Ethan A. Russell / © Apple Corps Ltd.
Three years after blowing the minds of Fab Four fans with his The Beatles: Come Back series, director Peter Jackson returns to his Beatle bag on May 8 with a re-release of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s legendary 1970 documentary. Let it be.
The film, which chronicles the final days of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, will be available for the first time in more than 50 years when it airs exclusively on Disney+ on May 8.
According to a release, the film, recorded during the band’s breakup, “now takes its rightful place in the band’s history. Once viewed through a darker lens, the film has now been brought to light through its restoration and in the context of the revelations made” in the 2021 Emmy-winning Jackson documentaries.
“Let it be was ready for release in October/November 1969, but was not released until April 1970. A month before its release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let it be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, “I’ll never see the Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,” director Lindsay-Hogg said in a statement. “And that really tarnished the perception of the film. But really, how often do you get to see artists of this magnitude work together to turn what they hear in their heads into songs. And then you get to the roof and you see their excitement and camaraderie and pure joy at playing together again as a band and we know as we know now that it was the last time and we watch it with a complete understanding of who they are and still are and some poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do come backusing all the footage I shot 50 years ago.’
Actually the recovered Let it be includes footage that appeared Get vice versa, taking audiences into the studio and onto the roof of Apple Corps in London in January 1969 for the quartet’s final live performance. It also includes the band in the studio writing and recording their own Let it be album. As a result of the rave reviews for Jackson’s series, and with Lindsey-Hogg’s support, Apple Corps asked Jackson’s Park Road Post Production team to rebuild Let it be from the original 16mm negative, a process that also involved remastering the film’s sound using the same MAL de-mixing technology that was used on come back.
“I am absolutely thrilled that Michael’s film, Let it be, has been restored and is finally being reissued after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s samples for come backand I always thought so Let it be is required to complete the come back history. In three parts, we showed Michael and the Beatles filming a ground-breaking new documentary and Let it be is this documentary – the film they released in 1970. Now I think of it all as one epic story finally completed after five decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: Let it be is the culmination of come backwhile come back provides vital missing context for Let it be. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and kind while I was making come backand it’s only right that his original film should have the last word…looking and sounding much better than it did in 1970.”
On Monday, ahead of the announcement — and six months after the Fabs dropped what was billed as their final song, the melancholy “Now and Then” — the Beatles’ website teased “There will be an answer,” a lyric from 1970’s “Let It” d. Buda.” The post was accompanied by four blank frames positioned to resemble Let it be album art, as well as what appeared to be a cryptic clue, “Finally…” and the Disney+ and Apple Corps logos.
However Let it be premiered in theaters in 1970 and released on home video formats in the early 1980s, it has never been officially released on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming.
