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The Beatles ‘Let It Be’ film confirmed for Disney+

Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original film has been restored

By Paul Sinclair

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47

It’s now official. Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film version of The Beatles’ Let It Be will be available on Disney+ from 8 May.

With Lindsay-Hogg’s full support, Apple Corps asked Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production to dive into a meticulous restoration of the film from the original 16mm negative, which included lovingly remastering the sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was applied to the Get Back three-parter.

“’Let It Be’ was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. One 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,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs. And then you get to the roof and you see their excitement, camaraderie and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able to do with ‘Get Back,’ using all the footage I’d shot 50 years previously.” 

Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Peter Jackson has this to say about it: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie, ‘Let It Be,’ has been restored and is finally being re-released after being unavailable for decades,” says Peter Jackson. “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. The two projects support and enhance each other: ‘Let It Be’ is the climax of ‘Get Back,’ while ‘Get Back’ provides a vital missing context for ‘Let It Be.’ Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made ‘Get Back,’ and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word…looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”

What’s clear is that this is the exact same cut as what was released in 1970. No new edits or extra sequences or anything like that. There is no word on any physical release, and we still have no idea if Peter Jackson’s wish to put out a longer ‘director’s cut’ version of Get Back is a pipe dream or not.

Let It Be launches exclusively on Disney+ on 8 May 2024.

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47 Comments

47 thoughts on “The Beatles ‘Let It Be’ film confirmed for Disney+”

  1. I’m pretty sure I missed the 1982 showing of Let It Be, so I’d like to see a physical release. I don’t buy streaming services and hardly ever watch TV, so I don’t have Disney. I’d become a Beatles fan after John’s death, mainly due to their music being played much more on the radio. In particular, I tuned into The Beatles Hour every week on Radio Luxembourg in the early 1980s. That was so influentuial to me as it introduced me to so many wonderful songs that I’d never heard before. The Luxembourg reception, mind you, was usually terrible. Songs would often dissapear into a fog of distorted radio inteference and you’d sit there hoping it would come back. I still taped it regularly, always astounded at how great those songs were.
    I haven’t bought Get Back yet. I loved watching it when it came out, but as others have said, sitting through 8 hours again is a big ask.

  2. Beatle related..This month is this 40th anniversary of not only the opening of the rebuilt Cavern in Matthew Street along with the Cavern Walks (still being redeveloped at the moment) but also Beatle City in Seel Street, the world’s first permanent Beatles exhibition. Sadly this wasn’t to be as it closed two years later but was replaced by the more successful Beatles Story.
    There was also the Yellow Submarine at the International Garden Festival site just launched.
    Thanks to my old copies of The Beatles Book for the info which also states that the first Beatles related CD in the UK, Paul’s Pipes of peace was released in February 1984.
    Did anyone else visit Liverpool in 1984?

  3. I too recorded the soundtrack onto a cassette, probably in ’82. I played that to death. My pal recorded it onto VHS in ’79 when they had the “Beatles at Christmas” season but I don’t know what happened to his tape. 

    It was broadcast in 4:3 ratio of course and might have been pan and scan but the BBC probably didn’t bother to do that as they regularly did for big movies. The movie was originally released in 1.37:1 ratio which meant that they had to cut off the top and bottom of the filmed 16mm image to make it wider screen for exhibition in cinemas.

    When shooting for cinema directors often matt of the camera eyepiece so they know what the final projected theatre composition will be which is why old TV broadcasts often revealed sound booms in shot at the top of the picture because TV stations scanned an unmatted print to avoid black bars above and below the image. I remember watching many movies in the day and wondering if the camera operator had a sight impairment because so many mics poked into shot! (As an aside, does anyone remember the BBC broadcast of “2001: a Space Odyssey” in the late ’70s early ’80s when they were forced by the nature of the stunning model footage to make the rare decision to use the black bars but peppered them with stars?!?) 

    The problem with the image on the bootlegs I now have is that they are taken from TV broadcasts or the laserdisc all of which were in 4:3 which meant that they cut off the sides of the already vertically matted original released print image to fit old style domestic screens. So what I’ve seen so far is pretty much a small rectangle double matted from the centre of the full image. The resolution inevitably suffers. 16mm is already pretty grainy. The two shots from “Two of Us” miss half of John and Paul’s heads and quite a few tops of heads are missing elsewhere. 

