Review of Let It Be (1970) by J M — 07 Jul 2007

When people think about Let It Be, it is usually about the Beatles splitting up. A hell of alot has been written aboiut the film and the album alongside, relative to the bands colapse. There isn't however as much evidence for it in the film as you might imagine. There are arguments, sure, like the overplayed George/Paul face/off over Paul changing his mind about what George was to play, but for the large part the film is just a messy collection of clips of the Beatles jamming out new songs and then performing them. As regards to the band getting on, there are some lovely moments, like Ringo and Paul jamming on the piano.

The film is, largely all over the place, often the early performances are tuneless and mostly not that great, but it is interesting to see how the songs devoloped. The real key is the sublime performances at the end. The rooftop gig is brilliant, and the longer it goes on and the more people complain the better it gets - they four have something to rebel against together, and they are clearly enjoying it. The basement stuff to is of a great quality, with some briliant performances of things like Two of Us and Let It Be.

This hasn't arrived on DVD, supposedly because it "brings up alot of issues" - seemingly these issues were not enough to stop Macca releasing his own (and far, far supirior to the original) Let It Be Naked album, so that excuse just doesn't hold up. Unfortunatly it seems it'll be untill the original members have croaked it before you'll be able to buy it. Thank goodness then for google video. If your fan, go watch, its good fun.