Why the Beatles' 'Get Back' May Go Down as the Most Essential Rock Doc

"A moment of silence, please, for “This Is Spinal Tap,” as that satire formally abdicates its title as the best and truest movie ever made about what it’s like to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band. There was something wonderful, silly and sad about how, up until now, musicians had to look to the fabricated saga of an unabashedly terrible group to be able to say, “Yes, this is our story.” Heaven knows there’ve been other fictional tales that tried to pull off that same kind of Everyband story while treating rock with a modicum of dignity, too — some with a bit of success (“That Thing You Do!”), others not so much so (David Chase’s “Not Fade Away”). And we’ve seen our share of rock documentaries that brilliantly captured an artist at a singular moment in time, and/or looked to unwrap a riddle wrapped in an enigma (see the entire Bob Dylan filmography). But a film project that lets us look in, at leisurely length, on the creative process as well as personalities of genius-superstars who really are Just Like Us? In 60 years’ worth of pop music movies, that’s something we’ve never really gotten.

Until now. Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” is the only mega-movie you’d really need to show to an alien wanting to understand the creativity and psychology of the rock ‘n’ roll that’d been coming through on radio waves across dimensions. Of course, you’d have to tell them, “Park your saucer — it’s going to be a while.” J

Too bad the title “Scenes From a Marriage” was taken, because that would’ve been a fitting name for “Get Back,” too. OK, it would have been a terrible title, but you catch the drift. To say “Get Back” is a great, maybe the greatest, movie or series about rock ‘n’ roll  is accurate, but slightly reductive. What it might really be about is the art of negotiation … which means that it’s also kind of about what it takes to survive in marriage, family and business, on top of music, film or theater. You don’t have to have been in a band to relate to the dynamics that make “Get Back” fascinating, though it doesn’t hurt. You just have to have had a spouse, sibling, boss or employee that you played mental chess with, to try to get to a place where everybody wins. Really, you just need to have had a best friend."

more in the review by Chris Willman

Why the Beatles' 'Get Back' May Go Down as the Most Essential Rock Doc - Variety