The Compleat Beatles

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.

Anyone who has an even passing interest of one of the greatest rock bands ever MUST get a hold of a copy of this video.

Everything you could ever want to know about John, Paul, George and Ringo is included, with even a little information about their formative years. All the music is chronicled and plenty of behind-the-scenes glimpses of the Beatles' collective genius give the most discriminating fan plenty to nod their moptops about.

Even if you think you have all stuff on the Beatles, this should "Compleat" your collection.

10 stars. And you know that can't be bad.

I give this film a 10 because it was (and is) the Beatles story in a 2 hour nutshell. The rights to the film were brought by McCartney prior to the release of the Anthology documentary, presumably to cancel out the obvious rivalry that would occur on the high street! So i'm afraid, unless you have got a copyalready the chances of getting a new DVD of it are extremely remote! The fact that the Beatles didn't have any input into this documentary is a good thing, mainly because 'Anthology' is the Beatles story, according to the Beatles, so heavily censored, this constraint is not present on 'Compleat'. Love the music and when I first watched the film i was knocked out by it!

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.

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.