It’s been 54 years since The Beatles’ Let It Be last screened, and Disney+ is now set to introduce the documentary to a new generation of fans. Filmmaker Peter Jackson and his Park Road Post Production team restored the film to its original luster, with Disney+ setting a May 8, 2024 premiere.
“Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970. 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,” says director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
Lindsay-Hogg continued: “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.”
Jackson’s Emmy Award-winning three-part documentary series aired in 2021 and generated renewed interest in the iconic band. Following its debut, Apple Corps asked Jackson and his team to restore Let It Be from its original 16mm negative.
“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,” stated Peter Jackson. “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.”
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr starred in the original film and served as executive producers. Neil Aspinall produced, and Anthony B Richmond was the director of photography.
