Movies and TV Disney+ documentary: Get Back (The Beatles)

arrowheadnation · 05:08 AM

Anyone else catch this yet. I was going to start it the other night and ended up bingeing all 6 hours. My god is it good.

What I learned:

Paul McCartney was/is a genius. The scene where he plucks Get Back out of thin air on a bass guitar in a matter of a few minutes is the stuff of legend.

Paul was like the kid in class that when a group project was assigned had to take control and do most of the work so the group would get a good grade. He was forced into a leadership role because the other three each had their various hang-ups, and history has painted the picture that he was power hungry, overbearing, and demanding…but this shows that wasn’t really the case. They had a hard deadline and he was basically saddled with the burden of leadership. He even said he feared it. I wonder if the narrative on him will change now.

They directly address yoko being there and that she was probably going to catch the blame for their breakup….so they knew even back then. I feel bad for her having the breakup pinned on her and having to shoulder the blame all of these years. Many may still ask, well why did she need to be there and why was she so clingy to John. Most people don’t know that she had suffered a miscarriage just a month or two before filming and was basically still grieving.

For me, one of the hardest parts was seeing George struggle with wanting more say but yet not even believing in himself enough to do so. The scene where he tells them, they need someone better like a Clapton and John says, no we need a George Harrison is crushing to see.

Ringo Starr is a whole mood. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it.

Paul McCartney is a living legend and possibly the greatest musical artist to ever live…just my opinion.

EPodolak · 12-05-2021, 03:57 PM

Have a ton of good feelings about Get Back, having been a superfan since I was a child (back when they were still together). It's my favorite thing on film now, at least for now. Highly highly recommended for anyone who loves or even likes the Beatles. I wish I could personally thank Peter Jackson for putting it together. Something pretty profound about watching the "creative process" and interaction between the four, seeing a song we've loved for 50 years in it's infancy, being thrashed out on the spot. It's true what you say, how incredible under that time pressure the band and especially Paul, quietly composed what would become some of the best music of the last century. Counter to what has always been said about the Let it Be sessions, I thought the story was a happy one. Or became happy, once they left the movie studio and completed the work in their own studio. Really a joy to watch.

InChiefsHeaven · 12-05-2021, 04:11 PM

So, this is a documentary using real footage, not a re-enactment right?

KC_Connection · 12-05-2021, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InChiefsHeaven

So, this is a documentary using real footage, not a re-enactment right?

Real footage. It's effectively a documentary of a documentary. The original one was made in 1970 meant to show their creative process. Jackson has looked at all the dozens of hours raw footage from that and reworked/remastered it.

I watched the first episode last night. It's long, but it's pretty fascinating stuff.

**BigRedChief** · 12-05-2021, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Real footage. It's effectively a documentary of a documentary. The original one was made in 1970 meant to show their creative process. Jackson has looked at all the dozens of hours raw footage from that and reworked/remastered it.

I watched the first episode last night. It's long, but it's pretty fascinating stuff.

It’s like a historical artifact. They produced and paid for it for a movie documentary never released and a TV show they were going to do live that also never happened. Took 50 years of time to pass to allow the footage to become public.

We actually see the iconic “Get Back” song formed from the beginning. The drama captured live of the police trying to shut down their last performance together. John Lennon showing his lighter side. Yoko just sitting there reading a magazine or newspaper in the recoding circle seems really weird. The Beatles first time together recording in 2 years, your sitting in the sessions and you’re bored? George Harrison quitting the Beatles during the recording. Interesting stuff.

MarkDavis'Haircut · 12-05-2021, 08:27 PM

Beatles are the most overrated band ever.

Chiefspants · 12-05-2021, 10:01 PM

It's a work of art -- and I love seeing a legendary band work through their creative process in such a raw way.

I was actually amazed at how deferential John was to Paul throughout the process. It seems like the central personality conflict in the band was actually Paul vs. George rather than the Yoko stuff I had heard my whole life.

John just didn't want to be there without her. The band was a mess of tension after Epstein died and all of the members had to find different ways to cope (George as a songwriter, John with where he went with Yoko, Paul as the band-leader, and Ringo even pinning a song). Even more interesting seeing all of them flourish as individual song-writers in Abbey Road (by far my favorite Beatles album) and in their individual careers after The Beatles broke up.

