The Long and Winding Box Set: The Beatles Anthology Comes to DVD - Page 2

Which is where the actual episodes of Anthology end. But for the true hard core Beatlemanic, there is also a fifth disc's worth of ancillary material-more clips of from the mid-1990s of the three surviving Beatles (it's astonishing, considering how crisp George Harrison looks (and sounds-for 'the quiet Beatle', he was easily as sharp an interview as Paul McCartney), and lots of "making of" stuff: the making of their more complex 1960s songs, the making of their "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" songs and videos-in which producer Jeff Lynne (a rabid Beatlemanic himself) mated mid-1970s cassette demos by John Lennon with mid-1990s studio performances by the rest of the Beatles-and not surprisingly, the making of the Anthology series itself.

So is the $59.99 cost of The Beatles Anthology worth it? For the die-hard, there's a treasure trove of images here. God knows, all the big events in the group's history are covered in a surprising amount of depth for a television documentary. Of course, because it's a documentary, it goes where the footage is. Thus Let It Be, despite being only a so-so album, gets a disproportionate amount of coverage , because of all of the film footage shot (and the footage looks wonderful-brilliantly restored compared to the haphazard videotape and laser discs floating around from the early 1980s. It certainly wets the appetite for its much-anticipated DVD release later this year). But Abbey Road, which is a far, far better album, gets less analysis, because there's no footage from the studios (but there was a nice film clip shot to promote "Something", which is included here).

But that's a minor gripe. If you're like me, and grew up reading Beatle biographies and magazine articles by the score, there aren't a whole not of new revelations in the actual history of the Beatles here. But seeing the enormous amount of footage assembled here-and hearing the songs (all remixed for 5.1 surround sound) again make it all worth while. Plop off your Cuban heals, light up a ciggy, curse Sir Walter Raleigh, kick back and enjoy. You'll feel fine.

Article Author: Ed Driscoll

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