third time, and this is speculation, was simply because the police showed up to shut them down. McCartney visibly comes alive when the police appear on the rooftop, he's loving it - he's knows its good for the movie they're making if the police are there trying to stop them playing. But they've only got 6 songs they can play at this point and they've played them all so I think it was an attempt to eke it out, maybe force the police into taking some action to stop them.

That was my take on it.

Could also just have been because it was the single and a lot of the people who'd assembled by the end of the performance weren't there at the beginning so they hadn't heard it before.

It's funny you say that. This project was announced over 3 years ago, and was supposed to have been available on DVD and/or blu ray along with a theatrical release and, included in the package, a release of the ORIGINAL Let it Be film to commemorate the 50 year reunion. 1970-2020.

It was delayed, due to COVID.

But I still don't understand how it was reworked entirely into a streaming-only documentary, and completely excluded the original movie.

mebbe they thought this way it would bring in the most buck$?