The Beatles ( Get Back Documentary) showing Nov 25th on TV

[williammcgregor]

This will be amazing !

The sheer novelty of seeing unseen footage of my favourite ever group is beyond words

[Stephen Byers]

Which channel?

[mattg]

Urgh, didn’t realise Disney had their noxious claws in this. Does this mean ‘Get Back’ is a (timed) Disney+ exclusive then? 

That would be inconvenient for me as I’m eagerly waiting for the subsequent physical release of which presumably Disney would also be pressing up. If so then I guess I’ll have to suspend my longstanding policy of refusing to give that damn corporation a single penny of my money!

On a tangentially related note I also assume the prospect of getting the original ‘Let It Be’ film (preferably in restored condition) on a hypothetical bonus disk of any physical release is pretty much nil considering the surviving Beatles still resolutely disown it?

[williammcgregor]

It would have been better if the likes of the BBC or ITV had acquired the rights to show the documentaries ( 3 x 2 hours I believe) but of course money talks and Disney probably offered more than any other station ?

The Beatles are such an iconic group that the public deserve to see the documentaries without having to pay DISNEY to see them

[timmunton]

mattg -
when initially announced before Disney was involved, iirc the blurb said that the eventual disc release would include the original "Let It Be" film (restored).
Although I could be mis-remembering; in that it definitely said the entire rooftop concert (uninterruped & restored) would be included & maybe I'm mixing that up with the film.
But I think (& indeed hope) it was both.

That blurb presumably will still be online somewhere.
If my memory is right then there's no reason to think that will neccessarily change, even with Disney involved.
It would be a bit strange not to include it.
If it is there then perhaps the surviving Beatles see it, in the light of "Get Back", as now more of a footnote, so won't be bothered.
Personally I think L.I.B. is an excellent film & I quite like the partial dourness.

Also worrying re. the main "Get Back" project, is that I think they've given all the footage a look similar to video by doubling the frame rate or whatever, so it no longer looks like the medium it was originally recorded on - a great shame.
Jackson did something comparable with his Hobbit trilogy; by making the frame rate something like 50fps instead of 24fps.
So this seems to be a thing with him.
I enjoyed the Hobbit trilogy but they'd look a lot better if they'd been presented at 24fps.



Update:
Wikipedia entry for L.I.B. says " a fully restored version of the original 'Let It Be' film will be made available at a later date". This is a quote from Deadline website reporting on the "Get Back" project in March 2021.
So hopefully accurate then & now!

[mattg]

Nov 4, 2021 19:21:03 GMT timmunton said:

mattg -
when initially announced before Disney was involved, iirc the blurb said that the eventual disc release would include the original "Let It Be" film (restored).
Although I could be mis-remembering; in that it definitely said the entire rooftop concert (uninterruped & restored) would be included & maybe I'm mixing that up with the film.
But I think (& indeed hope) it was both.

That blurb presumably will still be online somewhere.
If my memory is right then there's no reason to think that will neccessarily change, even with Disney involved.
It would be a bit strange not to include it.
If it is there then perhaps the surviving Beatles see it, in the light of "Get Back", as now more of a footnote, so won't be bothered.
Personally I think L.I.B. is an excellent film & I quite like the partial dourness.

Also worrying re. the main "Get Back" project, is that I think they've given all the footage a look similar to video by doubling the frame rate or whatever, so it no longer looks like the medium it was originally recorded on - a great shame.
Jackson did something comparable with his Hobbit trilogy; by making the frame rate something like 50fps instead of 24fps.
So this seems to be a thing with him.
I enjoyed the Hobbit trilogy but they'd look a lot better if they'd been presented at 24fps.



Update:
Wikipedia entry for L.I.B. says " a fully restored version of the original 'Let It Be' film will be made available at a later date". This is a quote from Deadline website reporting on the project in March 2021.
So hopefully accurate then & now!

Thanks for all the info Tim!

Admittedly I’ve only been keeping fleeting tabs on the ‘Get Back’ project since it got postponed from last year, operating a shrewd ‘I’ll see it when I see it’ policy so naturally wasn’t aware of any of the info you helpfully provided.

It’s also great, and frankly unexpected news that the original ‘Let It Be’ film is apparently not going to remain buried at the back of the vault either! You say it would be strange to omit it but considering that the surviving members of the Beatles have kept it suppressed for the last 40 or so years (technically 50 of course if one discounts the VHS and Laserdisc home media releases of the early 80’s) I would argue it’s a welcome surprise!

Regardless, it’s perhaps poignant to note that in a once bountiful creative reservoir now long since drained of demos, unreleased songs, alternative takes et al the prodigious audio/visual material comprising ‘Get Back’ represents the very last wealth of Beatles gold formally unavailable (officially) to us insatiable fans. That said, your mention of frame rate tinkering doesn’t sound too good I must admit!

A real time capsule then…. although I’m still not signing up for Disney+. 

[timmunton]

mattg -
likewise; I'll wait until it's out on disc!

When the 'Let It Be' film is eventually released (which seems likely it will, as we were saying, whether or not it's in the same disc set as 'Get Back'), I hope whoever restores it takes care.

I say this as there seems to be a track record of care not always been taken eg. the official disc set of Beatles videos etc. ("1") from a few years ago where some of the TV appearances weren't correctly presented (something to do mainly with probably the NTSC, though possibly PAL, frame rates not all being properly adjusted, so those play too fast or too slow - I forget which).

And more irritating for myself, as I really like the film; the restored "Magical Mystery Tour" blu/dvd applied far too much DNR, giving it a visibly rather unnatural look by having scrubbed out all the film grain.
Which is a particular shame as otherwise they did a full restoration.
I hope next time it's released (could be a while) they put it out with a reasonable amount of grain.
Though I'm not especially confident that they will.

Fingers crossed they don't completely de-grain "Let It Be" in that way.
Hard Day's Night & Yellow Sub look excellent on disc & don't have this excessive degraining problem (don't think I've seen the most recent disc of Help), so hopefully L.I.B. will get that sort of careful & appropriate restoration too.

[timmunton]

williammcgregor & everyone -

You've probably heard or seen this already but if not it's worth looking up the recent Beatles related song "R.I.N.G.O" by The Courettes, which imho is a staggeringly good & fab song.

The rest of their latest album - "Back In Mono" - is also excellent including a great production sound (& great performances & great songs too of course), but "R.I.N.G.O" is probably my favourite.
Their earlier stuff's good too but this album is fantastic.

As reviewers have said the album sort of sounds like The Ronettes by way of The Ramones, with Spectoresque production sound, a lot of the '60s girl group feel in general, also what's probably a fuzz bass often in the mix plus a bit of a Cramps/rockabilly-psychobilly elements at times. Magic stuff & pure Rock & Roll. I felt exhilarated hearing it (which at my age ain't bad!).

Sorry my lack of technical skills stops me from providing a link but it's very easily findable via internet search, for those who may not have heard it.