I don’t know about you, but for a moment I wondered if Peter Jackson hired lookalikes to play The Beatles for his upcoming Disney+ docuseries, The Beatles: Get Back. Not that the members of the British band seemed unlike they’re real selves (Paul is very much alive), but rather the quality of the 1969 recording looks so good that I thought Jackson had filmed it in the present day. In actuality, Jackson employed the same film restoration techniques he developed for the World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. But check out this clip of Fab Four singing “I’ve Got a Feeling,” complete with notes from the members as they play:
Aside from the impressive restoration, the clip itself should delight Beatles fans with its rough draft of the song. You really get a sense of the camaraderie the band had even in its final days, typically thought of as a gloomy time. “Is that one called, ‘I’ve Got a Feeling?” asks George Harrison cheekily after they’ve sung the title several times. I initially mistook this for a Ringo Starr quip, but the sly remark does in fact come from Harrison (thanks Rolling Stone).
For this docuseries, Jackson sifted through over 50 hours of footage and 140 hours of audio. These resources came from another documentary, 1970’s Let it Be. While that film focused on the toxicity leading up to the band’s breakup in 1970, The Beatles: Get Back will show a lighter side of the final days of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon playing all together.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the film back from its 2020 release date. However, this allowed Jackson to repurpose the film into a docuseries of three 2-hour segments, concluding with the footage of a full 42-minute rooftop concert. The Beatles: Get Back will give the full behind the scenes experience when it premieres on November 25, 26, and 27 on Disney+.
