I'm not the Beatles' biggest fan, but I want to see this doc

[herr_oberst]

Now, I just need to figure out how to watch it without getting Disney. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[Zeke]

I've see the rooftop session and it was fantastic. The rest is new according to the trailer.

[ramonesfreak]

i’ll be signing up again for disney, watching it, and then cancelling it…again. did that for the mandalorian which i soon realiazed i could easily live without

did the same thing with Hulu for that beatles ron howard did

[GH85Carrera]

Yep, I have signed up for a streaming service, watched the series I wanted, then canceled, in less than 30 days.

The only downside is they will have your email address, and send email every so often asking for you to come back.

[ramonesfreak]

for what its worth, neither Hulu or Disney have ever emailed me and its been well over a year - unless it went to my spam folder and i didnt see it

[Eric Hahl]

10 day free trial, cancel?

[GG Allin]

Not a Beatles fan either by any stretch. I'm more of an English 70's Classic Rock fan. The Beatles pretty much didn't exist in the 70's.

But... this bit of film was absolutely fascinating. The history, the quality. They could release the whole 50+ hours and I'd watch it. It's pretty interesting to see songs you've heard your whole life conjured out of thin air then produced in to their final form. Also interesting how young these guys were at the time. They all seemed to be getting along just fine also. (George had a bug up his ass) Odd they were broken up for good not long after.

Oh, and Yoko. Couldn't just give her a credit card and send her shopping I guess.

No sign of Phil Spector, unless i just missed him.

[stomachmonkey]

Based on the first 6 hours I've watched so far they could easily have left 20-30% on the cutting room floor and had just as good if not a better product.

It gets a bit tedious in spots.

It is fascinating how stuff just flowed from Paul and John (when he was in the mood) and it's clear that despite their individual brilliance they were better together than separate.

Paul is great at schmaltz and it's John's cynicism that provides the balance.

[ramonesfreak]

im a massive fan. I have been waiting a long time for this film.

I must admit, I am struggling with it for a lot of reasons

I only finished the first episode and I am not even sure ill finish the rest of it which is odd since i have been watching the Anthology dvd box set on a monthly basis for 20 years now

I guess ill keep my negative thoughts to myself until I can finish this, if ever

[ckissick]

It's definitely a little slow, but I'm enjoying seeing their song writing process.

[red 928]

[red 928]

[biosurfer1]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this was too long and tedious.

If it was cut down 2 or so hours it would have been a lot better. I loved seeing the creative process but along with that was a ton of filler that had nothing to do with the "Beatles" and was just watching random moments in people's lives no one care about if it was one of the four.

Always annoying when a 2.5-3 star documentary had all the components of a 4 star but missed the dunk.

[monoflo]

Kinda long --unless one is a complete Beatle Fan.

[Superman]

It starts out slow and it seems tedious, but then you can see the development of the relationships and the music. At first, they are really struggling. Lots of tension. Nothing is working. The project gets a very obvious shot in the arm when Billy Preston shows up. Relationships start to heal. At times, they are light silly children singing nonsense lyrics but in reality they are in fact honing the material. It all comes together on a rooftop where they are clearly having fun.

At one point, McCartney is waiting for others to show up, playing chords on his bass, sort of in a trance, just putting his brain on standby and letting the music sort of write itself. In fairly short order, he had written Get Back.

At another point, John and others are looking at drawings of a concert that will never happen and ignoring Paul as he sits at the piano and writes one of pop music's most iconic anthems, Let It Be.

Then…here is Ringo and others reading newspapers and ignoring Paul as he sits at the piano and writes The Long And Winding Road.

I have aways been a HUGE Beatle fan. Always will be. Some folks don't care for their music, and I think personal preferences are just that....personal. Nothing wrong with that. But apparently they are sometimes a little out of step with overwhelming popular opinion. When someone asks what is the greatest band of all time, the question just assumes we are asking which band besides the Beatles. There is no question what was the greatest popular music band. Anyone doubting...would just need to look at the numbers. Do the math.

One more thing:

The Beatles released at least 16 albums in North America over a period of a bit more than seven years. About 90 months. While touring and then raising families and dealing with a degree of popularity that was schedule-crushing, they pumped out a new album chock full of top ten songs every 5.6 months, on average. Five of them in 1964 alone. This means that in the category of Songwriting Horsepower, they win by a mile in all three categories: Quality, Quantity and Velocity.

[Chocaholic]

Didn’t realize it was out yet. The band/music of my youth. Will watch ASAP! Probably twice.

[Superman]

It is an interesting window into that moment in Beatles music-making. Be prepared for a slow, messy, disjointed, clumbsy start, improving gradually in fits and starts until they stand on the rooftop having fun as the band we know they were.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this was too long and tedious.

I'm a lifelong Beatles fan, and I've only seen part one, but I also thought it was too long. I get the whole thing about seeing how those iconic songs came into being, but I felt that could've been covered just as well in a more tightly-edited format. Lots of footage devoted to the guys just talking and messing around. And yes, I also get the "fly-on-the-wall" aspect of being in the presence of greatness. But at some point, I found myself checking how much more time was left 'till it ended.

As a counter point, every review and on-line comment I've seen about this film was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone thought it was absolutely brilliant. Maybe the rest of it moves along at a better pace...we'll see.

Originally Posted by GG Allin

Oh, and Yoko. Couldn't just give her a credit card and send her shopping I guess.

I found Yoko's constant presence, like a wart on John's ass, to be somewhat annoying. I'll bet the others grew tired of having her around all the time too. I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking of Yoko as just some no-talent bimbo who somehow managed to burrow deep into John's very soul and actually become part of who he was. I have to say that my perception of John as a person was somewhat diminished when I started seeing just how dependent upon her he had become.

[red 928]

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by rcooled

I'm a lifelong Beatles fan, and I've only seen part one, but I also thought it was too long. I get the whole thing about seeing how those iconic songs came into being, but I felt that could've been covered just as well in a more tightly-edited format. Lots of footage devoted to the guys just talking and messing around. And yes, I also get the "fly-on-the-wall" aspect of being in the presence of greatness. But at some point, I found myself checking how much more time was left 'till it ended.

As a counter point, every review and on-line comment I've seen about this film was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone thought it was absolutely brilliant. Maybe the rest of it moves along at a better pace...we'll see.



I found Yoko's constant presence, like a wart on John's ass, to be somewhat annoying. I'll bet the others grew tired of having her around all the time too. I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking of Yoko as just some no-talent bimbo who somehow managed to burrow deep into John's very soul and actually become part of who he was. I have to say that my perception of John as a person was somewhat diminished when I started seeing just how dependent upon her he had become.

Watched episode one last night also and agree with (almost) all of what you wrote. Yoko’s presence wasn’t bothersome to me as it’s simply history. I was surprised by Paul’s apparent dominance in creating the music and directing its evolution. At least in the film, John’s role wasn’t nearly as important, but you never really saw who wrote the lyrics, etc.

And George was a much stronger personality and influence than I realized. Three truly amazing talents. And Ringo. Never got that one. A mediocre drummer at best with minimal contribution to the magic...at least in this project. Looking forward to the next segment.