Following on the heels of a social media tease yesterday, Disney+ announced today that they will be streaming Let It Be, filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 film about The Beatles, beginning on May 8. This marks the first official release for the film since 1981, and will presumably be the highest quality transfer that has ever existed, since the bootlegs circulating for the last 40 years have been sourced primarily from an officially-released VHS tape, with limited resolution, mono sound, and a “fullscreen” presentation that’s not exactly the ideal experience for a movie with so much pop culture significance.
First released in May 1970 amidst the swirl of The Beatles’ breakup, Let It Be has been a controversial work among fans and even members of the band, with reports that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr prevented a DVD release about 15 years ago. The footage captured by Lindsay-Hogg served as the base for Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, which was released in 2021 on Disney+ and recently came to Blu-ray.
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While Let It Be has been a relative rarity over the years — the 1981 VHS release can go for as much as $100 on eBay — it isn’t lost media. In addition to the VHS release, Let It Be was released to RCA’s CED (capacitance electronic disc) video disc format in 1981. With tapes and CEDs on the market, and a rabid worldwide base of Beatles fans, bootlegs of the movie have never been too hard to come by (although, as we suggested before, quality was low). Its existence as a Beatles rarity likely made it even more of a fascination over the years — as did the unfortunate timing of the original release.
“Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970,” Lindsay-Hogg explained in a statement. “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.”
While Get Back features hours of Lindsay-Hogg’s footage not used in Let It Be, the original movie also contains footage not featured in the Jackson docuseries, bringing viewers into the studio and onto Apple Corps’ London rooftop in January 1969 as The Beatles, joined by Billy Preston, write and record Let It Be, and perform live for the final time as a group.
Unsurprisingly, long-simmering fan demand for a reissue of Let It Be boiled over following the relase of The Beatles: Get Back. After getting the blessing from Lindsay Hogg, Disney says Apple Corps asked Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production to dive into a meticulous restoration of the film from the original 16mm negative, which included remastering the sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was used on Get Back.
“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,” said 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.”
The news comes not long after reports that James Bond veteran Sam Mendes will direct a quartet of biopics based on the lives of each of the four Beatles.
Let It Be, 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.
Let It Be will debut exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024.
