Getting Back to The Feeling
Like many of you, I know, I’ve spent more time than I imagined I would watching the new documentary series by Peter Jackson, The Beatles: Get Back. And I know I’m a little late to the party when it comes to offering my thoughts about it. I don’t want to repeat a lot of what’s already been said, but I do feel compelled to document a few observations.
First, how remarkable is it that so many of us are watching an eight-hour documentary made from film shot fifty years ago, about the making of a band’s last album? And would so many of us spend so much time, watching this kind of work, if it were about anyone else?
It’s interesting that, while we so associate The Beatles with the swinging sixties of London, there is really very little of that on display in the film, and none of the film’s appeal comes from giving us any kind of glimpse into the London scene: it’s just The Beatles, making music. That’s it.
And this leads me to my next observation: the pacing, and editing, and length, and composition of the final film goes completely against everything we have been led to believe we want and expect from modern video experiences — and yet so many of us sit down to watch it. It’s a sort of sleight of hand performed by director Peter Jackson: nothing up his sleeve, you see, none of the filmmaking tricks to which the industry and its audiences have become so addicted. Instead he offers us a radical transparency, a stubborn refusal to impose any of his own craft on our view of the artists who are the subject of his work. He simply lets us see The Beatles as they were, as if to say, well, if that’s not enough for you, then feel free to change the channel. And yet we watch.
Which leads me to my next observation: the incredible generosity on display here. First, the original willingness of The Beatles to let the cameras roll while they work, while they play, while they live their lives in front of us. Of course, we’ve all gotten used to reality TV in the years since, but this is nothing like that: there is no contrived drama, no artificial urgency to come up with something to keep the viewers watching, no desperate need to keep the audience entertained: it feels a bit like home movies from the old days, with ordinary people just being themselves, occasionally showing an awareness of the camera, but without any…
