NewsDisney tease Let It Be announcement
Is the original cut imminent on Disney+ ?
Walt Disney Studios are teasing what looks to be an announcement about The Beatles Let It Be.
On their social channels, they’ve posted the message “There will be an answer…” alongside a graphic which depicts white boxes in place of the four photos on the cover of their 1970 album Let It Be with the words ‘At Last…’ at the top, in the same font used for the Let It Be reissue. The familiar Beatles logo is at the bottom and a discreet red apple sits bottom, right.
This is almost certainly going to be about the entertainment giant making available the original cut of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary film, fully restored by Peter Jackson and his team.
Let It Be has never officially been issued on DVD or, of course, blu-ray, but it did make it to Laserdisc and VHS. It is likely that Disney will keep it exclusive to their Disney+ streaming channel, before perhaps approving a home video release towards the end of this year for the Christmas/gifting market.
Let It Be offers alternative performances and of course it has important historical value, but with everyone having seen the newly cut Get Back the original film’s limitations and the lack of jeopardy (Jackson’s ‘calendar’ narrative was a masterstroke) may be all too apparent. The Rooftop Concert sequence in Get Back is also infinitely better than the original, for example.
Nevertheless, it’s good news and Apple Corp did promise to make the original cut available again, in due course, way back in January 2019, even if that promise has never been referenced again, since.
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Anything Beatles-related is potentially great news. However, it might be something completely different from what we expect. These four blank squares might be something else. Like the faces of the main actors of the upcoming Fab Four biopics. Who knows ?
Well, it’s now official folks. According to TheBeatles.com it comes out on Disney+ on May the 8th. All fully restored using Peter Jacksons MAL technology.Let’s hope that the DVD and BluRay aren’t too long in following.
Full story here
https://www.thebeatles.com/let-it-be-last
Agreed on the rooftop concert etc, but does this announcement – and a possible (mega) physical release later this year – put back even further the overdue Rubber Soul box? Have the powers that be at Beatle central got a bit worried by the drop in price of the Let It Be CD set to £30 or so, and to a lesser extent the Revolver set, both without the blu ray that most buyers wanted. Gives time to rethink Mr McC!
Let It Be did have a blu ray disc with it.
“Everything has got to be just like you want it to…Because?”
Interesting, I suppose.
The Disney thing is a bit frustrating as it may mean that a physical media release is a way off or may be a little unimaginative.
What would be nice would be:
Let It Be original cinema format (restored)
Let It Be (either original longer edit or a director’s cut)
Commentaries MLH and Peter Jackson
Uninterrupted rooftop sequence
A series of full uninterrupted song performances
Perhaps an extended Peter Jackson edit (perhaps in a day-by-day format to include the footage Jackson would have liked to include but was held back
This is really the time to do a massive blu-ray/dvd set to include everything that we would like to see in a coherent and well presented format.
I really don’t want just a Disney channel stream of the original film on its own. That delayed me seeing Get Back until a physical release appeared.
I would rely on Peter Jackson knowing what the dedicated fans would like. He is aferall a dedicated fan!
Hoping for the best, but fear the worse.
Fingers crossed.
I actually have this on DVD, bought a 3 disc set made in Germany in a record store in Vancouver, with Let it Be, Let it Be…Naked and the movie being the 3rd disc, looks pretty good too.
Haven’t seen it before or since anywhere.
I don’t understand why Macca would want this released.
Get Back righted the wrongs that the original film didn’t show .
Let it Be showed Macca , John and George not getting on and that they hated each other’s company . He spent years telling everyone that it wasn’t the true story and now it’s back again ?
After watching it for years and not enjoying them falling apart , Get Back became a revelation .
It would be great to see the original cut restored. Hopefully streamed on Disney then perhaps in the autumn with a blu ray release and also a CD/Vinyl of the full rooftop concert. There is a great sounding bootleg LP circulating at present and Apple are/have missed out on a lot of sales due to not giving the fans what they want soon enough.
