Paul McCartney's Get Back

Paul McCartney for the 90's!

Directed by Richard Lester (of 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help' fame back in the sixties with McCartney's "other" band), Get Back sees McCartney and a band featuring his wife, Linda, and Paul 'Wix' Wickens (who is still on keys for McCartney today, in 2023) crisscrossing the world, on a tour thirteen years in the making.

Wings and Beatles songs make up the bulk of the program (around 90 minutes' of run time) and the obligatory backstage stuff + some Beatles footage inserted during those Lennon-McCartney songs that are performed by an excellent band.

That band - also featuring Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh and Chris Whitten - looks like they're having the time of their lives, and why wouldn't they be, playing THOSE songs with THAT guy. The Abbey Road medley is a heck of a way to close proceedings.

Great stuff.

I missed this tour in 1991. Two years later I saw Paul in St. Louis and the show was fantastic. Several of my friends that saw the first tour said it was good, but when they saw the next tour they felt that the Get Back Tour was just a rehearsal for the one in 1993.

Paul hadn't toured in thirteen years and when you watch the DVD it really shows. I'm really glad that I own this DVD because it feels like a bootleg of a practice gig. There are great moments, but it feels like McCarney is trying too hard to compete with Duran Duran. It must have been a little embarrassing to have 40,000 people show up every night for a practice gig.

As for Richard Lester's directing; shame! It is awful. Remember those terrible 80's videos where they just edited in stock footage of silly things that didn't really go with the music? This is a concert video with that awful gimmick. They even use footage of the Beatles. This video goes on my shelf next to "Give my Regards to Broadstreet". It is a nice reminder that Paul is great… but not perfect.

6.5/10 Get Back is a decent concert film, compare to McCartney 1980 Rockshow concert film, Rockshow is a hell of a show, not only in terms of a performance but the lighting, the choreography, the cinematography, and the quality of the film itself is way more worth it to watch, if a B-Movie concert film was a thing, this is it, from the quality and cinematography and all that stuff not so great but not that horrible too i guess, Get Back shows you just a decent amount of song that decently perform by McCartney during his 1989-1990 World Tour, i still enjoy most of it, not the best and most blastest thing i've ever seen Paul did at least from what they show, it was alright, he sang much better when he sang his newest song from his newest album at the time "Flowers In The Dirt" and i also do wish they show him perform more from that album and that actually one of the problems too is the lack of song choosing for the film whoever decided to pick the song performances is, but overall Paul McCartney's Get Back it's still an above average decent concert film that i still mostly enjoy.

Get Back (1991)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

As a smaller fan, I was really letdown by this film not only in the actual film-making aspect but I also felt the concert itself was really disappointing especially after loving the Back in the U.S. disc. Right from the start it appeared McCartney's voice wasn't in the greatest shape but this here didn't sound too bad. Again, it was just disappointing compared to that 2002 tour. The biggest problem I had with McCartney was the performance itself. I'm not sure how this tour was looked at but this film really leads to a boring performance and it appears through the track that the singer really isn't into the thing.

Band on the Run is a personal favorite of mine and it would seem like a good opener but the lack of energy really set a slow pace for the rest of the show. Another favorite from that 2002 tour was The Long and Winding Road, which was full of wonderful emotion yet here it appears McCartney is simply singing by the numbers and it appears he's tired of singing the thing, which is strange since this was his first tour in thirteen years. Other Beatles favorites like Back in the USSR and I Saw Her Standing There don't fare any better.

The concert (and Paul) picks up a bit of steam with Let it Be and Hey Jude but I think these are two songs that not even a drunk could mess up. Throughout the twenty-one tracks these two were the only once that got me moving in the slightest bit. Outside the rather shaky performance, director Richard Lester really doesn't do anyone any favors by cutting up the concert with some of the dumbest footage I've seen in a concert film. The Beatles footage is certainly nice to see but other stuff like the astronauts on the moon is just pointless and really doesn't add anything to the song. For some strange reason Lester seems to think people want to see clips over McCartney.

I was really looking forward to this film but sadly I was left disappointed at each and every turn. I really loved McCartney in concert but this here really left a bad taste in my mouth. Again, I'm not an expert on The Beatles or their solo tours but this was one of the most disappointing concerts I've seen. Perhaps it was just the timeframe this thing was recorded because even my favorite Bob Dylan was going through a bad period during this time. Get Back will certainly be getting back in its case and won't get another play from me.

This is a very good rock video with solid presentations by Paul McCartney and his band. Footage is off several stops along the way on his big World Tour around 1990.

Paul and his group perform many of the old Beatles songs, along with his solo efforts after the famous band had broken up. The lighting in here was outstanding. I couldn't help wondering how much Paul paid just to put on these concerts. He even added fireworks to one of the numbers!

Like all good performers, McCartney has an excellent band backing him up, particularly a guitarist whose name I don't know but the guy looked like actor James Caan. Paul's wife Linda also was in the band. I didn't see her do much but it's sad to see her now knowing she died at such a young age.

For me, the finale was the best on the tape with the title song "Get Back," along with songs off the "Abbey Road," album, all of which were some of my favorite Beatles tunes.

Earlier in the concert, you see old film clips of the Beatles accompanying some of the songs, and that was nice to see. As with most concert tapes of any length, you'll get a few numbers you can skip but whatever your tastes, you'll get more than enough good rock 'n roll here.