If you’re a fan of The Beatles, then you’re going to love The Beatles: Get Back, but even if you’re not that interested in their music, the over 7-hour documentary series from Peter Jackson is a fascinating look at how the band functioned together. Through fights and egos and four men just trying to get their music out into the world, The Beatles: Get Back is captivating to watch.

**Spoilers for the history of The Beatles and new information from The Beatles: Get Back lie within.**

There is one point in the second episode where there are words onscreen saying that, after a fight, only one of the members of the band showed up to rehearsal, and while I was waiting for him to appear, I just kept thinking, “It’s going to be Ringo,” and was delighted when I was right because Ringo Starr is honestly the best part of this series. He’s talking with George Harrison about a sci-fi thing the two were watching, and he is just hanging out and then will go to the drums and knock it out of the park.

I will say I also had a moment of “Oh no, I forgot about how hot Paul McCartney was,” and I am not exactly mad about it. But the series is clearly leading towards the band dropping the beauty known as Let It Be to the world, and while we have the luxury of hindsight, it is fascinating to see how they fought to get the album out.

The music

One thing about The Beatles that many know is that the band broke up, and many blamed Yoko Ono for the breakup. In the documentary, Yoko Ono is there throughout almost every scene with John Lennon, and at one point, even Paul McCartney says that if it came down to the band or Yoko, Lennon would pick Ono. But there have been interviews where McCartney puts that blame on John Lennon, not Yoko Ono.

But in the documentary, we get to see the fractures happening in the band. Ringo Starr had already tried to leave once before, George Harrison is clearly not happy, John Lennon shows up late and doesn’t seem to care, and Paul McCartney is just trying to work through it all and still gives writing credit to Lennon in his songs, even though they aren’t writing together.

What I love so much about The Beatles: Get Back is that we get to see how they crafted the songs we know and love. Harrison walks in one day and says he has a song he wrote the night before, and it is “I Me Mine,” prior to the well-known chorus being mixed in. Getting to see the creation of these songs, the beauty and love for music that the band shared, is wonderful even if we know that their collaboration is short-lived.

The film is set during the beginning of 1969, and by September, the band was done. So, getting to see this last session together—the band all enjoying working and jamming, even if they were at their end—is beautiful and is well worth watching all 7+ hours to experience the magic of The Beatles.

(featured image: Disney)

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