Review of Let It Be (1970) by Keith T — 12 Jun 2008
The concept was simple: the Beatles would just go into a studio, film everything that happened during the making of their latest album and turn it into a film.
It turned out more difficult than that. The "vibe" of the Twickenham soundstage wasn't right, and although they seemed happy enough jamming away together on old covers, getting the new material onto tape, the real reason they were there, was proving elusive.
John, with Yoko at his side, appears mostly detached. McCartney tries to rise to the challenge and pull the whole thing together, but runs into resentful opposition from George. Ringo just looks puzzled by it all.
They abandon the film studio and move to the more intimate atmosphere of the Apple basement and somehow get everything onto tape. They want to actually PERFORM some of the songs but can't be bothered to goto the trouble of hiring a proper venue. So up on the roof they go, for that marvelous open air concert, where the Beatles play "in public" for the last time (but only their staff can see them) and the police eventually arrive to halt proceedings, because some of their neighbours have complained about the noise.
The cameras did not capture the later rows that delayed the albums release, especially those after Lennon decided unilaterally to get Phil Spector to give the album a "makeover". The fact that "Let It Be" itself has STILL not made it to an official DVD is testament to just how bitter the final break-up was. However, quite a bit of the footage did resurface in the Beatles Anthology series, and is available on DVD there.
This review of Let It Be (1970) was written by Keith T on 12 Jun 2008.
Let It Be has generally received very positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
