The Compleat Beatles

This was the film that introduced me to the Beatles. I was 14 at the time, and my girlfriend showed it to me, and at the time I thought the Beatles were just some mop top 60's cheese act. I had never heard Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper, or the White Album. I never knew they had strayed from the no collar suits and love songs. So when I first saw this film it really changed my perspective of the band. Within a year I went from not owning a single album to owning all of them.

This film is a rushed short version of the Beatles History. It captures all of their history in 2 hours. The hardcore Beatles fan would be more interested in the Anthology films, as well as the brilliant Anthology albums. This film takes on the difficult task of cramming the Beatles into 2 hours, and doesn't do too bad. It is wonderfully edited, in fact I think one of the greatest visuals of the Beatles I have is the end credits of this film. It is a montage of various Beatles performances and footage set to the beautiful Paul McCartney song Blackbird.

In closing, just as you are shown "The Young Persons Guide To The Symphony" in your first college music appreciation course, so should every prospective Beatles fan be shown "The Compleat Beatles". It is a brilliant band with a brilliant career shoved into a quick survey.

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.

The Compleat Beatles is absolutely one of the best documentaries I have ever seen on any subject. Everything is done perfectly from the content and pace to the combination of music and visuals, and the writing and narration are outstanding. I can think of only two complaints: One, the quality of some of the post-Beatles interview footage looks exceptionally dated, and two, it's not (yet?) available in DVD. Unlike the Beatles Anthology this work lacks interviews with the Beatles themselves, other than newsreel footage and the like, but rather than a negative this adds to the impact of the film and to the mystique of the Beatles. While Anthology may be more filling with its abundance of information and first-hand stories, this is a much sweeter treat.

If you haven't got enough dough to afford the gigantic Anthology box set ,this is the DVD to buy .This documentary is so absorbing it can even grab people who are not particularly interested in the group.It covers the whole story till the split and includes much footage of the time ,live performances or studio work .Particularly of great appeal are George Martin's numerous interventions which shed light on the recordings more than Lewisohn's or McDonald's books will ever do ,in spite of their brilliancy."The compleat Beatles " really lives up to its name .It was the first documentary about my favorite group I had seen and I still rank it among the best in a topflight competition.

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.