Let It Be (1970 film)

After the stressful sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album") wrapped up in October 1968, McCartney concluded that the group needed to return to their roots for their next project. The plan was to give a live performance featuring new songs, broadcast as a television special and recorded for release as an album. Unlike their recent albums, their new material would be designed to work well in concert, without the benefit of overdubs or other recording tricks.[3] Lennon approved of the idea[4] while Harrison, who spent the final months of the year recording in Los Angeles and visiting Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York, agreed that the "new approach" to recording had merit.[5]

Many ideas were floated concerning the location of the concert. Conventional venues such as The Roundhouse in London were discussed, but they also considered more unusual locations such as a disused flour mill and an ocean liner. The location that received the most consideration was a Roman amphitheatre in Sabratha, Libya.[6] None of the ideas gained unanimous enthusiasm and with time limited by Starr's upcoming commitment to the film The Magic Christian (1969), it was agreed to start rehearsals without a firm decision on the concert location.[7]

Denis O'Dell, head of Apple's film division, suggested filming the rehearsals in 16 mm for use as a separate "Beatles at Work" television documentary which would supplement the concert broadcast.[7] To facilitate filming, rehearsals would take place at Twickenham Film Studios in London. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was hired as the director, having previously worked with the Beatles on promotional films for "Paperback Writer", "Rain", "Hey Jude" and "Revolution".

The Beatles assembled at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969, accompanied by the film crew, and began rehearsing. Cameraman Les Parrott recalled: "My brief on the first day was to 'shoot The Beatles.' The sound crew instructions were to roll/record from the moment the first Beatle appeared and to record sound all day until the last one left. We had two cameras and just about did the same thing."[8] The cold and austere conditions at Twickenham, along with nearly constant filming and sessions starting much earlier than the Beatles' preferred schedule, constrained creativity and exacerbated tensions within the group. The sessions were later described by Harrison as "the low of all-time" and by Lennon as "hell ... the most miserable sessions on earth".[9]

The infamous exchange between McCartney and Harrison (in which Harrison resented McCartney instructing him on what to play) occurred on Monday, 6 January.[10] Around lunchtime on Friday, 10 January, tensions came to a head and Harrison told the others that he was leaving the band.[11] This entire episode is omitted from the film.[12] He later recalled: "I thought, 'I'm quite capable of being happy on my own, and if I'm not able to be happy in this situation I'm getting out of here.' So I got my guitar and went home and that afternoon wrote 'Wah-Wah'."[13][14] Rehearsals and filming continued for a few more sessions; the finished film only used a boogie-woogie piano duet by McCartney and Starr,[15] although it was included in such a way that Harrison's absence was not apparent. Towards the end of the 10 January rehearsal, Lennon raised the idea of drafting in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar if Harrison did not rejoin the band early the following week.[16] Lennon was captured on tape saying, "I think if George doesn't come back by Monday or Tuesday, we ask Eric Clapton to play", adding that this would be congenial to Clapton since the Beatles, unlike Clapton's previous band Cream, "would give him full scope to play his guitar".[17][18] Years later, Clapton dismissed this idea: "The problem with that was I had bonded or was developing a relationship with George, exclusive of them. I think it fitted a need of his and mine, that he could elevate himself by having this guy that could be like a gunslinger to them. Lennon would use my name every now and then for clout, as if I was the fastest gun. So, I don't think I could have been brought into the whole thing because I was too much a mate of George's."[17]

Former Apple Building, 3 Savile Row, 2007

At a meeting on 15 January, Harrison agreed to return with the conditions that elaborate concert plans be dropped and that work would resume at Apple's new recording studio. At this point, with the concert broadcast idea abandoned, it was decided that the footage being shot would be used to make a feature film.[7] Filming resumed on 21 January at the basement studio inside Apple headquarters on Savile Row in London.[19] Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to the studio to play electric piano and organ.[7] Harrison recalled that when Preston joined them, "straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we'd created among ourselves."[20] Filming continued each day for the rest of January.

During the sessions, the Beatles played many songs that were not featured in the film. Some would end up on Abbey Road ("I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"); others were destined for future albums by McCartney ("The Back Seat of My Car", "Teddy Boy", "Every Night"), Lennon ("Gimme Some Truth", "Child of Nature" – later reworked as "Jealous Guy"), and Harrison ("All Things Must Pass", "Isn't It a Pity"). The group also experimented with some of their previous songs ("Love Me Do", "Help!", "Lady Madonna", "You Can't Do That") and played "I Lost My Little Girl" – which was the first song written by McCartney, when he was 14.[21]

Trying to come up with a conclusion for the film, it was suggested that the band play an unannounced lunchtime concert on the roof of the Apple building. On 30 January, the Beatles and Preston played on the rooftop in the cold wind for 42 minutes, about half of which ended up in the film. The Beatles started with a rehearsal of "Get Back", then played the five songs which are shown in the film. After repeating "I've Got a Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down", takes which were left out of the film, the Beatles are shown in the film closing with another pass at "Get Back" as the police arrive to shut down the show. On 31 January, the last day of filming and recording, the Beatles reconvened in the Apple building's basement studio. They played complete performances of "Two of Us", "The Long and Winding Road" and "Let It Be", which were included in the film as the end of the Apple studio segment, before the closing rooftop segment.[22]

