“Almost every year, news of The Beatles' breakup spreads. Recently, English newspapers published a story about McCartney's exit. Some Hungarian newspapers even liked it. […] The Beatles, of course, were inseparable. […] Even their postal address remained the same: The Beatles Southerland House, 5-6 Argyll Street, London W. 1. England.
Despite this compelling argument, the above-quoted article from a 1970 issue of Ifjúsági magazine has not aged well, because the Beatles officially broke up in 1970, but how that happened was not clear at the time, said Michael Lindsay, director The documentary Let Be-Hogg came out a few weeks ago statement Also confirms. The director, who followed the band's rehearsals for weeks in 1969, still maintains that until the Beatles officially announced their breakup, he would not have thought the four members would break up. Even then, it was clear that the four musicians would try solo, but Lindsay Hogg seemed like they would easily return to the band after that.
However, since the release of the documentary Let It Be in 1970, it has been spread that in that hour and a half we actually see a band falling apart. At the film's premiere, the four Beatles didn't even appear,
After the screening, they also attempted to remove traces of the film from the canon.
Only pirated copies of the film were available, as if those responsible for managing the Beatles' legacy wanted to erase it from everyone's memory. We've had to wait until now for the official release of the modern, revamped version of the post-1970 film, which finally serves as the final chapter in the Beatles' oeuvre after the mega-series Get Back.
The film is shattered by the collective trauma surrounding the breakup
Clearly, the omission of more than five decades has not helped the proper interpretation of the Let It Be documentary. Because only viewer accounts of the film survive, these accounts obscure the shock of the Beatles' breakup and the film's unusual puritanism at the time.
Let It Be doesn't really feature the merry boys and clowns of A Hard Day's Night, but it's not at all as dark and depressing a work about a collapsing band as the Beatles myth suggests.
“Unfortunately, I have to ignore the story of the film, because there is no story, unless we consider the story of the world-famous boys rehearsing a song here and there, and then performing it for themselves or some acquaintance. In the end, they performed a concert on a rooftop in London.” – again just for themselves, until the crowd gathers below, and more and more people look up, and the buses stop, and the traffic stops, and the bobbies come with anxious faces, looking for the heavenly musicians, and finally, with great difficulty, come up to them, and listen to Lennon and his comrades For a while, and they look at Mrs. Ono crouched at the base of the chimney, and then they wave, “So be it.” Which almost means, “Let's leave it at that.” That's pretty much the end of the movie, as you can often see Lennon's nose and glasses filling the screen “The whole thing,” London correspondent Vas Nyby wrote sarcastically after a 1970 screening of the film, “which really had too much in its plot, but that was certainly the director’s intention.
In addition, the production that followed the Beatles with cameras at that time was not an easy task either, because as became clear in the film Get Back, the purpose of the band's rehearsals was constantly changing rapidly: it was a TV movie, a large-scale live concert, a show In Libya, as things had gotten better and better since then, the band came up as a saving grace for the korta, which was now a rooftop concert.
At the time, the realistic, commentary-free atmosphere of the film was also unusual, as he wanted to present the world-famous band as closely and authentically as possible. As usual in rehearsals, there are silly sessions, there are tensions (the most famous duet is between Harrison and McCartney), and there are also moments when the band's magic flashes through. The tragedy of Let It Be is that the context of the breakup weighs heavily on the film, making everyone remember more stressed and bored faces. While in Let It Be, there are also those moments when Lennon and Yoko Ono start dancing to “I Me Mine,” or when Ringo and McCartney have fun playing the piano.
However, the criticism at the time was devastating, for example, Új Magyarország, reviewing the Süddeutsche Zeitung article, wrote of the film that it was as if Lindsay-Hogg could not decide whether to make a theatrical film or a work report.
“He has made so many 'pretty' settings and still pictures, and all that remains are some pretty impressions. There is no principle that would arrange this material according to the music. Let It Be constantly takes you away from the music.” […] “In the end, all the boys' pimples and tooth fillings become an element of the viewer's education, but he knows nothing about the song they're playing,” reads the review, clearly showing that the era sought to explain the Beatles' breakup. In the movie. While it is now clear that the band was experiencing one of their most productive periods at the time, as stated in the film, they brought out their old songs, which had previously been considered too simple.
The real tension was caused by the fact that McCartney was clearly in favor of live performance (the band had not performed a live concert for years at the time), while others were not at all convinced of its importance, or simply did not do so. I feel like the Beatles were theirs anymore.
A massive comeback has been completed with Let It Be
Of course, for the renewed release of Let It Be, Peter Jackson, who put together Get Back, was needed, and who fought with all the important decision-makers so that the film, buried for fifty years, could also be released in a dignified manner. . In the revamped version, they also made sure that the scenes that were included in Get Back were shown from a different camera angle in the revamped Let It Be, and compared to the digital look of Get Back, Let It Be was restored in a more cinematic way.
Thus, in retrospect, Get Back is a more complete story intended for audiences, where the personalities of the four musicians, who are increasingly drifting apart from each other, really emerge, while Let It Be is the easier-to-digest film, in which we don't want to show more of the musicians. Who suffer from difficulties during rehearsals, but at the same time it is a band that collects very wonderful moments.
As Lindsay-Hogg said, he wanted to portray the changing Beatles in this film. A changing band, in which you can feel the tension, as with any band that has worked together for a long time, but it is clear from the looks and reactions that these four people have grown up together and love each other despite all their differences.
The rooftop concert at the end of the film is the best example of this, as even though it was not certain for a long time whether the band would go up to the Apple Corps building to play, the end result still speaks for itself. Even though John Lennon complains of being cold and freezing his fingers, it's amazing how the whole band feels the most free in the entire movie. Here, George Harrison doesn't look like he used to, in the scenes recorded at the Twickenham studio, where he prefers to hide from the cameras, and, equally remarkable for his century, how the poppies walking to the roof watch the Beatles perform live for the last time with faces frozen and completely stunned.
Let It Be is available on Disney+.
