New Version of the Beatles ‘Let it Be’ Film to be Released!?

So I guess no bonus "Fight Reel" footage will ever be released.....lol! "Get on the mike!......OK, you don't have to bitch about it" and "I'll play whatever you want me to play or l won't play at all" are probably tame in comparison to what's left on the cutting room floor.

All laughs, smiles and playing songs.....The Beatles.... Just As Nature Intended. The 50th Anniversary Revisionist Extended Version. At this stage we'll take whatever we can get.......if it happens at all.

 

Let It Be in it's current edit is a depressing mess. I need a valium every time I watch the damn thing. When I play it everybody but me leaves the room. I for one would welcome this as a better edit. For starters, as a documentary it doesn't really have a good flow. It's just a fly-on-the-wall look at the Beatles slogging thru the recording of an album. People fight and get on each other's nerves when working a project like this. McCartney should want this as a better product. They are the cool looking long-haired hippie Beatles. I'd much rather they looked like they were having a enjoyable and productive versus pensive experience as in the painful 2-hour long time capsule.

 

Yes, the movie is boring: I’d love to see a version that shows the band in a better light.

And less Yoko, please, although she was practically glued to John at this point.

 

Saw this first on Australian TV in 79, then it was rebroadcast in December 80 as a tribute to John a few days after he died. Seen it via the usual internet channels since then. I don't know who wouldn't want to see the film in the most glorious visual and audio fidelity possible - from the moment they play the real deal studio takes - to the unsurpassed Rooftop. The parts before that, the working out tunes, the jamming, the half assed Besamo Muchos and Really Got A Hold Of Me's, the interminable Dig It, the Suzy Parkers etc etc etc, I couldn't care what they do, rework it, re-edit, whatever. But the meat and potato of the film...throw the 21st Century technology kitchen sink at it. For You Blue, Two Of Us, Long And Winding, Let It Be and The Rooftop!!!!!!!!

 

With all due respect to Lindsay-Hogg, I find his film very flawed and boring. We are not talking about an Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece here. To be fair, he thought he was making a TV special and then had to turn it into a film. And to be fair again, the nature of the sessions did not help. But there are enough quality moments there to make a far more entertaining film in my opinion.

 

I disagree with this. I vividly remember seeing it in the theater upon release (sat thru it twice). Yes, it was not a great film. It was depressing. When it was released, they had already broken up. So the audience already had that recent news fresh in their minds as they watched the joyless footage. Being a young fan at the time, I remember expecting them to be funny (as in A Hard Day's Night and Help!), and only experiencing one glimpse of that famous humor when Heather (?) hit a drum cymbal and Ringo feigned a startled reaction. Otherwise, it was just them sitting around unenthusiastically working through some numbers. Even the more polished complete run-thrus like Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road were somber performances. I recall seeing the Let It Be clip on Ed Sullivan for the first time (before the film release) and noting Harrison's head being down for almost the entire thing, then finally lifting his head late in the clip, revealing his face. Hang your head indeed.

Yes, it's been out of circulation for a long time, so many new fans are unfamiliar with it. But it is still part of their legacy, and IMO an important part -- the bitter end. I understand completely from a business perspective the surviving Beatles and heirs want to do what makes good business sense. There is probably some fear that releasing the gloomy original film could soil the happy mop-top image and have a negative impact on overall product sales. At the very least, poor reception by anyone other than longtime fans and poor sales of the DVD would be an embarrassment to the greatest band of all time. So it's a ding they'd rather avoid than risk.

Let It Be.

 

A contemporaneous, biased take on the original:

The early scenes are shot at Twickenham Film Studios during a period when Apple was tormented by doubts from within and without and when the Beatles themselves bowing low under boulders of responsibilities, were not fully at peace one with another. This shows in the faces and it shows in the music but it is not a sullenness which shows, nor any musical indecision, but rather a striving for a stronger relationship, a way through to better times. It is all fascinating and the music is terrific, all of it, the scraps, the beginning, middle and end of it the finished work, all terrific.

Twickenham Studios is not the Beatles' lair. They belong somewhere else and just when it is getting too indoor and too heavy to bear, we find ourselves at home, in the street at friendly Apple and it is a great relief to see the sight that gladdens our Savile Row street commune.

So through their doorway, the Beatles go home, to Apple to record in their own studio and from there to the roof for what was for us at Apple, and I hope for some others, the happiest working day of 1969: the free concert in God's fresh air and even if the police did stop it (under the urging of those who've grown too old to dream - a minority, by the way, don't be fooled…more people like the Beatles than don't: they are one of Britain's fave items) then the police stopped it gracefully, after a delay long enough to permit a great many fine sounds to descend over the West End of London on a lovely morning in spring.