BlackOp · 12-06-2021, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carr4MVP

Beatles are the most overrated band ever.

Considering you have "Carr For MVP" as your moniker...you're not exactly an expert observer of greatness.

DJ's left nut · 12-06-2021, 09:41 AM

Most of the middle episode is needless filler. You could feel the 'Peter Jackson' coming through there. This is a guy that turned about a 180 page book into three separate 2 hour long movies (The Hobbit trilogy).

He can get really bogged down at times.

But man, the 1st episode was just riveting as hell and the last one was quite good as well. A lot of this has been covered already but man McCartney is a genius. And yeah, he can be a bit of a taskmaster at times, but SOMEONE had to be. Lennon was deep into his heroin addiction at the time and had really checked out. Harrison was clearly feeling overlooked and frustrated and Ringo...well he was Ringo.

In the 'flowerpot meeting' McCartney alluded to it a bit. He said something like "You've always been the leader and now it has to be me..." and I think he felt a responsibility to keep things together. And he's just so clearly Type A that the way his leadership is going to come out is what you saw in Let It Be. And I can imagine that would be grating for someone like Harrison.

It also gives me a lot more respect and understanding of what Epstein brought to the group. He really was their anchor. I wonder how things would've gone had he not died - they clearly felt rudderless without an 'adult' around to keep things grounded. And when you watch that documentary, there's just nobody in their ear apart from awed yes men and assistants.

I also think that some of the 'The tension was immense and Yoko broke up the band...' shit came from Lennon. He really seems to have had a chip on his shoulder through the 70s and said some shit that I just struggle to find evidence for. I saw some line somewhere where he said "anytime Paul sang "Get back" he looked right at Yoko..." Oh c'mon. He got along really well with Yoko and had nothing but positive things to say about here and even her influence on Lennon. Moreover, the entire song started as a protest piece AGAINST strict immigration policies. There's just no way he sat there and stone-cold stared at Yoko as he was singing that.

I think he had a heroin addled and semi-paranoid unreliable narrator in Lennon and it unfairly colored our view of how that all went down. I hope it was at least a little shame on Lennons part that led to that. I hope he recognizes what his addiction and subsequent creative withdrawal from the Beatles did to create a bit of a vacuum there.

Now ultimately it just may not have mattered. But a lot of people don't recognize just how brief the Beatles run was. I think Ringo showed up in 62 and by 70 they were done. They essentially spanned 2 Presidential terms (Kennedy/LBJ) and that was it. I have a hard time believing that was inevitable. Sure, bands break up, but the historically great ones never STAY that way. I do wonder if their method of recording created more distance than usual and maybe that's why they didn't ever reunite. With all the multi-track recording they did and the fact that they stopped touring so quickly, they just weren't really playing 'as a band' much anymore. A lot of what they were doing was recording their parts individually and then they were mixed together.

They probably felt less attachment to each other through the mid-late 60s. That does seem a little unique to them and maybe also contributed to their demise.

DJ's left nut · 12-06-2021, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

It's a work of art -- and I love seeing a legendary band work through their creative process in such a raw way.

I was actually amazed at how deferential John was to Paul throughout the process. It seems like the central personality conflict in the band was actually Paul vs. George rather than the Yoko stuff I had heard my whole life.

John just didn't want to be there without her.

He was high.

I really do feel bad for McCartney in all that. The Alpha role was thrust upon him and he seemed like he was trying to 'build the plane as he was flying it'. He was a kid still; 26, I believe? He didn't know how to lead yet, but the raw material was obviously there for it. And it wasn't something he aspired to either. And when things fell apart under was would have ostensibly been 'his' stewardship, historically he took some barbs for it.

But you can really see how hard he tried to make this work and how little support he was getting. But/for him as a driving force, you obviously don't get Abbey Road or Get Back. I almost wonder if they'd have even managed as far back as the White Album.

They were kind of a mess.

Stewie · 12-06-2021, 11:32 AM

I'd love to see this, but as a cord cutter it's not an option right now. Hopefully it will be available on more platforms in the future.

