Film

Let It Be

Name: Let It Be
Genre: Documentary, Music
Released: 1970
Cast: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston

Backstage musical

The Beatles in their unvarnished final days: eighty minutes of them working, arguing, joking, and making music in a freezing studio. There's no narrative arc, no interviews, just the band at work. It's fascinating and occasionally uncomfortable to watch a masterpiece being built by people who are quietly falling apart.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want to watch four musicians argue, joke and tinker their way toward a song, catching the raw working process rather than a polished concert, and you enjoy the quiet intimacy of seeing creativity happen in an unglamorous studio.

Skip it if you want a tidy, feel-good music film; the mood is often flat and fragmented, with long stretches of half-finished takes and bickering that can feel more like waiting around than watching a story unfold.

What it asks of you: Roughly eighty minutes of loose, unhurried footage with no narration, so you need patience for meandering rehearsals and the willingness to read the room rather than be led through it.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Bob Dylan – Don't Look Back1967

D.A. Pennebaker's documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 UK tour has the same fly-on-the-wall intimacy and backstage candor. It's the template that *Let It Be* follows, and it's electric—Dylan at peak mystique, completely unfiltered.

But It's in black and white, often murky. The sound mix is occasionally poor. You need to already care about Dylan to sustain interest.

The Last Waltz1978

Martin Scorsese films The Band's farewell concert. Like *Let It Be*, it captures a legendary group at an ending, but Scorsese adds narrative shape and interviews that reframe what we're seeing. It's elegiac and brilliantly constructed.

But It's more a concert film than rehearsal documentary. If you want chaos and process, you won't get it here.

Gimme Shelter1970

The Maysles brothers capture the Rolling Stones' Altamont festival in 1969—music, violence, and a culture unraveling. It has the same documentary rawness as *Let It Be* but with far higher stakes and darker consequences.

But It documents an actual death and a genuinely disturbing atmosphere. It's harder to watch than *Let It Be*, and not in an artistically interesting way.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Let It Be

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Wages of Fear1953

Both films trust the camera to reveal character through behavior rather than confession. Neither feels the need to tell you what to feel.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece about men driving explosives across treacherous roads is formally the opposite of *Let It Be*—constructed, stylized, tense. But both films share an unflinching interest in how people actually behave under pressure, without judgment or sentiment.

But It's French cinema from the 1950s: slow, long, and uncompromising. The action sequences are deliberately unglamorous. You have to surrender to its pace completely.

U2: Rattle and Hum1988

U2 on their Joshua Tree tour, mixing live concert footage with black-and-white studio and backstage material. It has moments of genuine intimacy and captures a band at their commercial peak, questioning whether that matters.

But The self-seriousness is almost suffocating. Bono's interior monologues can feel pretentious. It's very much a product of its era and has aged somewhat awkwardly.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil2008

A documentary about a minor heavy metal band trying to make a comeback. It has the same behind-the-scenes intimacy and unguarded moments as *Let It Be*, but with stakes that make the emotional content hit harder.

But It's deliberately unglamorous. Watching ordinary musicians struggle can feel uncomfortable rather than inspiring, depending on your mood.

Sound City2013

Dave Grohl's documentary about the legendary LA recording studio, mixing archive footage of classic sessions with new material. It's a love letter to the album-making process and the personalities who shaped rock history.

But It's somewhat self-indulgent and occasionally loses focus. If you're not already invested in the studio's history, it can feel like inside-baseball.

Muscle Shoals2013

A documentary about the Alabama recording studio where Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and countless others made classics. It captures the collision of racial politics, genius, and studio craft in ways that echo *Let It Be*'s focus on creation.

But The narrative can feel scattered. Some viewers find the pacing slow, and the Southern Gothic atmosphere won't appeal to everyone.

Meeting People Is Easy1998

Grant Gee follows Radiohead during the *OK Computer* tour—a band processing unexpected fame and artistic pressure. It's intimate and occasionally painful, capturing the psychic cost of success.

But It's deliberately difficult and offers no comfort. Some of it is tedious by design, and Thom Yorke's anxiety can be hard to sit with for ninety minutes.

Shut Up and Play the Hits2012

Both capture brilliant musicians in transition, examining what art costs them. Both refuse the comforting narrative that genius justifies suffering.

A documentary where Craig Seltzer and former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy discuss the band's breakup and reunion while Murphy spends a day with his infant daughter. It's *Let It Be* filtered through domesticity and mortality—the same tension between art and living, but quieter and more devastating.

But Long stretches consist of Murphy changing diapers and talking philosophy. It's intentionally unglamorous and contemplative in ways that can feel self-important. The music is mostly absent.

Singin' in the Rain1952

Both films celebrate the craftsmanship of making music or dance—the joy of figuring out how to do something difficult well. Both believe the process matters as much as the result.

Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's musical is pure joy and technical precision—the inverse of *Let It Be*'s chaos. But both are ultimately about people solving problems through movement and sound, finding beauty in the work itself rather than the product.

But It's aggressively cheerful. If you want artistic struggle and ambivalence, you won't find it here. The optimism can feel naive.