Peter JacksonB次元官网网址檚 runs for nearly eight hours and the only real criticism you can make is that it doesnB次元官网网址檛 last longer. For dabblers and other newcomers, itB次元官网网址檚 a prime introduction.

For the Beatles fanatic, and we are a vast and obsessive community, every moment offers some kind of revelation or random pleasure, along with glimpses of what was to come and what might have been.

A few notes from one fanatic:

A MOMENTB次元官网网址橲 NOTICE

B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� closely follows the band in January 1969 as it hurries to record an album and plan a concert for an intended television special, what became the 1970 album and documentary B次元官网网址淟et it Be.B次元官网网址� ItB次元官网网址檚 the most in-depth look weB次元官网网址檝e ever had of the Beatles at a given moment, but should not be mistaken for more than a given moment. The Beatles were in transition in January 1969 as they had been all along. A documentary set six months earlier or six months later likely would have told a very different story. A documentary set two years earlier might have seemed like distant history. A documentary set two years later, when they were no longer together, would have been a retrospective.

THE YOKO FACTOR

JacksonB次元官网网址檚 film sets a far brighter mood than B次元官网网址淟et it Be,B次元官网网址� which for the Beatles and the public alike has served as a grim finale. But the Beatles were undeniably in the early stages of breaking up. Their founder, John Lennon, had left his wife for Yoko Ono midway in 1968 and was openly losing interest in the group (Did Yoko, who sits silently through much of the recording sessions, break up the Beatles? Directly, no. But indirectly, yes. Beyond their talent, the magic of the Beatles was in their chemistry, in their total commitment to the music and to each other, a rich and intricate balance fatally upended once JohnB次元官网网址檚 passions turned elsewhere.)

MCCARTNEYB次元官网网址橲 TIME

For partisans who like to choose between Lennon and Paul McCartney, this is a prime argument for McCartney, the maturing of B次元官网网址淭he Cute BeatleB次元官网网址� and a master craftsmanB次元官网网址檚 surrender to deeper, even unwanted feelings. Shaken he may lose the band, and the songwriting partner, he loved above all else, McCartney responded with the bittersweet 1968 epic B次元官网网址淗ey JudeB次元官网网址� and with the somber B次元官网网址淟et it Be,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淭he Long and Winding RoadB次元官网网址� and other works he brought to the January sessions. While Lennon turns up with little new material, McCartney is so inspired he conjures the riff and title for B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� in a matter of seconds. A song which he sketched out on film and ended up on the B次元官网网址淎bbey RoadB次元官网网址� album may have best defined his thinking: B次元官网网址淐arry That Weight.B次元官网网址�

GRUMPY GEORGE

If George (B次元官网网址淭he Quiet BeatleB次元官网网址�) seems uncommonly grumpy at times, it isnB次元官网网址檛 just out of frustration with getting his songs accepted, or with PaulB次元官网网址檚 controlling manner. He had spent part of 1968 with Bob Dylan and the Band in Woodstock, New York, thriving on the kind of easy camaraderie that George rarely finds any more with the Beatles. He will summon it during B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� when he steps in to help Ringo Starr write B次元官网网址淥ctopusB次元官网网址檚 Garden,B次元官网网址� adding guitar parts and suggesting lyrics in a casual and understated manner, as if just one of countless favors exchanged over the years.

OUT OF THE PAST

Time is the filmB次元官网网址檚 unspoken theme. The Beatles were all 28 and under, but they seem unrecognizable from the fresh, cheerful B次元官网网址淢op TopsB次元官网网址� of five years earlier. The whole project was a self-conscious effort to B次元官网网址済et back,B次元官网网址� and free themselves from their own legend. They chase an unreachable past, telling war stories, jamming on oldies such as B次元官网网址淪hake, Rattle and RollB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淩ip it Up.B次元官网网址� They resurrect an early, obscure Lennon-McCartney song, B次元官网网址淥ne After 909,B次元官网网址� and shout out an old Liverpool folk number, B次元官网网址淢aggie Mae.B次元官网网址� (Not to be confused with the Rod Stewart hit). But they are still B次元官网网址淭he Beatles.B次元官网网址� JohnB次元官网网址檚 wry closing words as they finished their fabled rooftop concert: B次元官网网址淚 hope weB次元官网网址檝e passed the audition.B次元官网网址�

INTO THE FUTURE

Part of the tension in watching B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� is knowing what will come next.

B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� was filmed soon after John had met the notorious music manager, Allen Klein, whose other clients included the Rolling Stones. The Beatles have been leaderless since Brian Epstein died suddenly in 1967, and Lennon is smitten with the profane (and unscrupulous) American, heartened that he seems to know his music better than Lennon himself does. By the spring of 1969, Klein will have signed up the Beatles, over McCartneyB次元官网网址檚 well-founded objections, and help turn what might have been an amicable parting into a legal and verbal war that will blow the band apart in 1970. Watching Lennon rhapsodize over Klein, even as recording engineer Glyn Johns warns him that he found Klein to be strange and self-involved, is like watching a horror movie in which the hero prepares to open a creaky door. B次元官网网址淒onB次元官网网址檛 do it, John!B次元官网网址�

The presence of keyboardist Billy Preston, who joins the Beatles on B次元官网网址淕et BackB次元官网网址� and other songs, and a conversation in the Abbey Road studio between John and George suggest another path. George wonders if he shouldnB次元官网网址檛 release a solo record, and John, who already has made an album of experimental music with Yoko, sounds supportive. Neither suggest that the Beatles themselves should stop. For those who wanted the Beatles to stay together forever B次元官网网址� or on the far side of ever B次元官网网址� this may have been the way, with the Beatles no longer an all-consuming unit of four, but an open-ended community for group and side projects, joined by wives and friends and session players.

IN THE END

One of the filmB次元官网网址檚 final scenes finds the Beatles crowded together in the control room at Abbey Road, listening to their new music. TheyB次元官网网址檙e not alone. Yoko is there, but so is RingoB次元官网网址檚 first wife, Maureen, head shaking happily in time to the beat, and Linda Eastman, two months away from marrying McCartney and joined by her young daughter from a previous relationship, Heather, whom McCartney banters and plays with as if he had been raising her all along. The Beatles and their lovers smile and laugh and clasp hands. ItB次元官网网址檚 a moment of joy before darker times, our heroes caught up in the music B次元官网网址� a force stronger than all their differences, as it remains so now.

B次元官网网址� Hillel Italie, The Associated Press