Rick Beato has a couple videos about it on his YouTube channel. Thats what really got me intrigued.

Mephistopheles Janx · 12-06-2021, 11:37 AM

The Beatles can eat my dirty asshole. Paul and Ringo need to **** off and die already, get the feature film about the band that is undoubtedly already in the works done and over with, and then they can be relegated to history where they ****ing belong.

Why the hell people still lose their minds over a band that hasn't played together in 50 ****ing years, half of them are dead, and weren't all that special to begin with is beyond me.

Chiefspants · 12-06-2021, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

He was high.

I really do feel bad for McCartney in all that. The Alpha role was thrust upon him and he seemed like he was trying to 'build the plane as he was flying it'. He was a kid still; 26, I believe? He didn't know how to lead yet, but the raw material was obviously there for it. And it wasn't something he aspired to either. And when things fell apart under was would have ostensibly been 'his' stewardship, historically he took some barbs for it.

But you can really see how hard he tried to make this work and how little support he was getting. But/for him as a driving force, you obviously don't get Abbey Road or Get Back. I almost wonder if they'd have even managed as far back as the White Album.

They were kind of a mess.

What's crazy is that reading up on things now is that Lennon's grievances with Paul/The Beatles was really just a three year stretch in the early 70's. He and Paul had patched everything up by 1974 and even had a cocaine fueled recording session with Stevie Wonder (it's incredible how off the rails it is). They even tried to reunite on SNL but got held up in traffic. But the beef was so well documented (Lennon and Paul even went after each other in their music in the early 70's) that it's embedded in the collective memory of the band.

George and Paul's beef, otoh, caused so much scarring between the two that George refused to tour with Paul and Ringo when the band re-united (sans Lennon) in the 90's. That beef definitely feels deeper as those two had played together since they were teenagers, and Paul never seemed to view George as anything but a subordinate (from George's standpoint, anyway).

DJ's left nut · 12-06-2021, 11:42 AM

Regarding Harrison - I'm not sure what I think about him. I think he was talented, sure. But I also think he was a bit full of himself as well.

And then when I hear "All Those Years Ago" and compare the lyrics to the music I'm just...confused. I mean that song is dark, man. And he puts almost some bubble gum pop backing to it like it's a Traveling Wilbury's song. His biggest hit was What is Life and I dunno - it's just a generic pop song.

I'm not sure I quite understand his angst, to be honest. My memory is he's also the one that really disliked touring the most. I wonder if he just never quite meshed with the group. I mean even in the documentary when he leaves, Lennon's like "well if he's gone, we'll get Clapton..."

They never seemed to really fully embrace him and I'm not sure he ever really had the chops he thought he did (not sufficient enough to hang with Lennon/McCartney anyway).

DJ's left nut · 12-06-2021, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

What's crazy is that reading up on things now is that Lennon's grievances with Paul/The Beatles was really just a three year stretch in the early 70's. He and Paul had patched everything up by 1974 and even had a cocaine fueled recording session with Stevie Wonder (it's incredible how off the rails it is). They even tried to reunite on SNL but got held up in traffic. But the beef was so well documented (Lennon and Paul even went after each other in their music) that it's embedded in the collective memory of the band.

George and Paul's beef, otoh, caused so much scarring between the two that George refused to tour with Paul and Ringo when the band re-united (sans Lennon) in the 90's. That beef definitely feels deeper as those two had played together since they were teenagers, and Paul never seemed to view George as anything but a subordinate (from George's standpoint, anyway).

I was typing mine as you were posting this - I think you're right in that Paul (and yes, Lennon) saw Harrison as a subordinate - a little brother of sorts.

I'm also not entirely sure they were wrong. Ringo 'got it' in that regard. He was there as a supporting figure - and a damn important one, to be completely fair. Harrison probably was as well and just never embraced that supporting role.

And when you look at his solo work, I think he had an inflated view of himself. And I think you're right - McCartney's ascension to the leadership role coinciding with Harrisons frustrations kinda made him the bullseye for Harrison and he never got over it.

