Thanks to Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, fans are falling even deeper in love with The Beatles. He’s given us more than six hours out of the 60 hours of unseen footage Michael Lindsay-Hogg took during the Let It Be sessions. We know what Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr think of it. We also know what the rest of the Beatles family think too. But what do the fans really think about The Beatles: Get Back?
Die-hard fans don’t seem to care about the documentary’s lengthy runtime
In an interview with Variety for an episode of “Doc Dreams,” Jackson explained that he couldn’t possibly have cut the documentary any shorter. He said, “Because at that point, you’re starting to commit a crime against rock ‘n’ roll history if you start trimming any more out, because there’s stuff there that people have to see.”
Ultimately, Jackson was scared that whatever didn’t go in the documentary would be put back into the vault for another 50 years. So, personally, he doesn’t care what some fans think about its lengthy runtime.
Publications like Vulture released articles with headlines like, “12 Get Back Moments You Need to Know to Act Like You Watched the Whole Thing.” At the same time, they published another article called “The Beatles: Get Back Is Too Long, But It Has to Be.”
However, some die-hard and casual fans don’t seem too upset about the length. In fact, they enjoyed the eight-hour documentary so much that they wished it was longer.
Piers Morgan tweeted, “I could have sat through 88hrs of that, never mind 8. Best music documentary I’ve ever watched. So endlessly enthralling and fascinating. Congrats to Peter Jackson on a wonderful film, and to the Beatles on showing why they’re the [goat] of bands.”
Sean O’Connor wrote, “The Beatles: Get Back is 8 hours long, and honestly, I could easily watch another 20 hours of this s***. It rules! I love it so much. I love when they are mad at one another, I love when they dance together, and I love when they make Billy Preston a member without even asking him.”
Alex Flood of NME wrote, “It took bloody ages to watch this, but it was worth every single second.”
Other fans were not pleased with the documentary’s length
Casual fans of The Beatles only have one thing to complain about; they don’t care for the documentary’s length. They argue it did not need to be that long. But other than that, they have no complaints.
According to the Daily Mail, one Twitter user wrote, “Watched all of Get Back!! For hxc Beatles fans I’m sure it wasn’t long enough, but for me, in my twisted opinion, you could cut 2 hours out of it easily.”
Another wrote, “I have watched The Beatles Get Back. I will have a review that is much shorter in the next couple of days.”
Meanwhile, one Beatles fan thinks it’s boring compared to the successful Beatles Anthology documentary. They wrote, “I love #TheBeatles but the #GetBack doc was long and boring. It was presented as if we were watching a painter paint a masterpiece… but in reality it was like watching the painter buying the paint before actually painting. The Beatles Anthology, it was not. I want my 8hrs back.”https://youtu.be/K95MIzDth_A
Most fans enjoyed what ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ revealed
Despite the lengthy runtime, fans seem happy about the documentary overall. They especially like that it dispels the myth that The Beatles broke up during the Let It Be sessions.
One person wrote, “Peter Jackson’s new documentary #GetBack, on the last days of the #Beatles is brilliant. It’s an investment in time, but worth it. Especially when the Blue Meanies actually show up. (You’ll have to watch).” Meanwhile, another commented, “The Beatles Get Back tapes was an amazing visualization of genius creating art and building out a legacy within the span of 22 days, I’m absolutely speechless.”
Many fans, including Yoko Ono herself, like how the documentary also dispels the myth that Yoko broke up the band. Mark Athitakis wrote on Twitter, “Watching ‘Get Back’ and learning how Yoko destroyed the Beatles by sitting quietly and reading the paper and sorting through her mail.” Ryan H. Walsh added, “Biggest band in the world workshopping new songs together, Yoko reads the newspaper. Amazing.”
Fans online also can’t get enough of Glyn Johns, The Beatles’ recording engineer’s outstanding 1960s wardrobe. Katie Irish wrote, “I watched Get Back over the holiday weekend; Glyn Johns is the late 60s fashion icon I didn’t know I needed! Sure, we know that The Beatles were stupendously talented, relentless perfectionists, & a pinnacle of collaboration, but who knew about Glyn Johns’ style?”
On the other hand, fans like to point out that The Beatles seemed to really like toast and can’t believe the smoking warning that Disney added.
Whatever flaws fans think The Beatles: Get Back has, it doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone from watching. It will surely go down as one of the most memorable Beatles documentaries ever made.
