The Beatles Anthology

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.

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.

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.

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.

For a Beatle fan (like me) this 10 hour documentary was both thrilling and just a little disappointing.

Thrilling because all the music has been re-mixed, re-mastered and sounds great, because there are lots of details that, even as I fan, I didn't know, because there's more insight than offered elsewhere into their breakup, and more important, into what held them together.

A good job is done of combining new interviews with the then 3 living Beatles, and recorded interviews with John from many sources, so his views and insights aren't missing.

The last couple of hours go deeper than I suspected, and were quite moving.

On the disappointment side there are a few issues. First, at least for me, much of the first half got repetitive. Not much new insight into the birth or meaning of Beatlemania, just lots (and lots and lots) of concert and TV footage, often of them playing the same songs, sometimes obviously just lip-syncing to records.

Also, their personal lives are left out entirely. I understand not focusing on relationships, etc, but there's virtually no mention of wives, divorces, affairs, children, or how any of that intersected with their music and work.

Last, I was sorry it didn't go deeper into the creation of the music itself. While there are lot of great tidbits from the group and George Martin about specific songs, considering there was 10 hours of program, I didn't get enough of how they worked, how they wrote, how they influenced each other. Nor do we get much of their personal views of the world, politics, etc. And somehow the sense of how much their brief 7 years meant to music and to world culture seems missing, or at least not really explored.

Yet, whatever was missing, I tore through the 10 hours in 2 nights, and would have happily seen more.