BY BEATLES EXPERT AND COLLECTOR MARK LACKEY
I have been a collector of Beatles music and films for over 40 years and recently acquired an interesting expanded version of the Let It Be documentary. As most Beatles fans are already aware, the Let It Be film chronicles The Beatles at both Twickenham and Apple studios during January 1969 discussing, rehearsing and recording their latest batch of songs. The film concludes with the band’s last live performance, an impromptu mini-concert on the rooftop of London’s Apple studio on Saville Row. The January 30, 1969 lunch-hour performance came as a complete surprise to downtown Londoners, some of whom complained about the noise until the police shut down the whole affair after about 45 minutes. By the time the film made it to the theaters in 1970, The Beatles had broken up. While the other Beatles movies have all been re-released on VHS, DVDs and Blu-Ray disks over the years, Let It Be has become out of print since the Beta, VHS and laserdisc releases (circa 1980). The surviving Beatles and Yoko Ono all agree that the film doesn’t put the band in a good light due to the tensions they were going through at the time. Indeed, many say that instead of a documentary on working together and making good music, it is an account of a band falling apart. For this reason Let It Be has had little support for an official DVD or Blu-Ray release over the last 40 years. Consequently, it has fallen by the wayside as far as inclusion in the official Beatles catalog of today. Many bootleggers have bridged the gap by creating substandard DVD and BluRay versions of Let It Be that are low-quality dubs from the surviving VHS or laserdisc releases.
Only now am I able to say that there is a version of the movie that goes beyond a simple tape-dub and actually rehabilitates the film altogether with frame-by-frame clean up of the dirt and scratches apparent on surviving copies, color correction and enhanced sound. The film has also been professionally extended to include new footage gleaned from various sources such as the original Nagra reels (some 90 hours of raw tape footage of The Beatles working together in January 1969), and excerpts from The Beatles Anthology series. The additional footage is incorporated well into the original film and extends the duration from 80 minutes to just under 2 hours. Aptly titled Let It Be - The Deluxe 35mm Extended Cut, this version of the film also includes the promo videos for both “The Ballad Of John and Yoko” and “Something.” Some Beatles historians may argue that these tunes were not recorded during January 1969, but later in the year, and therefore do not belong in the film. While this is true, the video for the former includes clips of The Beatles in January 1969 and the latter was composed and first rehearsed during these sessions as well, before being revisited and completed in the Abbey Road sessions. The film closes with Paul McCartney’s demo of the appropriately titled “Goodbye,” a song he wrote and gave to Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin the previous year to release as one of the first Apple singles. Credits play over the animated video of the Abbey Road opener “Come Together” as a sign of things to come. Many fans regard the Let It Be film as a downer because the band wasn’t getting along at the time. We see Paul in a spat with George, we see John looking bored and we even hear instruments out of tune at times. My personal opinion is that there are good moments too. Some of the rehearsals are quite interesting to hear as embryonic and raw versions of “Let It Be,” “Two Of Us,” “I’ve Got A Feeling,” “Dig A Pony,” “The Long And Winding Road,” I Me Mine,” etc. Last but not least, the rooftop concert is absolutely fantastic. As Ringo himself has often stated, when The Beatles actually picked up their instruments to play together, all the bullshit went out the window and the results were good. As far as that “bullshit” is concerned, Peter Jackson’s upcoming remake of Let It Be will almost certainly be even more sugar-coated than the original version of the film. The added footage on this extended version of the film sheds much more light on those tensions surrounding the group. We hear what was said when George angrily quit the band and what the other Beatles said about Yoko behind John’s back. We also hear how the band agreed to play on the roof as a compromise to Paul’s original idea for a planned concert in an exotic location such as a Roman amphitheater in Tunisia. While not ALL of the additional material in the extended cut is in a negative light, you can look at it as a true and unadulterated version of the film that doesn’t take out the nasty stuff previously considered unsuitable for public consumption. For die-hard fans that want the whole truth, this is a must see and a must hear.
Mark Lackey
BEATLES ENTHUSIAST
mybeatlescollection.com
Also includes:
- Making of Let it Be
- Docudrama "Breaking The Band"
- Outakes and music video
- Digital Download of the "Get Back Sessions"
Source: https://www.ebid.net/us/for-sale/711841567255-the-beatles-let-it-be-film-blu-ray-hq-extended-cut-188914221.htm