Rocketdog2000

With the new Beatles CD re-masters hitting store shelves this past week, it reminded me yet again that the 1982 film The Compleat Beatles has still yet to see a DVD release. Does anyone have any info why this is so?

I dug out my old VHS copy today to watch, and it was distributed by MGM/UA, but who knows if they still own the rights to it. Anyway, for those who've never seen it, it's one of the best "Rock Documentaries" ever made, it's subject matter aside. Malcolm McDowell was the narrator.

Anyone else still waiting for this to get a DVD release, too?

DeputyDave

Is it better than the Beatles Anthology? Because that is as "compleat" as I can imagine.

My Other Self

I'd rather have The Compleat Al.

dx23

I want the Compleat Rutles!

njwiv

Word is that the Beatles bought the rights to this one to bury it. Really stinks, because I this the Compleat Beatles was a great documentary on the band and an early introduction for me to their life and times.

Jay

Rocketdog2000

Well, at the time of it's release, which was a good 13 years before Anthology, it was.

Granted, Anthology is far more encompassing, but that's also a downside to it, too. There's almost too much material to wade through (and in all honesty, I've still yet to see all of it) - where as Compleat (and yes, that is the correct spelling - it's a play on words for you kids who didn't get it) was a more concise story you could sit through in only two hours, instead of eight.

TomOpus

But one could argue that 2 hours isn't enough to fully understand their story. I guess if you're a casual fan and you just want a quickie look, it's fine. But one needs the details because they're worth it. Plus the 5.1 sound is glorious.

njwiv

The other advantage of Compleat Beatles is that you got a wider perspective from people who were there -- in addition to George Martin, you get to hear from Bob Wooler, Horst Fascher, Allan Williams, Bill Harry, Tony Sheridan, Bill Preston et al., making it an especially valuable document with respect to the early years in Liverpool and Hamburg.

The biggest negative to the Beatles Anthology is that the perspective is limited because it tells the story almost completely from the mouths (and sometimes faulty memories) of the Beatles. Compleat Beatles really helps round out the story.

Pizza

I definitely love the Anthology more than Compleat. I recall being disapointed in Compleat when I bought the Laserdisc. I think it was because the actual music/video weren't complete but clips and I didn't feel it lived up to the title. Still, I'd buy it on DVD. I wish they'd release Let It Be (thankfully, I still have the LD) and Rockshow on DVD, too.

moonraker

I wish they would release the Shea Stadium concert on dvd.

Drake

You would think that ROCKSHOW would be coming soon on DVD especially after McCartney put 7 clips from it on his recent The McCartney Years DVD.

jjcool

With this big push of the remastered albums and the Rockband game, was there any dvd release? I am surprised that I ahvent ehard of any new DVD or Blue ray, at this point, comign out to coincide with the remastered albums.

Buttmunker

I would actually want a DVD that had all the Beatles "Music Videos."

calhoun07

I predict they have to hold off something for their 50th anniversary. Can't expect them to give us the best of all of everything now, do you?

dhmac

I want the film titled Let It Be to be released on DVD and BD.

(And it's 40th anniversary is next year)

jackibees

Comparing Anthology to Compleat is comparing apples to oranges. As I recall, Compleat had a couple of parts in it that were never mentioned in Anthology: for example, in Compleat, George Martin explains that the way the calliope sequence from "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite" was created was by him instructing someone to cut up the tape into pieces, throwing them into the air, and then piecing them back together. Never mentioned in Anthology.

Also, the narrator in Compleat provides evidence of how, as time went on, the Beatles paid less and less attention to what Brian Epstein wanted them to do, and how George Martin became the "Fifth Beatle" in how he, not just the Fab Four themselves, innovated new production techniques and inventive audio manipulation to create things that no one had done before, including the Beatles themselves. Absolutely no mention of anything like that in Anthology. To hear Anthology tell it, I get the sense that the Beatles feel that, yeah, George Martin was really good, but they could've done just as well with another producer of the same ilk, which I disagree with wholesale. (Everyone is aware, yes, that George Martin - while he did not write the melody - DID provide the orchestration for "Eleanor Rigby", which is half the song? Tell me he didn't contribute in a big way!)

Like someone mentioned earlier, it's looking at it from two different perspectives, and you need that to get the, ahem, "complete" picture of what the Beatles were all about. Neither one is 100%, but together it's a very well-rounded picture of the Fab Four. Yeah, the Beatles were great; no, they weren't faultless gods.

I have Anthology; I'd like to see Compleat come out on DVD to round out the collection.

Damfino

This.

SanityRemoved

The Compleat Beatles was an answer movie to an unauthorized Beatles documentary that had limited showings in 1977 which may not have been as polished but had better content. It took more time to assemble than the Red and Blue albums (which were answer albums to similar greatest hits bootlegs) and therefore wasn't able to capitalize on the "second Beatlemania" wave that began in 1976.

Anthology also was an answer documentary. The Long And Winding Road had begun as an authorized documentary but The Beatles were not happy with it and it was scrapped and latter was released with no Beatle involvement and no Beatles music. Anthology was the second attempt at the documentary with The Beatles in control, although the released versions(broadcast and DVD) are not the original cut.
The original has bit more "spirit" in it.

Apple Corps has done a really poor job of releasing The Beatles on film. They are either trying to milk it for decades or just don't want things released that one or more of The Beatles or their estates are unhappy with. The Beatles original fan base has already begun to die and it is a travesty that many people will never see a proper release in their lifetime. Everything everyone has asked for in this thread is available in Song Of The South form.

AaronSch

The Compleat Beatles was rendered irrelevant after the comprehensive "Beatles Anthology" was released. I haven't seen it in years, but "The Compleat Beatles" was a rather somber view of the fab four and is better left to memory.