And in the end: A fan's notes on Peter Jackson's Beatles doc

Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary “Get Back” runs for nearly eight hours and the only real criticism you can make is that it doesn’t last longer

NEW YORK -- Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary “Get Back” runs for nearly eight hours and the only real criticism you can make is that it doesn't last longer. For dabblers and other newcomers, it's a prime introduction. For the Beatles fanatic, and we are a vast and obsessive community, every moment offers some kind of revelation or random pleasure, along with glimpses of what was to come and what might have been.

A few notes from one fanatic:

A MOMENT'S NOTICE

“Get Back” closely follows the band in January 1969 as it hurries to record an album and plan a concert for an intended television special, what became the 1970 album and documentary “Let it Be.” It's the most in-depth look we've ever had of the Beatles at a given moment, but should not be mistaken for more than a given moment. The Beatles were in transition in January 1969 as they had been all along. A documentary set six months earlier or six months later likely would have told a very different story. A documentary set two years earlier might have seemed like distant history. A documentary set two years later, when they were no longer together, would have been a retrospective.