Not happy Disney is involved with this with their attitude towards physical media.
There’s a directors commentary with Michael Lindsey Hogg recorded by Peter Jackson, will we get to hear that?
Agree re. Disney, wish they’d realise that not everyone wants to subscribe to their streaming service and cater for those of us still in the world of physical media, but being as we’re likely outnumbered by 1000 to 1 or more, and Disney long ago gave up the notion of being primarily innovative and creative instead moving to the commercial behemoth they are today I won’t hold my breath.
Very impressed and happy with Peter Jackson’s “Get Back”. The one tiny negative was the lack of the touching scene from the original movie where George and then John sing “You really gotta hold on me”. Never understood why that was excluded. I look forward to seeing the earlier cut.
Well gosh.
Granted it was the vastly inferior quality dvd copy of the 1980s VHS, but having seen the film and having watched the new film all the way through — I think 5 times (caveat – first time was the 3 mornings it dropped — second was over that first post-vax Xmas at me mum’s with her — and the last 3 times were each January since, one literal day at a time (meaning quite a long break in the middle of January) which I contend is the best way to watch it, 20 or so minutes at a time with the calendar – and I must say the last one was with the blu-ray after I’d seen most of what I wanted to on disney + for the time being, like every video streamer it’s one at a time rotate them out as needed) ….. I am not excited at all by this news.
I was excited for about a second before I read your piece Paul, thinking perhaps Peter Jackson’s teased 18 hour directors cut might be on it’s way. Muggles have every right to think the 8 hour film is too long — and in the normal world they are probably right, but I would happily watch more of this and specifically my biggest two complaints about the new film are 1: man on the street interruptions of the rooftop audio — I’ve attempted to sync the high res streaming audio to it but of course it’s not quite right – and 2: the short shrift given to January 31st which deserves to contain the full video performances of the several master takes committed that day and before the credits roll please.
i’ve read ‘somewhere’ that this could actually be a new cut of the original film, or rather Michael Lyndsey-Hogg’s Original cut before it was edited down to the released version. So, in other words, the Let It Be Movie, but how the Director intended. Presumably using the same software to clean it up, that they used on Get Back.
The biggest drawback of Peter Jackson’s Get Back was that except for the rooftop songs “One After 909”, “I’ve Got A Feeling” and “Dig A Pony” all 3 of which made the final original LP from the rooftop, virtually no other song is shown in its finished version (For You Blue” had a new lead vocal later, but we see the rhythm track getting taped). We get the “ventriloquist” version of “Two Of Us”, which goes on far too long. I know “I Me Mine” was recorded in Jan 1970, so not part of the film in its studio version, as was the album guitar solo of “Let It Be” and some orchestration and “Across The Universe” dates back to 1968. But where were the full versions of “Two Of Us”, “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road” that were in the original film and used as promos and shown on things like Ed Sullivan back in 1970? Peter Jackson just showed excerpts from the final day’s recording as the credits rolled, when a lot of these non rooftop songs were finalised. When I saw Get Back, I thought it was deliberately missing them and was annoyingly incomplete in that respect. It seemed to me like they were being held back to justify a re-release of the film which would have them in. but they seemed to deny it at the time of Get Back’s release. I’m very happy if the reason was a “Let It Be” restored re-release.
Peter Jackson has form on this, I’m still waiting for him to include Tom Bombadil in The Fellowship of the Ring
If you mean to say that the biggest drawback of ‘Get Back’ is that it isn’t ‘Let It Be’, then I think you’re pating Peter Jackson a compliment. The film doesn’t need to churn out the iconic album versions of songs because it’s a film and the film needs to tell its own story. Jackson was trying to show the Let It Be project “sunny side up” and I think he did that.
The Lindsay-Hogg film is a decent capture of the mood as, with indecent haste, McCartney cajoled his bandmates too soon after The Beatles (The White Album) was completed into yet another project – this time on a cold, impersonal and inappropriate film lot.
Both films are imporatnt documents of an historic beginning to closure – they can happily co-exist.
