The Beatles' 1970 film, Let it Be, had a brief run in theaters that spring, and wasn't seen again until its release on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc in 1981, followed by videodisc in 1982.
That changes today with a restored version streaming on Disney+.
With its release a month after the band broke up, history has always portrayed it as being dark, with the band members not getting along. That's even how Ringo Starr, came to see it, although Paul McCartney saw it differently.
Anything but dark and sad, the film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. For the restored version, director Peter Jackson, who took over 50 hours of previously unseen footage shot by Lindsay-Hogg to create his 2021 documentary, Get Back, cleaned up the film quality and audio.
And Jackson adds, "I was so lucky to have access to Michael’s outtakes for Get Back, and I’ve always thought that Let It Be is needed to complete the Get Back story. Over three parts, we showed Michael and The Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary, and Let It Be is that documentary -- the movie they released in 1970. I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five decades."
Members of the press were given a sneak preview of Let it Be last week in New York and it was nothing like legend has made it out to be.
The only tense moment, if you want to call it that, was Paul and George Harrison disagreeing over a guitar part.
The big difference between Let it Be and Get Back, in addition to the length -- 81 minutes compared to just under eight hours -- and film and audio quality is Get Back, as Ringo says, has "got the start, the middle and the finish." Let it Be is nothing but them rehearsing and jamming with no storyline, no interviews -- nothing to link it together.
Today, Wednesday, May 8th in 1970, The Beatles released the Let it Be album.
Source: Beatles.com and Premiere