    So I hope (probably in vain) that they now scan the entire 16mm negative this time and give us the whole image from the negative if there’s a physical release. There shouldn’t be boom in shot problems because it was originally composed for TV by director MLH. 

    The final point is that we might see something different to the original cinema release after all. Jackson did some pan and scan for “Get Back” didn’t he”? He might compose the shots better in the vertical plane when it is matted for modern 16:9 TV screens.

    I could have got the above all wrong of course so please correct me if anyone with superior knowledge is reading this?

    2. Yes! I vividly remember the BBC1’s TV premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey (7.35 pm, Friday 1st January 1982) and their good-intentioned but clumsy insertion of star-flecked black bars to show the whole of the Discovery spaceship.
      To add insult to injury, Southern TV started the TV premiere of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind an hour earlier. As we didn’t have a video recorder then, I had to jump channels to 2001, just as Richard Dreyfuss was arriving at Devil’s Tower…

  4. Christmas 1979 I had come into some money and bought one of first VHS recorders on the market. Let it be was amongst the many recordings I made off the tv, it was definitely on bbc, along with, if I remember correctly, the shea stadium concert.

        1. That’s a good quality machine you had there! Probably cost £479? You must have been loaded! The mccann household didn’t get one till 83 when Sanyo released their £299 best seller,remember taping a specials concert that was broadcast around 2 in the afternoon a outdoor event also later on that year or 84 the spands at saddlers Wells was shown and taped that, I was at the glasgow appollo gig on that tour right under the high stage 14 I was true was number 1 threw roses down at us in the end! Amen.

          1. Cost a bit more than that actually, I kept it until 1986, when it was replaced with a hi-fi stereo model, if I remember rightly, technology was moving on and the Ferguson was beginning to look a very basic machine by then, which indeed it was. But it was still in excellent condition and I sold it to a friend for his daughter to use in her bedroom. I used the money to fund a day in the pubs of Newcastle and then off to see Queen in concert at St James Park with my mates, including the one I sold the Ferguson to.

          2. I paid about £1000 in the early eighties, for a vhs recorder and 20″ fat tv! Probably did two years interest free credit.

    2. I have access to the British Newspaper Archive and can confirm you’re right in both respects. All the films were broadcast as part of a Beatles at Christmas Season. Let It Be was broadcast on Boxing Day 1979 at 5.50 p.m. The Daily Mirror described it as ‘disappointing’! The Beatles At Shea Stadium was broadcast on Saturday, 23 December, at 5.30 p.m. The Mirror added the comment ‘MILD case of hysteria’. A Hard Day’s Night was on Christmas Day at 3.00 p.m. (for those who didn’t want to watch the Queen’s Speech). Help! was on Saturday 22 December at 6.35 p.m. Magical Mystery Tour was on Friday, 21 December, at 6.10 p.m., and Yellow Submarine was at 5.40 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

      1. Those were halcyon days. Now Christmas TV is crap like Mrs Brown’s Boys and Call The Midwife. If it wasn’t for the missus and kids I wouldn’t have a TV licence.

  5. I bought my first video recorder in August 1983. It was Sony Betamax. Here in Finland YLE showed Let It Be on 29.12.1983. when i taped it. I still have the tape and video recorder. It must be almost 30 years when was the last time i watched it. I had the Disney+ subscription about two years. Just stopped it at the end of 2023. Probably don´t make the new subscription for Let It Be. I may bought it if they release Blu-ray version. Until that day i just let it be.

  6. I remember seeing it one xmas as a kid and, in the earlier days of the ‘net, downloading a copy. TBH, after watching a tidied-up version of it again recently, I found that Get Back really does show up what I consider its flaws, though Let It Be loses a little of the ‘bust-up’ qualities having seen them both – I felt GB does put LIB into the context it needed. I’ll probably pick it up on BluRay when that day comes, it’ll be great to see and hear it in a quality release, but it’s not going to tell me anything I didn’t already know.

  7. According to Radio Times archives, the original film was first shown on BBC One on Boxing Day (26 Dec) 1975. I recorded this on cassette, audio only, using a mic! I remember a work colleague cracking us up, going round impersonating George “I’ll play whatever you want me to play…”

    There was another showing in August 1976, then again in December 1979 and May 1982 (both on BBC Two).

    There was also a Radio One show on 23rd May 1970, presented by Johnny Moran, featuring all four Beatles’ voices.

