The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+) TV Show Review & Comments

Mark Costello

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Nice Mark, nice.

It's very hard to find any fault with this. It's what I would just describe as beautiful.

And I still can't get over how good it looks.

As documentaries go it's up there because it just rolls off the screen with a kind of poetry you can only embrace.

Edit: meant to add at the end there even if you don't (somehow) know of The Beatles, or much of them.
 
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Wonderful insight into the group at that time.

It's clear that Paul doesn't want Yoko there, but John wants her there. It's unspoken, but you really sense that Paul resents her in the brotherhood at that time. I don't blame Yoko for the break-up, John and George wanted to explore outside the band and assert their own identity. Paul and Ringo wanted to keep it together.

George never asserts himself. Has a sulk, then walks off, rather than expressing his views, which leaves Paul having to make decisions, which causes more friction. Noticed how happier George was in the Apple Studio than the Twickenham stage.
 
It's always good to see historic footage buffed up like this, makes it so much more accessible. As for the content though, I think you have to be a real Beatles fan to sit through it all. I have a healthy respect for them and their achievements, but they were a bit before my time to be honest, so a lot of it (to me) seems to be a bit tedious, just a bunch of blokes sitting around shooting the breeze and having a laugh. Which is fine, but not terribly interesting.
What was interesting however was that John Lennon came across as a much less spiky individual than I had previously thought- maybe it was the editing, maybe time has unfairly judged him.
 
Glad this is getting such a positive buzz all over and I'm very much looking forward to watching it .
 
Absolutely loving this, it's incredible.
Best documentary I've ever seen about anything, ever.

I love the way it's done as a "fly on the wall" docco, it makes you feel privileged to be watching the "fab four"... in particular seeing future classics being composed before your eyes.

Paul noodling away on the bass and it gradually turns into something half-recognisable... and then you realise he's writing "Get Back". Bouncing ideas back and forward with Lennon.

It's a great insight into their four very different characters too: Paul very much leading and determined to get things done... John joking around at every opportunity, George often quiet and trying to push his own compositions... then Ringo watching everything quietly.

Then there's the added bonus
of Billy Preston popping in to say "hi"... and getting conscripted :p

I've got about two hours to go and will finish it tonight.

Astonishingly good.
 
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loved their music so this is a real treat with the dark early winter nights now upon us
 
Can only agree with the review and the comments above that this is a fascinating engrossing documentary, saying that I think many people would find it a difficult watch.
 
Can only agree with the review and the comments above that this is a fascinating engrossing documentary, saying that I think many people would find it a difficult watch.
I think it's going to be a generational split- the over 60's will love it, the under 50's will be left cold.
 
I think it's going to be a generational split- the over 60's will love it, the under 50's will be left cold.
But I’m 47……..o_O

Which I think you’ll find is well under 50. Miles under 50 in fact…….

:D
 
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I think it's going to be a generational split- the over 60's will love it, the under 50's will be left cold.
Not at all, I’m under 50 as are all my friends who have watched this.

I think it’s more to do with a number of things. Appreciation of the Beatles and the impact they had. The fact that we are a fly on the wall watching, arguably, the greatest band ever making tracks and interacting with each other (when so much has been speculated about this period). We are watching literal cultural and musical history in HD. I’m sure there are other factors but I found the whole thing fascinating and incredibly powerful in places.
 
Not much of a fan of The Beatles - I appreciate them more than anything - but this is a fascinating doc.
I've got 30 minutes of the first ep still to watch but from what I've seen so far, Harrison seems more of a problem than Ono.
 
You forget us 40 somethings pretty much grew up with this in the background
It's the soundtrack to my childhood pretty much
 
Thanks Mark great review I'm going to save this for the Christmas holidays one each afternoon for three days.
 
Thanks for the review Mark - I’ve watched part 1 and the subject matter is absolute heaven to a Beatles fan like me, but as you say in the review the use of DNR is comical in some shots - it’s ‘Predator Ultimate Edition’ DNR-level in places, which is such a shame. It’s a bit worrying when people say how amazing it looks when they’ve kept grain for the wide studio shots but have coated the people involved with so much noise reduction.

I can’t believe people wouldn’t accept that fifty-plus year old 16mm footage wouldn’t have grain in it. Just have a look 20-21 minutes in to part 1 - the footage of Paul McCartney has been given so much DNR during a conversation in the studio that it doesn’t look remotely like film to me. Oh well, as the legendary Macca says in The Beatles Anthology, they were such a ‘good act’ that the music and brilliant fly-on-the-wall nature of the doc itself makes it worthwhile.
 
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I don’t have Disney, but after reading the review and comments. I will now be signing up for it.
 
Digital clean up is always controversial. But I think, these days, most people want to see a modern looking image.
16mm with just a raw scan, say 2k, will exhibit many faults. Its not just grain, it will be dirt, scratches, frame movement, and a lack of sharpness. It will look old!