Btw, I’m 100% behind BobbyAA below re: Tom Bombadil in ‘The Fellowship Of The Ring’. Naughty boy, Peter.
IsadoraDuncan, what I’m saying is this…As Paul S said above, “Let It Be” the original movie was not referenced again after Jan 2019 as a forthcoming release and with Macca’s downer on it, could have easily been deleted forever. Jackson’s “Get Back” was fantastic and does even have some credits detailing when we’re actually watching the master take being recorded and it SO WONDERFUL to have visuals to versions of music you know so well (e.g. the 3 rooftop cuts), then the last day is rushed through in excerpts, credits rolling, as an afterthought at the end of 8 hours!!. If “Get Back” was the last word on the sessions and there was to be no “Let It Be” movie re-issue or super extended Peter Jackson 18 hour “Get Back” cut, then it is SERIOUSLY INCOMPLETE, skipping complete versions of all the ballads for starters. Putting the final version ballads in, in full, for say another 15 mins in “Get Back” would have sorted it, I mean 15 more mins on 8 hours, why not? They could have even flipped the timeline by a day to end with the rooftop if they wished for a climax scene. “Get Back”, though amazing, felt seriously incomplete and the ballads added to it would have been a beautiful addition, not a miserable one spoiling the sunny vibe, which does still show a fair share of sadness with George quitting etc. If the reason for that was to leave the original “Let It Be” movie with some unique versions as a selling point, then fair enough, but they didn’t make that clear. Regardless “Get Back” as a standalone piece IS SERIOUSLY INCOMPLETE in documenting the “Let It Be” album, missing at least one third of the songs in finished / full versions. Maybe Jackson’s hands were tied because the intention was always to release “Let It Be” movie. Maybe these are all seemingly “non sensical” decisions (like leaving the rooftop gig on CD / Vinyl out of the LIB Box Set), perhaps only to afford Apple / Disney a subsequent opportunity to sell us those separately.
Ah… I see. Well, I’m wholly in agreement with you then, other than to say that the Let It Be album was (of itself) a rigged piece of work after the fact – it’s not possible to include the sweeping orchestrations that Spector added or the tinkering he applied that McCartney so raged at once it was released.
I guess we are where we are and that’s better off than we were before the NAGRA tapes were recovered. Does Let It Be or does Get Back offer us greater entertainment and/or historic truths? Is the Let It Be album an accurate reflection in itself of the events of January 1969? ‘Let It Be Naked’ was clearly an attempt by Macca to set the record straight and that too had some limited merit.
At least now we have three or more ‘documents’ with which to triangulate our positions on all this – and I think that’s got to be a good thing, especially as the project was pretty much mothballed for a year and more once the cameras stopped rolling.
In the end, it’s all good.
So looking forward to this. I remember the coldness of the atmosphere in the movie, watching it at one of those late-night viewings that cinemas used to offer. It will provide a fascinating juxtaposition to the upbeat Get Back movie and (IMHO) they’ll sit well together as alternative insights into the (a) decline and fall (Let It Be) and/or (b) sunset (Get Back) of The Beatles as the Sixties they helped to forge drew to a close.
We’d like to say thank you on behalf of the fans and ourselves and, yes, you passed the audition.
It’s going to be a bit challenging to go back to the earlier, sombre mood, movie after seeing the upbeat and cheerful version Peter Jackson recently gave us. But I’m looking forward to it.
I may be the only one saying this, but to me the Peter Jackson documentary is too long. With all its faults the original Let It Be was the original film released by the Beatles in 1970, so it is about time to have it restored and released.
Hi Miiko, no you are not the only one. Even as a huge Beatle fan I sometimes found “Get Back” like watching paint dry.
Can’t wait for the orginal restored “Let It Be”
Agree entirely, feel that way about all Jackson’s work to be honest… he seems to think longer = better… it doesn’t!
I couldn’t disagree more. I’d watch every inch of footage if I could. Repeatedly.