At the end of the movie. John says thanks and hopes they've passed the audition. Of course they have passed the audition; if they hadn't none of us would be where we are today, writing all our words about them and pondering what it is, just what it really is we love them for.

Events this year have made it clear that the movie and the album were made just in time. No doubt about it, there would have been problems making it this year what with one thing and another - none of the Beatles, break up or no, are not minded to submit to movie cameras days, weeks, at a time any more. So let's be glad that on New Year's Day 1969, under the most strenuous urging of Paul, and at 9 o'clock in the morning, all four reported for duty at Twickenham. It was uphill, all the way and everyday until the filming was completed and what you see on the screen is only a fragment of what happened, but enough of a fragment to tell you that you are learning a whole lot about the joy and pain of making the best possible rock ‘n’ roll in this best of all possible worlds.
Derek Taylor, summer 1970

 

This seems so obvious. There are great filmmakers that would love a shot at editing a film out of this footage. Let a master take a turn with it.

 

I think the film could be altered and still fill the same part of their legacy, while just being a better film. I don't think it's an issue of "image" or anything, everyone with an interest in the Beatles knows the story and knows how depressing these sessions were. Sales would be the same no matter what they do: there's a core audience interested in this, and they're going to buy it no matter what...this isn't the kind of thing to be mass-marketed like 1 or Love. I don't think a re-cut film would be all that different in it's vibe or feel, or portrayal...it could just flow better, have some more full-song performances, etc.

 

This is exactly correct. If the original film did encapsulate the time appropriately, fine. If it gave a slanted view, even a little, let’s see what’s in the lot!

 

They should include the complete rooftop as a bonus. For the main re-edit, choose the best material, but show ALL OF IT. If they cut away to the street, do it without actually cutting from any of the performances.

 

If they completely change the context, I agree, it would be misleading. However, if the unused footage shows them more engaged and pleasant, it would not be false, it would be an improved version of what actually happened. Also, maybe a few strategic voice overs to help keep the audience's attention. AND -- more music footage. This is after all a music film.

 

The Beatles did not oversee the editing of that film.

Magical Mystery Tour was actually created by The Beatles, and does not have hours of unused footage available. I think they are apples and oranges.

 

Totally! A marketing angle like that could bring in a whole new audience.

 

Watching the outtake footage where Paul is standing and playing a very mockish version of Help...it seems like they certainly were having fun, and I believe it was after one of their extended um..."lunches".

 

As long as the original film is properly restored and released, they can do whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.

It would be great to have a second film with 100% different footage.

 

I've watched the movie on a bootleg DVD three or four times. I think it starts slowly, but it improves steadily as the songs start to evolve. And the rooftop concert is great: tight, focused rock 'n' roll. If you only saw and heard that portion without knowing the context, you'd never guess that the band was about to fall apart.

 

In the context you state here, i can accept that....
I guess i see revisionist used in such a negative way on this forum constantly, that the word now annoys me lol ...
Like i say, i would like the original and, lets call it, a directors cut with all the funky good times they are saying are on film.

 

I think it's a great idea to make a redux of the dreary old film (which would be fine also but on the bonus disc).

 

They were stoned out of their heads in that scene and the playing was terrible. So I wouldn't expect to see that footage released. Paul has grandchildren. So he only gets "high on life" now.

 

Paul just discussed having used LSD in an interview this month so I doubt he is trying to keep any secrets from his grandkids about having gotten high in the 60s

 

Well if you take that view than any documentary film is revisionist history. The revision of real life events begins as soon as the cameras roll and into the editing room and the final product.

 

With the microscope on his life the last nearly sixty years it would be silly to try.
He always seemed pretty down to earth about it all anyhow

 

An idea of how Let It Be could be restructured... Make it about the songs themselves. Go song-by-song, and show how each one evolved, from it's origins at Twickenham, the tentative recording at Apple, and finally a "definitive" version live on the rooftop or the Apple Studio performance. No more than 10 minutes devoted to a specific song, for all nine "proper" songs.

Of course the drawback is that the rooftop performance itself would be split up throughout the course of the film, and then things like the entire Oldies Jam, and Twickenham-only stuff like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" or "Across The Universe" would be completely gone. But I guess you could include all of that as bonus features, as well as a remastered version of the original cut.

 

Yes. I know. I was being tongue-in-cheek.

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