12-05-2021, 04:55 AM
arrowheadnation MONTANA #19 Join Date: Mar 2005 Casino cash: $6047357	Disney+ documentary: Get Back (The Beatles) Anyone else catch this yet. I was going to start it the other night and ended up bingeing all 6 hours. My god is it good. What I learned: Paul McCartney was/is a genius. The scene where he plucks Get Back out of thin air on a bass guitar in a matter of a few minutes is the stuff of legend. Paul was like the kid in class that when a group project was assigned had to take control and do most of the work so the group would get a good grade. He was forced into a leadership role because the other three each had their various hang-ups, and history has painted the picture that he was power hungry, overbearing, and demanding…but this shows that wasn’t really the case. They had a hard deadline and he was basically saddled with the burden of leadership. He even said he feared it. I wonder if the narrative on him will change now. They directly address yoko being there and that she was probably going to catch the blame for their breakup….so they knew even back then. I feel bad for her having the breakup pinned on her and having to shoulder the blame all of these years. Many may still ask, well why did she need to be there and why was she so clingy to John. Most people don’t know that she had suffered a miscarriage just a month or two before filming and was basically still grieving. For me, one of the hardest parts was seeing George struggle with wanting more say but yet not even believing in himself enough to do so. The scene where he tells them, they need someone better like a Clapton and John says, no we need a George Harrison is crushing to see. Ringo Starr is a whole mood. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it. Paul McCartney is a living legend and possibly the greatest musical artist to ever live…just my opinion. Last edited by arrowheadnation; 12-05-2021 at 05:08 AM..
Posts: 4,226

12-05-2021, 03:57 PM	#2
EPodolak Spooky Action Join Date: Dec 2003 Casino cash: $2362558	Have a ton of good feelings about Get Back, having been a superfan since I was a child (back when they were still together). It's my favorite thing on film now, at least for now. Highly highly recommended for anyone who loves or even likes the Beatles. I wish I could personally thank Peter Jackson for putting it together. Something pretty profound about watching the "creative process" and interaction between the four, seeing a song we've loved for 50 years in it's infancy, being thrashed out on the spot. It's true what you say, how incredible under that time pressure the band and especially Paul, quietly composed what would become some of the best music of the last century. Counter to what has always been said about the Let it Be sessions, I thought the story was a happy one. Or became happy, once they left the movie studio and completed the work in their own studio. Really a joy to watch.
Posts: 6,335

12-05-2021, 04:11 PM	#3
InChiefsHeaven Rockin' yer FACE OFF! Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Omaha, Nebraska Casino cash: $3624937	So, this is a documentary using real footage, not a re-enactment right? __________________ We have a million reasons for failure, but not one excuse... Die Donks, DIE!! Holy Crap fellas!!! We did it!!! THREE TIMES!!!
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12-05-2021, 08:27 PM	#6
MarkDavis'Haircut MVP Join Date: Aug 2017 Casino cash: $4910400	Beatles are the most overrated band ever.
Posts: 13,701	1 0

12-05-2021, 10:01 PM	#7
Chiefspants World's Best Boss Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Bronco Country Casino cash: $5654654	It's a work of art -- and I love seeing a legendary band work through their creative process in such a raw way. I was actually amazed at how deferential John was to Paul throughout the process. It seems like the central personality conflict in the band was actually Paul vs. George rather than the Yoko stuff I had heard my whole life. John just didn't want to be there without her. The band was a mess of tension after Epstein died and all of the members had to find different ways to cope (George as a songwriter, John with where he went with Yoko, Paul as the band-leader, and Ringo even pinning a song). Even more interesting seeing all of them flourish as individual song-writers in Abbey Road (by far my favorite Beatles album) and in their individual careers after The Beatles broke up.
Posts: 18,353

