Let It Be is a 1970 British documentary film starring the Beatles and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film documents the group's rehearsing and recording songs in January 1969 for what was to become their twelfth and final studio album Let It Be. The film ends with an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last public performance together.
The film was originally planned as a television documentary that would accompany a concert broadcast. When plans for the concert were dropped, the project became a feature film production. Although Let It Be does not dwell on the dissension within the Beatles at the time, it provides some glimpses into the dynamics that would lead to their break-up. After the film's release, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Footage filmed for Let It Be was later restored and re-edited for Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back.
Let It Be had not been officially available on home video since the 1980s, although bootleg copies of the film still circulated. While attempts to release the film on DVD and Blu-ray have not come to fruition, a restored 4K version of the film was made available to stream on Disney+ for the first time on 8 May 2024.
Content The film observes the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) from a "fly on the wall" perspective, without narration, scene titles or interviews with the main subjects. The first portion of the film shows the band rehearsing on a sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios. The songs are works in progress, with discussions among the band members about ways to improve them. McCartney dominates the proceedings while his bandmates show comparatively little interest. Also appearing are Mal Evans, providing the hammer blows on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and Yoko Ono at Lennon's side at all times.
At one point, McCartney seems to criticise Harrison's guitar part on "Two of Us" and a mildly tense conversation takes place between them. McCartney says "I always hear myself annoying you" and tells Harrison that this is not his intention. Harrison responds that McCartney no longer annoys him and that he is content to play what McCartney wishes or to not play at all.
The Beatles individually arrive at Apple headquarters, where they begin the studio recording process with Harrison singing "For You Blue" while Lennon plays lap steel guitar. Starr and Harrison work on the structure for "Octopus's Garden" and then demonstrate it for George Martin. Billy Preston accompanies the band on impromptu renditions of several rock and roll covers, as well as Lennon's improvised jam "Dig It", while Linda Eastman's daughter Heather plays around the studio. Lennon listens in silence while McCartney expresses his concern about the band's inclination to stay confined to the recording studio. The Beatles conclude their studio work with complete performances of "Two of Us", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road".
In the final portion of the film, the Beatles and Preston give an unannounced concert from the studio rooftop. They perform "Get Back", "Don't Let Me Down", "I've Got a Feeling", "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony", intercut with reactions and comments from surprised Londoners gathering on the streets below. The police eventually make their way to the roof and try to bring the show to a close, as it was disrupting businesses' lunch hour nearby. This prompts some ad-libbed lyrical asides from McCartney during the last performance of "Get Back". The concert ends with applause from the people on the rooftop and Lennon quipping, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition!"
Production
Concept After the stressful sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album") wrapped up in October 1968, McCartney concluded that the group needed to return to their roots for their next project. The plan was to give a live performance featuring new songs, broadcast as a television special and recorded for release as an album. Unlike their recent albums, their new material would be designed to work well in concert, without the benefit of overdubs or other recording tricks. Lennon approved of the idea while Harrison, who spent the final months of the year recording in Los Angeles and visiting Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York, agreed that the "new approach" to recording had merit.
Many ideas were floated concerning the location of the concert. Conventional venues such as the Roundhouse in London were discussed, but they also considered more unusual locations such as a disused flour mill and an ocean liner. The location that received the most consideration was a Roman amphitheatre in Sabratha, Libya. None of the ideas gained unanimous enthusiasm and with time limited by Starr's upcoming commitment to the film The Magic Christian (1969), it was agreed to start rehearsals without a firm decision on the concert location.
Denis O'Dell, head of Apple's film division, suggested filming the rehearsals in 16 mm for use as a separate "Beatles at Work" television documentary which would supplement the concert broadcast. To facilitate filming, rehearsals would take place at Twickenham Film Studios in London. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was hired as the director, having previously worked with the Beatles on promotional films for "Paperback Writer", "Rain", "Hey Jude" and "Revolution".
Filming The Beatles assembled at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969, accompanied by the film crew, and began rehearsing. Cameraman Les Parrott recalled: "My brief on the first day was to 'shoot The Beatles.' The sound crew instructions were to roll/record from the moment the first Beatle appeared and to record sound all day until the last one left. We had two cameras and just about did the same thing." The cold and austere conditions at Twickenham, along with nearly constant filming and sessions starting much earlier than the Beatles' preferred schedule, constrained creativity and exacerbated tensions within the group. The sessions were later described by Harrison as "the low of all-time" and by Lennon as "hell ... the most miserable sessions on earth".
