Mail Online

Yes, it’s mesmerising. But an eight-hour schlep? Help!

Deborah Ross

The Beatles: Get Back Disney+, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Peter Jackson’s documentary The Beatles: Get Back is just shy of eight hours long, divided into three parts, and it’s mesmerising, yes, but also quite the schlep. It’s a mesmerising schlep, in short. If you’re not a Beatles nut and can’t face nearly eight hours, just skip to the final episode, which culminates in their performance on the roof of the Apple building on Savile Row. This will be their last-ever live gig and it is wonderful, joyous, exhilarating, fab.

Crowds gather in the street below – parking meters!, bowler hats!, miniskirts! – while the police in reception grumble about the ‘racket’. It puts you right there and, even though this is often meandering, if its aim is to simply let you hang out with John, Paul, George and Ringo – who, with the cleaned-up footage, all look fresh as a daisy – it does succeed.

I am not a Beatles expert. If you want that kind of expertise you will have to go elsewhere. I am just the person who would otherwise be watching Yorkshire Farm or Strictly.

(Rose, surely, but then I thought Jürgen had Bake Off all sewn up). I was never their generation. Just missed it. I was David Cassidy, David Essex, Donny Osmond. You know, the acts that would stand the test of time. I only ever had the Sgt Pepper LP, but I did know it off by heart, if that counts.

Anyway, this follows the band’s attempt, in 1969, to write a new album, record some songs and perform live in the space of two weeks. Maybe. It keeps changing. Their manager, Brian Epstein, has died and it’s all chaotic. ‘We need a central daddy figure,’ mourns Paul.

The footage was originally filmed by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (terribly posh) for a documentary. His aim is for the band to perform in an amphitheatre in Tripoli, but they’re not up for that. He does keep at it, though: ‘Torchlit! In front of 200 Arabs!’

Jackson initially had 60 hours of footage and 150 hours of audio to play with. Here, the boys not only look fresh as a daisy, but also so alive and gorgeously young. (They shall not grow old…).

To the extent that anyone is in charge, it’s Paul. He is the dominating force, has become the daddy, even though he says, at one point: ‘I don’t want to be the boss.’

He annoys George who, at the end of the first episode, quits the band. This is as dramatic as it ever gets, but even that is fairly low-key. ‘I’m leaving the band now,’ says George. ‘When?’ asks Paul. ‘Now,’ says George. ‘See you around.’

They then have to cajole him back, although we don’t see that on camera. Paul, admirably, becomes much less controlling.

It’s always been said that this was a fractious and unhappy time for The Beatles but, on the whole, as shown here, they seem to genuinely like and respect each other and are always supportive and collaborative. George tells John he is thinking of doing a solo album. ‘That’ll be nice,’ says John, and he is absolutely sincere.

As for their musicality, it is mind-blowing. ‘I wrote a song last night,’ any one of them might say. Paul brings in Get Back. The trouble is, watching them riffing on that for what seems like hours on end isn’t that interesting.

That’s the schlep element. There isn’t much insight into the creative process because it’s not much of a process. They might sing ‘cauliflower’ or ‘pomegranate’ if they’ve yet to write the lyrics, but otherwise songs seem to land almost fully formed.

A young chap from the filming crew asks Paul if he writes at the guitar or the piano. ‘Whatever I’m around,’ says Paul. ‘And they just come to you?’ he is further asked. ‘Yeah, one came to me this morning.’ He then plays The Back Seat Of My Car. Sometimes conversations are enlightening but also, I have to add, there’s a significant amount of aimless chit-chat that doesn’t tell us anything. And that’s a drag, too.

But there are some terrific small moments. John is near-silent in the first episode – stoned? – but does come to life later. He always has Yoko at his side. Or at his feet. And there is a terrific moment when she whispers something in his ear and they kiss and John announces ecstatically: ‘Her divorce has come through!’ They’re all jubilant.

If she were a divisive force, as popularly believed, you don’t see any of that here.

Other terrific moments include Linda bringing her young daughter, Heather, to the studio. She plays the drums with Ringo and is thrown in the air by Paul. Or they’re all huddling round the Stylophone (remember those?) that John says he’d ordered ‘off the telly’. Peter Sellers pops by for a chat.

There is also the chilling moment when John returns from a first meeting with Allen Klein (who would become their manager, disastrously) and calls him ‘incredible’ and ‘fantastic’, while the sound engineer says he’s always found him ‘strange’.

And I was mesmerised by the clothes – they are into waistcoats, ruffled shirts and, alas, holiday-camp-style blazers – and what it took to keep them going through the day. (Endless cigarettes, cups of tea and rounds of toast with marmalade.)

I’ve given this four stars because, while it is definitely far too long, it is hypnotic. And it does feel like you are really there.

Tv On Demand

en-gb

2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/282660395694116

dmg media (UK)