Peter Jackson got it back.
The director of “Lord of the Rings” screened 56 hours of previously unseen images of The Beatles who have been rehearsing and riding for the past few months playing together. These moments led to their infamous concert on the roof of the Apple Corps headquarters in Savile Row in January 1969.
Following the 40th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon, Jackson offers fans a “furious preview,” as he called it, of “The Beatles: Get Back.”
The unearthed images were recovered from “Let It Be”, long lost by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a 1970 television documentary that describes the quarrels and tension before the band’s last album and concert, until the warm reception.
It is rumored that band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr blocked the release of the document, complaining that it would star in frontman John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono.
But Jackson’s tranche in the band’s final chapter is expected to be less controversial. The 59-year-old is currently editing in New Zealand.
“This movie had to be finished now,” said Jackson, who was forced to push back production because of COVID-19. He calls the filming “great stuff” and gives fans a montage to get a “sense of spirit” and “the vibration and energy that the film will have.”
Fans are treated to about four minutes of good band recordings.
“And now, your host for tonight, the Bottles,” jokes John Lennon with his long hair in one cut. In another, British colleagues read aloud from a newspaper column about George Harrison facing prison in France. McCartney’s wife, Linda Eastman and daughter Mary, plus Yoko Ono, as well as fashionable sets of groups, producers and directors appear while playing rockstars.
The fast-paced supercut serves as a prelude to the film Jackson once promised in 2021. The official trailers will be released next year. For now, fans will have to experience Jackson’s “montage of moments.”
“We hope he’ll smile on your face in these pretty gloomy times.”