Peter Jackson to release restored version of Beatles’ 1970 documentary Let It Be on Disney+
After decades out of circulation, the Beatles’ 1970 documentary Let It Be has been restored by Peter Jackson’s production company.
Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Let It Be captures the recording sessions of the band’s final album of the same title. It was originally released mere weeks after the Beatles officially announced their split. None of the members of the band attended its premiere in 1970.
The documentary has since become remembered as a little-seen curio chronicling the group’s demise, with scenes of internal strife and bickering alongside the frenzy of their month-long recording process.
Let It Be also served as the starting point for Jackson’s 2021 miniseries The Beatles: Get Back, an eight-hour epic pieced together from nearly 60 hours of behind-the-scenes footage initially shot for Lindsay-Hogg’s film.
Jackson’s version of Let It Be employs the same technology used in Get Back to restore the vintage footage, Variety reports.
Let It Be has not been available in any official form since the early 80s, though low-quality bootleg versions copied from earlier VHS and laserdisc releases have circulated among fans over the years.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that … Let it Be has been restored and is finally being rereleased after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’ve always thought that Let It Be is needed to complete the Get Back story.”
Jackson said that he considers the two projects as “one epic story”.
“Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made Get Back,” he continued. “It’s only right that his original movie has the last word … looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”
In an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Lindsay-Hogg said that Jackson was “the catalyst” of Let It Be’s rerelease, advocating for the project with the Beatles’ company Apple Corps.
In the same interview, Lindsay-Hogg said he had no preconception