Disney has announced that a fully restored version of The Beatles 1970 film, Let it Be, is heading to Disney+. It will be arriving on Disney’s streaming service on May 8, 2024.
Let it Be is a British documentary by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It documents the band rehearsing and recording songs in January 1969. This project would eventually become the band’s final studio album, Let it Be. This also includes the legendary rooftop performance of The Beatles. This turned out to be the last public performance of the band.
The original plan for the project was to create a television documentary accompanied by a television concert broadcast. While the film wasn’t focused on the controversy in the group at the time, there are some hints of what was to come. T
he film has not been available since the 1980s. However, Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production brought the same technology to Let it Be that it used for The Beatles: Get Back. In fact, some of the outtakes from Let it Be was used by Jackson for The Beatles: Get Back. He even said that his film was meant to stand next to the original and not supplant it. Now the original film will get to be seen in its own right, and more beautifully than ever thanks to modern technology.
“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,” Jackson said in a statement. “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.”
The technology used to refresh Let it Be makes the film look brighter and more beautiful than ever before, much as Jackson’s previous film did. The team also was able to enhance the audio, giving it the glorious sound that was heard in The Beatles: Get Back as well. All of this was done with the blessing of Lindsay-Hogg.
In a statement, Lindsay-Hogg said, “’Let It Be’ was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970,” he shared. “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 the 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.”
He also shared about how impressive the enhancement was in a New York Times interview. “When Peter first showed me some restored images of the film, one was of a couple of the Beatles from the back, and their hair in the original looked very clumped,” the director said. “Then he said, “Now let me show you what we’ve been working on.” It was the same shot, but you could see the individual strands of hair. The new version is a 21st century version of a 20th century movie. It is certainly brighter and livelier than what ended up on videotape. It looks now like it was intended to look in 1969 or 1970, although at my request, Peter did give it a more filmic look than ‘Get Back,’ which had a slightly more modern and digital look.”
Previous restoration efforts ended up not happening due to one reason or another. A big part came from the lack of interest in the remaining Beatles. Now the magic of technology will allow Beatles fans old and new to see this film in a way that was never dreamed possible decades ago.
Let it Be, the album, was released on May 8, 1970 in the UK and then May 18, 1970 in the United States. Paul McCartney said he was no longer with the group in April 1970. The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, stars John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, with a special appearance by Billy Preston. The film was produced by Neil Aspinall with The Beatles acting as executive producers. The director of photography was Anthony B Richmond.
What do you think of it arriving on Disney-+? Are you excited to see it in its newly refreshed form? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
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