Being a big Beatles fan for 50 years and playing in a tribute band for 14 years I was looking forward to watching this. While there were some aspects that were accurate and interesting (especially from the musicians interviewed) there were a few prominent people in the movie that were so one-sided to John Lennon I had to read the liner notes and and figure out who put this out. Whoever did apparently has the backing of the Lennon estate. I cannot stand to watch Beatles documentaries that proclaim to give an honest account when the so-called experts clearly have favorties. I am a fan. I do not have favorites. I have favorites songs by all members. The Lennon and McCartney songwriting was a partnership. They each contributed to each other's works. In addition, to disregard George Harrison, Ringo Starr and George Martin in those finished songs is a crime. There was one musician who gave George Martin props but that was it. Robert Christgau is so unapologetically biased towards John Lennon I finally turned it off when he said he "doesn't mind Yesterday now.. as long as it is sung my someone else" . If you are doing a songbook analysis of their work with fans in mind (or even students who would like to be enlightened ) why the hell would you be saying that you don't like the voice of the 22 year old who wrote and sang the most recorded song of the 21st century??! If you cut Robert Christgau out of the video I would have given it 4 stars.

They're so busy trying to prove their own preconceptions--that Lennon and McCartney never wrote separately until the tail end of the time frame documented here, that they blow right by the facts that Lennon wrote Please Please Me by himself, and that he and McCartney tag-teamed on both A Hard Day's Night and We Can Work it Out. This is superficial, and even worse, Christgau's self importance is hard to swallow. I have seen the future of rock critic pomposity, and it's name is Christgau.

Not bad! The narrative of the documentary itself is nothing groundbreaking, and the clips and photos are basically just a retread of material from Anthology and elsewhere (and yes, the performance clips feel very short, though that's probably for legal reasons). But almost all of the contributors have interesting insights, either into the personal history of Lennon and McCartney (Miles, Cleave, and Voormann) or from a musicological perspective. Particularly enjoyed Ingham's comparison of the different takes on blues in "Hard Day's Night" versus "Can't Buy Me Love." (Apparently he wrote a Rough Guide for them as well, interested to see if he does similar analyses there.) The only sour note (heh) is from Christgau, whose only critical opinion seems to consist of repeating "Paul was a hack, John was a genius. I like John better" for each song. (Though it's funny to watch his hot takes be refuted by all the other talking heads, who are actually giving insightful commentary.)

Learned a few things. But WAY too much emphasis on Bob Dylan's influence on the Beatles. I grew up in the '60's was very much into the music of that time and although I'm sure Dylan was somewhat of a factor he was not the factor that some of the commentators in this documentary tried to push. While watching it there were moments when I thought I was watching a tribute to Dylan and not "The Beatles Songbook". Still, overall, I liked it.

For the most part, this is a collection of fawning music critics attempting to convey deep insights into what Lennon and McCartney were doing as composers psychologically. Most of it is fun, but I doubt either songwriter would recognize any of their balther.

I enjoyed the music and the history, but beyond thatI this is nothing more than a bunch of guys saying things to try and justify the money they were paid to be a part of this film. John would say bollocks and Paul too. It's just a lot of conjecture and nonsense.

This documentary brims with enlightening surprises about an especially interesting creative relationship, though personally I'd have added a few strong nods to Harrison, as later work evidences his genius. And I'd have mentioned that Ringo's pre-Beatles position with the Butlin's Holiday Camp already established him nationally as a worthy artist to be enticed in.

This was really interesting to watch to better understand what was going on behind their writing and the timeline in relation to other things going on. I only held back on 5 stars because one of the commentators wasn't very objective and I got annoyed by that. But well worth watching.