The legend of the martyr is very difficult to destroy. But if you stay alive, you can at least keep up. Above all, you have time. Also means trying. We can come to this conclusion after watching on various platforms the latest and most outstanding documentaries about the Beatles, a phenomenon that continues to fascinate on a universal level even more than fifty years after their breakup.
“We are more famous than Jesus Christ,” John Lennon said one day when he was very upset. He therefore disclosed it in an interview published in March 1966. After being canceled by several television networks and conservative media outlets for the phrase, he made no apologies for it. Nor did he exaggerate too much: given the scale that, decades later, continues to increase the group's importance in the history of popular culture, it may even have fallen short.
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The Beatles' career lasted much longer after their decision to break up. It remains in place in the 21st century and causes discussions where debates actually take place today: on a small scale, in social networks; and on a large scale on audiovisual platforms. Various documentaries can be found in all of them today. But if we analyze three – Get Back, The Beatles, by Peter Jackson, on Disney, McCartney, 3, 2, 1, on Amazon Prime and Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, again on Apple – we can see that if the 20th century comes from John Lennon, the XXI. comes from Paul McCartney.
An image from the documentary “Get Back”.
After the separation in 1970, both were tied. Later, Paul's career, alone or with The Wings, shone brighter than John's with Yoko Ono. But tragedy struck. The murder of Lennon in the doorway of his home, the Dakota Building in New York, by a madman catapulted him to mythical status. His name was Mark David Chapman. And he said he was inspired by “The Catcher in the Rye,” the book by JD Salinger that from then on acquired a different status: that of a cursed and, incidentally, a bestseller. Chapman's trigger shocked the world more than the band's departure. And John Lennon ascended to heaven after a martyr's death to continue to contest the throne for Jesus Christ, already dead and sacrificed by a madman.
In Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, interesting because it provides testimony from direct witnesses for the first time, Chapman's girlfriend asks him a perhaps simple, if very deliberate, question: “But you, did you realize what you did?” A question that went beyond making the murderer realize what a despicable act it is in itself to have taken someone's life. The aggravating factor was that someone multiplied by becoming a divine and canonized creature from an earthly idol. Moreover, not through a secular institution, but through public recognition on a global level. Something that is, in fact, only within the reach of Jesus Christ.
In that respect, things got crazy with Lennon. But his genius and charisma were so enormous that he resisted everything. Even the constant adoration of someone as radically transparent and earthly as the former Beatle. Paul faded into the background. He cowered in his capacity as a companion to someone who, in the midst of the escalation of the Cold War, inspired for many a philosophy of radical break and pacifist encouragement, and gave his life – unwillingly but directly – more for his fame than for his positions.
In the 21st century the landscape has changed and Paul McCartney has learned very well to take advantage of it. Come back. The Beatles, the documentary – or rather the fundamental document – by Peter Jackson shows this. It was the first big bet on the Disney platform in 2020 and a lot becomes clear in 468 minutes. Jackson uses unreleased material from the group's final rehearsal and recording sessions in a transparent, raw manner, we would say, and with a very discreet but masterful montage. Intensive work sessions that resulted in her last two albums: Abbey Road and Let it be.
The images always radiate closeness, intensity, and a radical truth. The gestures and the silent, dark and burdensome presences. The living harmony and creative energy speak for themselves. You accompany the band's final days not as an indiscreet spy, but as part of the family. It invites us to participate in something that was not just an ordinary creative event. If not one of the fundamental moments in the invention of contemporary popular culture.
John Lennon in part of the documentary Lennon: Murder Without a Trial. APPLE TV
Jackson takes us into the heart of that state of imaginative group grace that was nothing but the cornerstone of pop music. Nothing comparable, nothing richer has been produced in this area in the last 50 years. The period of concentration and isolation initiated by them since their album “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967 until those final days, which end with the concert on the roof of Savile Row, the street of tailors in London, is of course a fact of the creative genius fundamental to the art and history of music. They were touched by grace for three years. Absolutely magical.
What the documentary reveals is undoubtedly McCartney's subtle but powerful leadership in that final moment. His determination, his way of leading, encouraging and shaping what came out. His speech, his attitude, his charisma, his assertiveness are incomparable to those of any other band member. Especially with John's attitude, much more passive, but also intense and committed. McCartney still wanted to stay. Lennon left.
If we add to this another gem that can be seen on Disney+, like McCartney, 3, 2, 1, this move leaves no room for doubt. In this case, Rick Rubin is responsible, also a legendary producer from the eighties to today. Creator of countless hits by artists and groups as diverse as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, Shakira, Kaney West, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lana del Rey or the final stage of Jonny Cash and the resurrection of Neil Diamond… This is Um To put it this way: a discreet music star who belongs to the generation after the Beatles, but who is fully aware of what contemporary music owes them: his absolute fatherhood.
In these equally strict, transparent sessions at the mixing desk, McCartney reveals the underground secrets of his black and white songs. The informative height, the fascinating naturalness. This Mozartian lightness for the instinctive construction of art. The mastery of melody, his most astonishing gift, is beautifully reflected in his chapters, which are free from artifice, with a thrilling nakedness and an astonishing simplicity. Another document to understand from today's perspective its fundamental meaning and the fundamental role that Paul himself plays in the history of music.
An image from the series “McCartney 3, 2, 1”.
But it wasn't just these artistic means of expression that shaped the Beatles. They didn't just leave notes and songs. The three documentaries show us that transformative music content can help change the world. In the documentary about Lennon's murder, this also becomes important because of the social phenomenon. In the other two cases, too, the key in the work of Peter Jackson and the work of Rick Rubin lies in music as a means to achieve this.
They tried, committed to an innocence that can also arise from absolute egocentrism. The phenomenon they sparked promoted a revolution and a change in mentalities and customs through art. This can be viewed as a true culture war, rather than what many now lump into this category, where the term hides nothing more than a regressive ideological brawl. The question is whether the Beatles, even though they fought with weapons and baggage, won in the end…
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