Let It Be from HMC

Front and back cover of booklet

Word from the HMC bootleg company is that their release of the 1992 Furmanek restoration of The Beatles'Let It Be movie is going to be out in just a few weeks. They have also made public this image of the front and back cover of the booklet which accompanies the release.

Here's what they are writing on the back cover:
Let It Be is a 1970 documentary film about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be in January 1969. The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public. Released just after the album, it was the final original Beatles release.

The film was originally planned as a television documentary which would accompany a concert broadcast. When plans for a broadcast were dropped, the project became a feature film. Although the film does not dwell on the dissension within the group at the time, it provides some glimpses into the dynamics that would lead to the Beatles' break-up.

The film has not been officially available since the 1980s, although original and bootleg copies of home video releases still circulate (as does bootlegs of various television screenings. WogBlog). The film's director Michael Lindsay-Hogg stated in 2011 that a DVD and Blu-ray was possibly going to be released in 2013, but did not happen due to the film's negative (though accurate) portrayal of The Beatles. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr collectively won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film.

A tracklist is also supplied, referring to both the DVD and CD included in the package, so it seems the film's soundtrack is simply repeated on the CD. Because of the time limit of a CD, we are guessing that some of the dialogue must have been omitted there.

This is an unofficial release, which qualifies it as a bootleg. At one point in 1997, a U.K. based company revealed plans of releasing this 1992 remastered edition of the film as an official video cassette. As with all later announcements of an impending release of the film, this never happened. The film and outtakes from it have been the subject of several later transfers, restorations and remasters by Apple Corps Ltd, none of which have seen the light of day in full, although clips from the results of these restorations have been shown in documentaries, mini-documentaries and as standalone promotional videos released to television companies only. For a full overview of the history of the Let It Be home video releases and attempts to re-release the film, we refer you to our main Let It Be post.