Why won't MGM/UA Reissue a DVD of "The Compleat Beatles"?

No, you have me wrong. I said "classic audio/visual sequence entails", I meant it. On a shoestring budget they got a good effect. Old school film making, I love it

 

I'm sorry. My bad.

I should have found the Commander McBragg clip where he is talking about his wonderous exploits OUTSIDE of his castle instead of INSIDE.

Again...my bad.

 

Refresh my memory.....was Compleat out before or after John's death?

 

After. I first saw it on VHS in late 1982.

 

It's no big deal, but it always amuses me when I see it because it just goes on too long. I'd say it works for about 5-10 seconds, and after that it's just filler.

 

Well, according to Anthology, The Beatles never really broke up. It was just, how's that song go again - "My army buddies are all getting married." It was just four guys who really loved each other, a hotel room here and there, lived out of each other's pockets and wrote songs about peace and love. Oh yeah, and they gave their nervous systems.

No mention of Paul suing the lads AT ALL.

 

i have very fond memories of this documentary. i enjoyed seeing it a bunch of times as a younger guy.

 

I have to agree with you on this one. Great idea...goes on for too long.

My favorite "creative" moment is when Brother Malcolm announces that Paul quits the band and "The Beatles...the greatest pop group of all time....were no more.", and one by one each band member dissolves to "I'm So Tired". Good stuff.

 

Which Anthology inversely references as the group 'appear' in the Hamburg fairground shot (then Pete disappears....)

 

As mentioned, after. At the end, they give a synopsis of each Beatle's post Beatle career and mention that John was assassinated in 1980.

 

I've seen it via rental but never purchased it even though these inserts were inside of mid 1980's pressings of Beatle LPs.

 

You can actually watch the entire film here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4519391471132061290#

 

Wow, excellent!

 

It's been a long time since I've seen 'Compleat', but I recall liking it. The Strawberry Fields requence stands out as a high point in my memory.

But I have to admit to liking Anthology much more. Okay, they gloss over some of the negative stuff like suing each other and specifics of the break-up, but they DO talk about threats on their lives, the entire Philippines fiasco, drugs, and how they were bitching at each other in the studio during the White album and Let It Be. Anthology is definitely not all sunshine and roses. And I suspect that 25 years after breaking up and losing John along the way that, while they hadn't forgotten some of the nastiness, maybe they had softened on some of it some and truly had let some of it go.

Honestly, I can't think of any glaring omissions in the Anthology release and having the Beatles tell their own story just makes it that much better. 'Compleat' was good, but at 2 hours long it really was anything but complete.

 

I haven't seen the whole thing in a long time, but I seem to recall the Anthology's in-depth presentation basically ending with the "White Album", with the rest of the story presented as a kind of postscript.

 

I'm currently watching this on a homemade DVDR, I have the VHS somewhere but no vcr!

I read that the Beatles bought the rights to this to make room for Anthology. Did the fabs ever comment on this documentary? Considering lots of masters and promos are used I assume they had to sign off on its release, no?

Fwiw, I get more enjoyment of watching this than I do the Anthology but I'm grateful to own both!

 

I still have my laserdisc.

 

I also like British Rock: The First Wave on VHS. I've kept that copy and just watched it yesterday. They upped the quality of the video clips on this one, compared to Compleat Beatles.

I have 2 VHS copies of Compleat Beatles. The first one is older and came in the larger box with a gatefold and the cassette in a plastic tray. It also has the songs that appear in the video listing within the gatefold cover. The newer one (still sealed) is in a regular VHS slipcase.

 

I've got the remastered laserdisc, which I transferred to DVD years ago. It would be nice to have it on official blu-ray with the unedited 1980s interviews as bonus contents.

 

When I was 17, my family got a vcr and I received the Beta version for Christmas and I wouldn't even guess how many times I watched it. It was well done and can be viewed in a couple of hours. In those days, long before Youtube, it was really exciting to be able to see something like this whenever you wished.

 

yes it was miraculous...

 

Yes, Neil Aspinall furnished some clips and I believe they had to give permission for the music to be used with the Beatles' music. But I would bet it was a conditional contract, and even in 1980, Aspinall had plans (on the back burner) for a vast Beatles documentary that was originally going to be called The Long and Winding Road. He collected footage for decades and had it ready for the time that the Beatles would finally let him hire people to put a huge documentary together and was able to start working on it around 1992. At least, that's the way the story was told to me.

 

To use the songs, they need to get the rights to the masters (EMI) and the sync rights from the publisher. At the time it was being made, the publishing was not controlled by any ex Beatles or their heirs, so, no, the ex Beatles would not have had to give permission for this film to be completed.

Subsequently, the Beatles sued EMI and won a suit over underreported royalties, and in the aftermath of that suit, they gained control over subsequent licensing of the masters. So today, someone couldn't make the same film without d/b/a The Beatles Inc aka Apple signing off on it.

 

"Besides.....Ringo didn't like the food."

 

That's exactly the way I heard it: that in 1989, the Beatles won a huge judgement against Capitol for under-reporting residuals, and as part of that settlement they got a big chunk of cash plus much more control on how the original songs could be used in TV, movies, and commercials. And I think it's an "all for one/one for all" deal, where if one of the fabs or their representatives vetoes a project, then it doesn't happen.