Let It Be (1970) on Netflix
G19701h 21mDocumentaryMusic
In January 1969, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr rehearse at Twickenham Film Studios for an album meant to return them to basics. Paul McCartney drives the sessions.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.6/108,825 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
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Plot summary
Cameras follow John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in January 1969 as they rehearse at Twickenham Film Studios for an album intended to bring them back to basics. The film has no narrator and no interviews with the group. Songs are still being worked out, and the four discuss ways to improve them. Paul McCartney dominates the sessions while his bandmates show little interest. Mal Evans provides the hammer blows on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and Yoko Ono stays at Lennon's side. The plan was a live concert broadcast, which was dropped.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Let It Be (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Around lunchtime on Friday, 10 January, tensions came to a head and Harrison told the others he was leaving the band, an episode the film omits entirely; he got his guitar, went home and that afternoon wrote “Wah-Wah”.
- Towards the end of the 10 January rehearsal, Lennon raised the idea of drafting in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar if Harrison did not rejoin the band, saying on tape that the Beatles, unlike Clapton's previous band Cream, would give him full scope to play.
- Many locations were floated for the planned concert: conventional venues such as the Roundhouse in London, but also a disused flour mill and an ocean liner. The spot that received the most consideration was a Roman amphitheatre in Sabratha, Libya.
- An anonymous industry source told the Daily Express in July 2008 that, according to Apple insiders, McCartney and Starr were blocking a DVD release, concerned about the effect on the band's “global brand” if the public saw the darker side of the story.
- The Beatles won an Oscar for Original Song Score, which Quincy Jones accepted on their behalf, and the soundtrack also won a Grammy for Best Original Score, though the Recording Academy named only Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, overlooking Starr's writing credit on “Dig It”.
