The Beatles Anthology

The last episode was so heartbreaking. When 'The End' started playing, I couldn't stop crying. It is the best documentary I've ever seen.

Someone had to make this mini-series, and who would be better than the Beatles themselves ? For instance, who could tell with more believability that George didn't like the album Sgt. Pepper that much than George himself ? In this sense this anthology is very important, because all the information comes directly from the Beatles themselves. This DVD set contains additional comments by Niel Aspenall, and George Martin that's never been seen elsewhere which reveals the back stories about the production of Beatles' music, their earlier days on the road etc. Watch this anthology with video "The Compleat Beatles", "Making of A Hard Days Night" and "The making of Sgt. Pepper" (broadcasted, but unreleased in video) you should get pretty much the whole picture of the Beatles.

If I had one complaint about this DVD set, it's that the music is recorded so much louder than the voice track, and is difficult to find the right volume level to listen to. But of all the Beatles documentary videos that are out there, this one still is the best.

This is a staggering, fantastic eight-part documentary on the history of the Beatles as a group and as individuals, an oral history by them and those closest to them, including George Martin and Neil Aspinall, their tour director.

Besides the Beatles music showcased so beautifully throughout the anthology, probably the best thing is the filmed discussions of Paul, George, and Ringo sitting around a kitchen table discussing their shared past. For me, the other remarkable thing is how they, in fact, seemed to have invented the music video without realizing it.

The anthology goes into quite a bit of detail not only about how the guys grew up, got interested in music, got together, and got started but also a lot about what it was like to be "The Beatles" and how they collaborated. Their story is remarkable because, unlike a lot of other groups, they were always together -- not only making music but on vacations, in India, making movies, and in hotel rooms. They were kids together. And when they grew up, the band ended.

There's not much else to say because if you're a Beatles fan, a baby boomer, whatever you are, you have to see this and experience it in all its brilliance. The end, with "Free as a Bird," is heartwrenching.

This anthology is exciting, funny, bittersweet, sad, entertaining, and thought-provoking. What can I say? It's the Beatles.

The Beatles were the center of the Pop Music universe for the eight years they were actively recording, an anchor from which all other 60's music radiates. If you are interested in how the best 14 albums ever made came to be, you have to see the whole thing.

The story is told in the words of the Beatles themselves, and a couple others like George Martin and Neil Aspinall (their chief roadie). Along with footage from concerts and their movies, it's several interviews editted together, but you never hear the interviewers, you only hear Paul or George or Ringo or John's response to the question, and it comes together into a seamless history of the greatest band Rock and Roll ever knew.

In the Beatles Anthology, the three still living Beatles at the time and other insiders review the mythic story of the Beatles in their own point of view.

Including every Beatle event imaginable like Shea Stadium or the Ed Sullivan show, George, Paul, and Ringo comment- along with John's comments from interviews before he died. It also includes interesting insight on many of the songs written- especially on the Sgt. Pepper songs, "Penny Lane", and "Strawberry Fields Forever"

Now, when on Monday it will have been three years since George passed, and nearly twenty-four since John's assassination, this documentary is an amazing way to remember the boys and everything they did and impacted the world with.

It also includes two unreleased songs, "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love", songs John wrote and the others collaborated on.

This documentary is the best to remember the Beatles by.