A rough cut of the movie was screened for the Beatles on 20 July 1969. Lindsay-Hogg recalled that the rough cut was about an hour longer than the released version: "There was much more stuff of John and Yoko, and the other three didn't really think that was appropriate because they wanted to make it a 'nicer' movie. They didn't want to have a lot of the dirty laundry, so a lot of it was cut down."[23] After viewing the released version, Lennon said he felt that "the camera work was set up to show Paul and not to show anybody else" and that "the people that cut it, cut it as 'Paul is God' and we're just lyin' around."[23] He described Let It Be as a film "set up by Paul for Paul" that was typical of the projects that, in alienating himself and Harrison, had brought about the Beatles' break-up.[24]

Lindsay-Hogg omitted any reference to Harrison leaving the sessions and temporarily quitting the group, but managed to keep some of the interpersonal strains in the final cut, including the McCartney–Harrison exchange which he had captured by deliberately placing the cameras where they would not be noticed. He also retained the scene that he described as "the back of Paul's head as he's yammering on and John looks like he's about to die from boredom".[25]

In early 1970, it was decided to change the planned name of the film and the associated album from Get Back to Let It Be, matching the group's March 1970 single release. The final version of the film was blown-up from full-frame (1.33:1) aspect ratio 16 mm to 35mm film 1.85:1 aspect ratio for theatrical release, which increased the film's graininess.[26] To create the wider theatrical aspect ratio, the top and bottom of the frame was cropped, necessitating the repositioning of every single shot for optimal picture composition.[27][28][29]

Initial reviews were generally unfavourable. Critics took issue with the film's technical and conceptual qualities, but in light of the Beatles' recent break-up, focused particularly on it as a document of the fractured relationships within the band.[51] The British press were especially critical,[3] with The Sunday Telegraph commenting that "it is only incidentally that we glimpse anything about their real characters – the way in which music now seems to be the only unifying force holding them together, and the way Paul McCartney chatters incessantly even when, it seems, none of the others are listening."[48] The same reviewer lamented that "Watching an institution such as the Beatles in their film Let It Be is rather like watching the Albert Hall being dismantled into a block of National Coal Board offices", while Penelope Gilliatt of The New Yorker deemed it "a very bad film and a touching one ... about the breaking apart of this reassuring, geometrically perfect, once apparently ageless family of siblings".[51] Time said that "rock scholars and Beatles fans will be enthralled" while others may consider it only a "mildly enjoyable documentary newsreel".[52]

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 75% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10.[53] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[54]

Leonard Maltin rated the film as 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "uneven" and "draggy", but "rescued" by the Beatles' music.[55] The TLA Video & DVD Guide, also rating it as 3 out of 4 stars, described the film as a "fascinating look at the final days of the world's most famous rock group, punctuated by the Beatles' great songs and the legendary 'rooftop' concert sequence. ... It is important viewing for all music fans."[56] Owen Gleiberman of Variety considers the film to be "extraordinary", stating that "It was grainy and moody and desultory ... It contained moments that, after multiple viewings [...] are lodged in my soul." He adds that though it has not been given a release on home media in recent years, "[Let It Be] has a place in film history; it's a scraggly elegy, capturing a certain wistful moment of reckoning that's part of the Beatles' story."[57]

Lindsay-Hogg told Entertainment Weekly in 2003 that reception to Let It Be within the Beatles camp was "mixed".[25] He believed McCartney and Lennon both liked the film, while Harrison disliked it because "it represented a time in his life when he was unhappy ... It was a time when he very much was trying to get out from under the thumb of Lennon–McCartney."[25] According to Jann Wenner, Lennon cried watching the film in theaters.[58] In 2007, McCartney stated that he could not bear to watch the film.[59]

The film was first released on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc in 1981 by Magnetic Video, and on RCA CED videodisc in 1982.[60] The transfer to video was not considered high quality; in particular, the already-cropped theatrical version was again cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio for television. The lack of availability has prompted considerable bootlegging of the film, first on VHS and later on DVD, derived from copies of the early 1980s releases.

The film was also released on VHS and Betamax in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1980s. These versions were not the same transfer as the US release, as they were based on the native 4:3 aspect ratio from the original 16mm negative, thus presenting the film as less cropped than the US releases.

Let It Be was remastered from the original 16 mm film negative by Apple Corps in 1992, with some footage seen in the 1995 documentary The Beatles Anthology. After additional remastering, a DVD release containing additional footage (tentatively titled Let It A, B, C) was planned to accompany the 2003 release of Let It Be... Naked, including a second DVD of bonus material,[25] but never materialised. In February 2007, Apple Corps' Neil Aspinall said, "The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realised: this stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues."[61]

An anonymous industry source told the Daily Express in July 2008 that, according to Apple insiders, McCartney and Starr blocked the release of the film on DVD. The two were concerned about the effect on the band's "global brand ... if the public sees the darker side of the story. Neither Paul nor Ringo would feel comfortable publicising a film showing the Beatles getting on each other's nerves ... There's all sorts of extra footage showing more squabbles but it's questionable if the film will ever see a reissue during Paul and Ringo's lifetime."[62]

However, in 2016, McCartney stated he was not opposed to an official re-release, saying, "I keep bringing it up, and everyone goes, 'Yeah, we should do that.' The objection should be me. I don't come off well."[63]