The Beatles: A Long and Winding Road

This is not a 1st person (Beatles themselves) documentary. Rather it's from some of their family, friends, former band mates & band associates. So a lot is a different perspective than other Beatles documentaries. Some info is new. Some we've heard before.

One thing I liked was it is set out Chronologically from birth to school lives to The Quarrymen (predecessor to The Beatles) to The Beatles and a little beyond. It doesn't jump around like a few other docs do.

One thing almost annoying? They use original Beatles-Like music instead of licensing actual Beatles songs. Yes I know cost.

The best part is learning more about the personal side. The school days. The things & trouble they got into in Hamburg outside the clubs or music.

There is definitely some things we have seen and heard before. But as the most documented band what else would you expect? There is enough new or different to keep my interest.

Over the last 20 some years since The Beatles Anthology in the mid 90's, I've consumed every Beatles documentary I could get my hands on, as well as books including biographies of individual members. So when I discovered this series many years after it was produced, I found it to be absolutely fascinating. To a non-Beatle fan, I would be somewhat boring because it is basically a series of interviews... but for anyone who thought they knew everything there was to know about the band, I loved it. I learned a lot of insider details I'd never heard before.

This is a documentary on the Beatles, done completely with interviews from various family members, friends and aquaintances of the bands. The interviews go into excruciating detail, giving you insight into such things as how Stuart Sutcliffe got his first bass guitar and how on the Beatles first record they were named the Beat Brothers because Tony Sheridan didn't like their name. Most of it is pretty boring stuff although you do learn a few genuine tidbits of information amongst the endless blabber of people like Allan Williams. Quite bit of the information is repeated however, and there is far more talk about trivial little things than actual important things like their recordings. Check out the documentary "The Compleat Beatles", a far better (and shorter) history of this remarkable band.