The infamous exchange between McCartney and Harrison (in which Harrison resented McCartney instructing him on what to play) occurred on Monday, 6 January. Around lunchtime on Friday, 10 January, tensions came to a head and Harrison told the others that he was leaving the band. This entire episode is omitted from the film. He later recalled: "I thought, 'I'm quite capable of being happy on my own, and if I'm not able to be happy in this situation I'm getting out of here.' So I got my guitar and went home and that afternoon wrote 'Wah-Wah'." Rehearsals and filming continued for a few more sessions; the finished film only used a boogie-woogie piano duet by McCartney and Starr, although it was included in such a way that Harrison's absence was not apparent. Towards the end of the 10 January rehearsal, Lennon raised the idea of drafting in Eric Clapton to play lead guitar if Harrison did not rejoin the band early the following week. Lennon was captured on tape saying, "I think if George doesn't come back by Monday or Tuesday, we ask Eric Clapton to play", adding that this would be congenial to Clapton since the Beatles, unlike Clapton's previous band Cream, "would give him full scope to play his guitar". Years later, Clapton dismissed this idea: "The problem with that was I had bonded or was developing a relationship with George, exclusive of them. I think it fitted a need of his and mine, that he could elevate himself by having this guy that could be like a gunslinger to them. Lennon would use my name every now and then for clout, as if I was the fastest gun. So, I don't think I could have been brought into the whole thing because I was too much a mate of George's."
At a meeting on 15 January, Harrison agreed to return with the conditions that elaborate concert plans be dropped and that work would resume at Apple's new recording studio. At this point, with the concert broadcast idea abandoned, it was decided that the footage being shot would be used to make a feature film. Filming resumed on 21 January at the basement studio inside Apple headquarters on Savile Row in London. Harrison invited keyboardist Billy Preston to the studio to play electric piano and organ. Harrison recalled that when Preston joined them, "straight away there was 100% improvement in the vibe in the room. Having this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we'd created among ourselves." Filming continued each day for the rest of January.
During the sessions, the Beatles played many songs that were not featured in the film. Some would end up on Abbey Road ("I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"); others were destined for future albums by McCartney ("The Back Seat of My Car", "Teddy Boy", "Every Night"), Lennon ("Gimme Some Truth", "Child of Nature" – later reworked as "Jealous Guy") and Harrison ("All Things Must Pass", "Isn't It a Pity"). The group also experimented with some of their previous songs ("Love Me Do", "Help!", "Lady Madonna", "You Can't Do That") and played "I Lost My Little Girl" – which was the first song written by McCartney, when he was 14.
Trying to come up with a conclusion for the film, it was suggested that the band play an unannounced lunchtime concert on the roof of the Apple building. On 30 January, the Beatles and Preston played on the rooftop in the cold wind for 42 minutes, about half of which ended up in the film. The Beatles started with a rehearsal of "Get Back", then played the five songs which are shown in the film. After repeating "I've Got a Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down", takes which were left out of the film, the Beatles are shown in the film closing with another pass at "Get Back" as the police arrive to shut down the show. On 31 January, the last day of filming and recording, the Beatles reconvened in the Apple building's basement studio. They played complete performances of "Two of Us", "The Long and Winding Road" and "Let It Be", which were included in the film as the end of the Apple studio segment, before the closing rooftop segment.
Post-production A rough cut of the movie was screened for the Beatles on 20 July 1969. Lindsay-Hogg recalled that the rough cut was about an hour longer than the released version: "There was much more stuff of John and Yoko, and the other three didn't really think that was appropriate because they wanted to make it a 'nicer' movie. They didn't want to have a lot of the dirty laundry, so a lot of it was cut down." After viewing the released version, Lennon said he felt that "the camera work was set up to show Paul and not to show anybody else" and that "the people that cut it, cut it as 'Paul is God' and we're just lyin' around". He described Let It Be as a film "set up by Paul for Paul" that was typical of the projects that, in alienating himself and Harrison, had brought about the Beatles' break-up.
Lindsay-Hogg omitted any reference to Harrison leaving the sessions and temporarily quitting the group, but managed to keep some of the interpersonal strains in the final cut, including the McCartney–Harrison exchange which he had captured by deliberately placing the cameras where they would not be noticed. He also retained the scene that he described as "the back of Paul's head as he's yammering on and John looks like he's about to die from boredom".