  8. My mind might be playing tricks but I’m sure I can remember the original film being shown on TV (maybe BBC) in the early 70’s in the UK. I was only a child back then. I seem to remember the other Beatles films also being shown on TV around that time but they were shown more than once but Let It Be was only shown the once. Can anyone confirm or if indeed my memory is mistaken?

      1. It was last shown in the UK on BBC 2, on Saturday 8th May 1982, at 3.10 pm.
        Thanks to The Daily Beatle website for that information.

    3. Yes, it was shown in the 70s. I taped it from the TV on a reel to reel recorder, and if I’d done that in the 80s it would have been on a cassette.

  9. As I said back in the day with Get Back, the 3 part documentary is great to watch once or at most twice.
    Get Back is fine if you want to see hundreds of unfinished takes of songs as they progress, but you’re left without the final candy of the full song. Therefore, if you want to see the songs in their entirety, the film Let It Be is preferable, with the definitive and complete takes of the songs, especially the sessions on the last day, which in Get Back were only noted in the end credits. For this reason, Get Back never replaced the movie Let It Be, as some said.
    Therefore, the possibility of repeat viewing of the film Let It Be is far superior to the documentary Get Back, if what you are looking for is to listen to songs, and not so much how they evolved.

  11. Taped the soundtrack off the telly in the 1970s and played it to death. It became my favourite Beatles “album” for many years…. Looking forward to hearing it cleaned up and wonderful!

  12. Incredible news. Been waiting for this for a lifetime. Never actually thought they’d release it after Get Back it so well.
    Can’t understand anyone that won’t watch this because it’s on Disney+. Pretty shortsighted – they give you what you want and you don’t watch it…then they won’t give us what we want in the future because nobodies watching. Just watch it so they give us more of this kind of stuff that’s been in the vaults for decades.

  13. Looking forward to this… I’ve got a bootleg of this on DVD and it’s terrible quality, what a difference just changing the funereal black border makes to the images, I hope if Disney/Sony release this as a BluRay they keep the white border. The ‘Get Back’ documentary was shot on 16mm so don’t see why this shouldn’t look as good as that did on BR/DVD.

  14. Although I would like to see it Disney doesn’t appeal due to their constant pushing of “the message”. They are losing subscribers like there is no tomorrow and I refuse to fund their weird narratives. I suspect though this will get a physical release down the line like Prey and all the dire new Star Wars cobblers. Although should add Prey was pretty good certainly up there with the best of the Predator franchise.

  15. I’m glad this is releasing the same month as the Beach Boys documentary. That way I don’t have to resubscribe to Disney any longer than necessary.

  16. As I approach 60, I still get a thrill with each new or revisiting of the Beatles. I don’t want to think about them in terms of product, release, and cash grab. They were a group of musicians who changed the world and with Let It Be, they took us behind the curtain for one final journey. With no John and George to curate this one last adventure, Peter Jackson, much like George Martin, has taken the chair. Thank you.

  17. My fingers are crossed for a Blu-ray/DVD release with a bonus feature of the full rooftop gig without all the cutaways to the crowd below.

  18. Tremendous news! At last. I have been waiting for this to be released my entire life. Always thought it very strange that the fifth Beatles film was never released after it was shown at the cinemas in the early 70’s.
    I still patiently await the rooftops complete performance on vinyl :)
    Lets hope there’s a directors cut of Get Back…..

      2. It was. I remember seeing it in the Video store for rent way back when and asking my dad to get it and him saying no. Knowing him to be a huge Beatles fan I asked why, and he said because he saw it once and it was like going to the funeral of a dear friend and he couldn’t do it again.

        How I wish he had lived to see “Get Back” and seen that was not the case.

  20. Excellent. The jigsaw puzzle is complete! I just hope there’ll be a physical release somewhere down the line.

    A PJ ‘supercut’ would be even lovelier, but I’m happy already, to be honest.

    2. Disney have sold the rights to make discs from their content to Sony. That is likely to mean more 4K and BR discs. If you combine that with The Beatles’ insatiable need for new product to resell the chances of a release are very high.

      1. Would this look amazing in 4K though considering the source material? I have a 4K player but feel constantly let down by what is released on the format. OK Blade Runner was top drawer and a benchmark of what can be achieved but can this? Also streaming in 4K is never as good as on disc Amazon Prime I’m looking at you with fast fiber broadband.

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