Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison

First off, this should be classified as a MOCKumentary.

This was so terribly awful I'm considering trying to get my money back for the rental. Not only was it pure fiction and laughable at it's very best, but quite disrespectful to all the men that make up the Beatles (whether you love or hate their music)... most of all, it's appallingly distasteful to George Harrison and his family. It's amazing to me the writer/director of this "documentary" hasn't been sued for libel and defamation of character.

The worse part of it all is that it might have been an interesting film if it had just been an assembled history on the conspiracy theory itself, without the so obviously fictional and badly acted George Harrison "tapes" of narration.

If you're going to rent this, don't waste your money or time. Spend NOTHING on it. Matter of fact, they should be paying people to watch it because it's just THAT bad.

Yes, this film is entirely fraudulent. Yes, very little of it makes sense. Yes, it's insulting to the viewers intelligence. All of this is true.

But it's still fun to watch. The writer paints what can only be described as a hilariously creepy alternate history of the Beatles. You can of course write a list ten feet long of all the facts and details the film gets wrong, but that is entirely besides the point.

If you're a Beatles fan and can view this with a sense of humor rather than as a legitimate documentary, you'll surely get a bit of entertainment out of it.

This thing had the serious look and feel of one of the old "Faces of Death" videos, and that took its integrity away right from the start. Unfortunately, "Faces of Death" had a much higher reality factor than this "documentary." Discard any notion that the alleged Harrison tapes have any reasonable provenance. 1) The voice is obviously not Harrison's. 2) The story told is far too detailed. If Harrison was attempting to lay out the conspiracy, it is doubtful he would explain what everyone already knew. More likely, he would say, "Remember all those clues about Paul? Well, they were all intentional and here's why." 3) The quality of the tapes is far too good to have been recorded on a micro-cassette recorder. 4) Harrison would have certainly remembered that he worked on "Rubber Soul" before the alleged McCartney death.

The intention is clearly to use a fictional framework to propound a theory of government involvement with the Paul McCartney death hoax. A better way to go about it would have been the time-honored documentary tradition of actually talking to people. Certainly, you could drum up at least a handful of interviewable people who would relish the notion of damning Her Majesty's government. Even supermarket tabloids can get independent verification of obvious lies.

So, as a documentary, this one fails. As an informative piece about the McCartney death rumors, it provides no information that has not been seen or heard elsewhere. I saw nothing here that was new to me, but, then again, I've followed this rumor since 1970.

If you are new to the McCartney rumors, this would be a good place for basic information. Books on the subject are plentiful, and the Internet (really) is a good source of information.

In a way, it's a shame to treat this subject in such a slipshod fashion. The McCartney death hoax is a powerful sociological issue. Personally, I believe that the Beatles set out to create the rumor, and toyed with us for several years with clues. I do not buy the MI5 angle whatsoever. I do, however, subscribe to the theory that the co-opting of the Beatles' lyrics by Charles Manson had a chilling effect on what might have been the eventual revelation of the hoax as real and not necessarily ill-intentioned.

Firstly, parts of this film contain quite offensive suggestions about The Beatles. However, these can be defended as part of the overall tone of the film and it invites you not take them seriously.

This is clearly meant to be a joke, and it is a very funny one if you are watching the film correctly. The film showcases genuine conspiracy "evidence" at its core, but alters the story about The Beatles to make this evidence fit. What you are left with is how the Faul conspiracy theorists must then see the last four years of the band, and it is a laughable view.

I found myself laughing out loud at the jumps in logic, especially the vicious attacks aimed at Paul after '66 (and poor Ringo as usual) - especially his use of drugs as if he was the only one who ever did any. I won't give any specifics but you will be shocked at the blatant disregard for facts, and that is exactly what the film is trying to get you to do.

I can't award it any higher than 8 because it's not technically that well made. I don't think the tape idea was very good because rather than use excerpts with narration they have George basically narrating the whole thing as if he could see the film in his head when he recorded it. Saying that, it does add to the ridiculous nature of the film because the accent is AMAZINGLY BAD. I found myself laughing at the way the narrator said certain words and it must have been done badly on purpose. One of my personal highlights is the way he says Frank Sinatra. It also jumps from vague Liverpudlian, to cockney all the way to South African.

In summary: You shouldn't watch this if you believe any of the conspiracy nonsense, you should watch it if you find yourself seeking out conspiracy theories in order to make yourself laugh. That's the audience for this thing and in my view it does it well.

The only defense of this film I've read is that it's intended as a hoax or a mockumentary, but even that doesn't excuse the horrendous acting and completely lack of any attempt to fit within its own premise (that we are listening to some kind of confessional microcassette recorded by George Harrison in a hospital bed after his attack). In actuality, this audio is a precisely scripted, studio-recorded narration of a completely horrendous impression by a person who struggles to even maintain a plausible Liverpool accent and is obviously not even British. None of these choices help enhance any "comedy" that might be there, it's just bad filmmaking.

I'm not sure if this movie is going for hoax or joke, but it fails on both accounts. Forget any hope that there's an interesting contribution to the conspiracy theories around Paul McCartney's supposed death, there's not even any humor to be found. It's just a dumb, pointless film that you'd have to be profoundly retarded to fall for.