Until the film debuted on Disney+, Let It Be hadn’t been ‘officially’ released since its theatrical premiere in May 1970. And there are many reasons for that from the band members who took issue with the portrayal of the group dynamics – McCartney didn’t like the out-of-context bossiness, Harrison’s sullen replies, Lennon’s detachment from the creative process.

Understandable, right?

Then, in comes Peter Jackson.

His Get Back docuseries put together the actual narrative from 1969. Was there tension in the air? Sure. Was their schedule crazy? Yes (especially drummer Ringo Starr’s; he was starring in The Magic Christian around the same time). Was communication at an all-time low? Most definitely. 

In the press statement for the revised film, original director Michael Lindsay-Hogg says, “Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until May 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. 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 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.”