I've used some software myself on 8mm and the results when processed can be quite amazing. Once frame interpolation and stabilization has been added it looks just like video.

I know the die-hards will say it doesn't look like film but for modern audiences, the medium is immaterial.
Looking forward to seeing it.
 
It's a slog, episode one, as the group's enthusiasm for continuing is clearly waning. It's looking like they'd have ended up as Paul's backing band. The atmosphere is pretty dry. Their treatment of George is fairly shoddy, and Ringo contributes next to nothing.

The worst bit for me, technically, is the inevitable poor lip sync half the time when there is no film footage to match the audio. 720p HDR would have achieved the same PQ for the most part too.

It IS fascinating, being a fly on the wall in these rooms, I'll keep watching
 
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Great Review. I only really discovered the 'Beatles' about a decade ago. They weren't really my thing when I was younger.

I've only watched the Trailer so far, but it does look amazing. Just seeing the streets of London in the late 60s is like opening a time capsule. So many things are so different, yet just the same. Usually old film looks exactly that - old. This absolutely brings things to life.

Really looking forward to watching the whole thing. Shame Pater Jackson has sold WETA. I guess this was the last thing they did whilst still under his control?

Regards,
James.
 
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You forget us 40 somethings pretty much grew up with this in the background
It's the soundtrack to my childhood pretty much
I'm also 47. My dad was a massive Beatles nut and would regularly have their music on in the background , although I only really started to appreciate them in my late teens.

I've only done about 90 minutes so far and I'll admit it doesn't have the immediacy of Ron Howards 'Eight days a week: The touring years' or even the anthology TV series but it is an incredible insight into the inner workings of the band.

For anyone that's interested, Ken Mcnab's book 'And in the end' is an excellent deep dive into the final year of The Beatles.
 
Thanks Mark. In my 60's so definitely grew up being captivated by their Music. We'll be doing a Month's Subscription to Disney Plus over the Holidays, so I'll give this a go then.

Regarding Yoko Ono's role; She may have rarely spoken, but in my experience, someone outside the Band's inner circle being constantly there often puts a subtle (And sometimes not-so-subtle) strain on the group's interaction. The little conversations can usually no longer be had. If, for instance, it had been the Mother of one of the Band Members constantly at the side of "Her Boy", I think people would not see it as OK under nearly all circumstance. Yoko Ono being there all the time didn't make them split up, but it didn't help.
 
Thanks Mark. In my 60's so definitely grew up being captivated by their Music. We'll be doing a Month's Subscription to Disney Plus over the Holidays, so I'll give this a go then.

Regarding Yoko Ono's role; She may have rarely spoken, but in my experience, someone outside the Band's inner circle being constantly there often puts a subtle (And sometimes not-so-subtle) strain on the group's interaction. The little conversations can usually no longer be had. If, for instance, it had been the Mother of one of the Band Members constantly at the side of "Her Boy", I think people would not see it as OK under nearly all circumstance. Yoko Ono being there all the time didn't make them split up, but it didn't help.
Oh without doubt she did play a part - at one point in the doc, Paul quips back at Linda as she's chiming in "Alright Yoko....!"

But obviously there were so many different issues at play - I honestly think we'd have got another few years out of the Beatles if Brian Epstein hadn't have died: it was obvious in this doc that they were allowed to do whatever they wanted and were badly missing some much needed discipline and sensible business decision making.

Also, ironically for me anyway, I think they looked most comfortable playing other people's songs - they had a sense of peace and freedom when the four of them were just jamming on cover versions. It all pointed to that the four of them were just tired of being in the machine called 'The Beatles' by this point. A decade of success and people grow apart when they have the ability to do whatever they want and are no longer bound by necessity.

And of course this is still only 60 hours or so of them during a long and winding breakdown.......but its still fascinating to see some of the myths be potentially exposed by 'reality'. Just so much in this and so much to love. I could have written twice as much in the review and still barely scratched the surface......
 
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Just the last episode to watch now but so far kind of interesting, not a huge Beatles fan have all the albums just not as obsessive some people are. The problem is Peter Jackson and his excess this could be edited down by half the time. Do we really need to hear what they watched on TV the night before so many more examples of fluff.
Just like the hobbit movies which the book was only 300+ pages long was stretched out to three movies then lets not talk about King Kong. I'm sure the last episode will be good with the roof top but 8hrs running time nope 4 hrs would have been good enough.
 
Do we really need to hear what they watched on TV the night before so many more examples of fluff.
Honestly, I enjoyed all the little bits of personal stuff and casual conversations, they added to the "snapshot" of the time it was filmed.

I thought the last episode was a bit slow but apart from that I never felt it was over-long.
 

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