After three weeks of being followed around by cameras and working in the acoustically unsatisfactory Twickenham Studios, the group chafed at the project and filming was halted. The problems with the film began immediately: director Michael Lindsay-Hogg insisted on shooting the film during the day, even though the Beatles did most of their work at night and the bulk of the film was filmed indoors, thus canceling the need for natural daylight.
LET IT BE THE BEATLES FILM TV
Originally planned as a TV special to cover the rehearsal and recording of an album entitled “Get Back,” the project was expanded into a feature-length documentary in order to fulfill a contractual obligation to United Artists for one last film. “Let it Be” was always a sore point for the Beatles. This absence from the market has certainly cost the Beatles corporate empire millions of dollars while bootleg video providers have cashed in handsomely by reproducing copies from the film’s brief late 1970s release on the long-defunct Magnetic video label. Over a decade later, it is still nowhere to be found, except in bootleg videos. In fact, the film was remastered in 1992 with the notion that it would be returned to circulation. While it was initially withdrawn from home video distribution in the early 1980s due to legal problems, the film has subsequently been kept of circulation even though the residue of litigation has long since been wiped away. “Let it Be” is one of the most popular and ubiquitous titles in the bootleg video channels, thanks entirely to the Beatles.