Disney Wanted To Erase Swearing & Smoking From The Beatles Documentary

Even Disney can’t censor how The Beatles are shown to the public eye. The British rock group’s estate teamed up with director Peter Jackson to release their long-awaited musical documentary, “Get Back,” on Disney+.

The series includes several scenes featuring smoking and explicit language. The group refuses to have them moved. The three-part show includes a disclaimer from the streamer ahead of each episode that reads: “This footage contains explicit language, mature themes and smoking.”

The “Lord of the Rings” director, 60, explained in an interview with NME that Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr refused to have the swearing eliminated from the final product. “Paul describes it as being very raw,” Jackson said. Ringo said: ‘It’s truthful.’ The truthfulness of it is important to them. They don’t want a whitewash.”

The new Zealand-born filmmaker added, “They don’t want it to be sanitized. Disney wanted to remove all the swearing and Ringo, Paul, and Olivia [Harrison] said ‘That’s how we spoke. That’s how we talked. That’s how we want the world to see us.’”

Each episode has a lengthy runtime of between two and three hours. Jackson said he would not leave out any important bits. He says that is the reason the duration has crept up like this.

This series featured the band’s songwriting and singing processes, as well as the struggles they underwent as friends and bandmates. To know a person well and how they used to work back in the day requires full transparency on both sides of the spectrum. The Beatles and the people who are going to share experience them, Disney, should be on the same page.