12-06-2021, 09:41 AM	#9
DJ's left nut Sauntering Vaguely Downwards Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Columbia, Mo Casino cash: $2719099	Most of the middle episode is needless filler. You could feel the 'Peter Jackson' coming through there. This is a guy that turned about a 180 page book into three separate 2 hour long movies (The Hobbit trilogy). He can get really bogged down at times. But man, the 1st episode was just riveting as hell and the last one was quite good as well. A lot of this has been covered already but man McCartney is a genius. And yeah, he can be a bit of a taskmaster at times, but SOMEONE had to be. Lennon was deep into his heroin addiction at the time and had really checked out. Harrison was clearly feeling overlooked and frustrated and Ringo...well he was Ringo. In the 'flowerpot meeting' McCartney alluded to it a bit. He said something like "You've always been the leader and now it has to be me..." and I think he felt a responsibility to keep things together. And he's just so clearly Type A that the way his leadership is going to come out is what you saw in Let It Be. And I can imagine that would be grating for someone like Harrison. It also gives me a lot more respect and understanding of what Epstein brought to the group. He really was their anchor. I wonder how things would've gone had he not died - they clearly felt rudderless without an 'adult' around to keep things grounded. And when you watch that documentary, there's just nobody in their ear apart from awed yes men and assistants. I also think that some of the 'The tension was immense and Yoko broke up the band...' shit came from Lennon. He really seems to have had a chip on his shoulder through the 70s and said some shit that I just struggle to find evidence for. I saw some line somewhere where he said "anytime Paul sang "Get back" he looked right at Yoko..." Oh c'mon. He got along really well with Yoko and had nothing but positive things to say about here and even her influence on Lennon. Moreover, the entire song started as a protest piece AGAINST strict immigration policies. There's just no way he sat there and stone-cold stared at Yoko as he was singing that. I think he had a heroin addled and semi-paranoid unreliable narrator in Lennon and it unfairly colored our view of how that all went down. I hope it was at least a little shame on Lennons part that led to that. I hope he recognizes what his addiction and subsequent creative withdrawal from the Beatles did to create a bit of a vacuum there. Now ultimately it just may not have mattered. But a lot of people don't recognize just how brief the Beatles run was. I think Ringo showed up in 62 and by 70 they were done. They essentially spanned 2 Presidential terms (Kennedy/LBJ) and that was it. I have a hard time believing that was inevitable. Sure, bands break up, but the historically great ones never STAY that way. I do wonder if their method of recording created more distance than usual and maybe that's why they didn't ever reunite. With all the multi-track recording they did and the fact that they stopped touring so quickly, they just weren't really playing 'as a band' much anymore. A lot of what they were doing was recording their parts individually and then they were mixed together. They probably felt less attachment to each other through the mid-late 60s. That does seem a little unique to them and maybe also contributed to their demise. __________________ "If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
Posts: 60,763

12-06-2021, 11:32 AM	#11
Stewie MVP Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: West of the Equator Casino cash: $1629901	I'd love to see this, but as a cord cutter it's not an option right now. Hopefully it will be available on more platforms in the future. Rick Beato has a couple videos about it on his YouTube channel. Thats what really got me intrigued.
Posts: 13,629

12-06-2021, 11:37 AM	#12
Mephistopheles Janx The Demon Preacher Join Date: Jan 2017 Casino cash: $1702400	The Beatles can eat my dirty asshole. Paul and Ringo need to ** off and die already, get the feature film about the band that is undoubtedly already in the works done and over with, and then they can be relegated to history where they ing belong. Why the hell people still lose their minds over a band that hasn't played together in 50 **ing years, half of them are dead, and weren't all that special to begin with is beyond me.
Posts: 10,008	1 0

12-06-2021, 11:42 AM	#14
DJ's left nut Sauntering Vaguely Downwards Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Columbia, Mo Casino cash: $2719099	Regarding Harrison - I'm not sure what I think about him. I think he was talented, sure. But I also think he was a bit full of himself as well. And then when I hear "All Those Years Ago" and compare the lyrics to the music I'm just...confused. I mean that song is dark, man. And he puts almost some bubble gum pop backing to it like it's a Traveling Wilbury's song. His biggest hit was What is Life and I dunno - it's just a generic pop song. I'm not sure I quite understand his angst, to be honest. My memory is he's also the one that really disliked touring the most. I wonder if he just never quite meshed with the group. I mean even in the documentary when he leaves, Lennon's like "well if he's gone, we'll get Clapton..." They never seemed to really fully embrace him and I'm not sure he ever really had the chops he thought he did (not sufficient enough to hang with Lennon/McCartney anyway). __________________ "If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
Posts: 60,763