The Compleat Beatles

Any documentary on The Beatles which is only 2 hours long is obviously not going to really be "compleat". You could make an 8 hour documentary on their amazing career & it still wouldn't seem like too much.

With that said, this documentary is extremely well done. One of the things I really like about this documentary is that it spends its 2 hours very well. It uses those 2 hours to show the aspects of The Beatles which had long-term effects upon music and culture, such as depicting the evolution of their music from simple pop to more complex album-oriented music to even more experimental music. It also does a great job in painting a picture of how and why the four of them were growing apart - and why their breakup was all but inevitable by the time they reached the end of 1969/beginning of 1970.

The documentary is not perfect. More detail could have been spent on such aspects such as the making of their albums - especially The White Album & Abbey Road. Having seen this documentary several times, it now seems like they only sketch out the details of those albums, especially Abbey Road. But ultimately, this documentary does an extremely good job of showing the important details of The Beatles career in just 2 hours. It also does a good job in showing George Martin's importance in their career.

Final word : Show this documentary to anybody who has medium or even above average knowledge of The Beatles & they will learn a great deal about The Beatles in just 2 hours.

Until the Beatles Anthology was released, this was probably the best Beatles documentary that was out on the market. The materials were good with interview with their first booking agent, their interviews on TV (which is more lengthy and complete than shown on Anthology) and their music which is in stereo like the original Captitol recordings. It goes more into details about their Hamburg days, and how they started out as professional musicians which doesn't disagree with what was said in the Anthology, but is put in a different light because third party sources who knew the Beatles back then are commenting on it. This is a valuable piece of Beatles history, and should not be abandoned just because newer Anthology is available on DVD.

I don't see this video sold any more for some reason, but I wished they'd release it on DVD.

I give this film a 10 because it was (and is) the Beatles story in a 2 hour nutshell. The rights to the film were brought by McCartney prior to the release of the Anthology documentary, presumably to cancel out the obvious rivalry that would occur on the high street! So i'm afraid, unless you have got a copyalready the chances of getting a new DVD of it are extremely remote! The fact that the Beatles didn't have any input into this documentary is a good thing, mainly because 'Anthology' is the Beatles story, according to the Beatles, so heavily censored, this constraint is not present on 'Compleat'. Love the music and when I first watched the film i was knocked out by it!

1995's "The Beatles Anthology" surpassed all previous Beatle documentaries, including this one. But of those past ones, this is the best. The only drawback is that the Beatles don't appear in interviews much. But the music is great, and the information will satiate any beginning Beatle fan.

This documentary, along with "The Beatles Anthology," both offer a history of the band. Both come to their subjects in different ways, and where "Anthology" is somewhat insular, being concerned only with the Beatles and their inner circle's thoughts and experiences, "Compleat" is told from a more detached and disinterested point of view. There are little details here and there that add a bit of a different perspective, such as Allan Williams, the Beatles' first manager, recalling them being described as "that bum group The Beatles" before their first trip to Hamburg, Bill Harry's recollection of John, far from rebelling against Brian Epstein's makeover of the Beatles from leather jackets to suits, going around asking for all the old pictures of them back, "because Brian wouldn't allow that sort of image with his boys," George Martin mentioning that Pete Best was the best-looking of the Beatles, footage of police trying to calm down a frenzied concert crowd that goes a long way toward showing the dark side of all the fan adoration, a detractor from Minneapolis deploring their conduct in that town, notably the "parties" in their hotel rooms (a subject passed over without mention in Anthology), and so on. There are a few sequences that aren't in the Anthology, notably a performance of "If I Needed Someone" in Japan, as well as interviews of George Martin (different from the ones in Anthology) and Billy Preston discussing their work with them. It's a good supplement to Anthology, but it stands up quite well on its own, despite a few factual inaccuracies. And the ending credits sequence, cut to "Blackbird," is bittersweet.