Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr
Directed By:
Joel Gilbert
I'm a sucker for a good conspiracy theory. While they feel far fetched and bloated in fiction, they have an eerie resonance in documentaries. What if one of the greatest stories in pop culture had been a lie? While politics are purposely dry and complex, a good dose of hidden drama can set ablaze the imagination of people like me, the conspiracy nuts. There's something satisfying about them, about trying to debunk how the rich people of this world have been trying to fool us, the common folk. What better subject for a conspiracy than the biggest rock n' roll band of all times, The Beatles? What could they be hiding from us? After all, they gave us some of the most beautiful melodies of our time. Well, Joel Gilbert thinks they have been keeping a dark secret from us all that time. In fact, this is nothing new Gilbert is talking about. If you do a little research on the Beatles' career, it's a story that has always been there. Since 1969.
The idea behind PAUL MCCARTNEY REALLY IS DEAD, is that...well. He died in 1966. He would've had a quarrel with John about their artistic direction of the band. Paul wanted to stay radio friendly as John was looking to get into more political stuff. Paul got pissed, left in his car under the rain, crashed and died horribly mutilated. The Paul we knew afterwards (that is still alive) would be someone named William Campbell, who won a celebrity lookalike contest and was picked by the MI5 (British Secret Service) as a double. They got involved because they were scared that if it ever went public, a wave of fan suicides would follow. Ravaged by guilt (and drugs) John Lennon would have hidden some clues about Paul's death on album covers, album lyrics and in subliminal messages. It's George Harrison who would've broke the silence in 1999 after being assaulted by some crazy dude in his estate.
This is obviously a hoax. I'm not sure how bad Joel Gilbert believes in this, but I think he just tried to squeeze a quick buck out of an old urban legend by giving a detailed account of it. They hired a goofy sounding guy to read "the last testament of George Harrison", which was supposed to be recorded on cassette and receive in an unmarked parcel. While the date of 1966 is interesting because that's when The Beatles started being all psychedelic. But there's a huge plot hole in their story. According to the "George testament", John said after Paul's death that he had over fifty completed Lennon/McCartney songs and that they could continue for a few more albums. The problem in this explanation is that most Lennon/McCartney songs after 1966 seems to be giving hints about Paul's death. How could it be giving hints about his death if they were completed beforehand? Because that hoax seems to be engineered by The Beatles themselves, that's why.
There are CLEAR clues there's something wrong with Paul on the album covers. He's always being singled out and there are many pointers of his demise. That's also the time where The Beatles, influenced by Bob Dylan, started embracing drug culture and making subversive music. What's more trippy than a living dead guy and a body double, huh? It's clear The Beatles are in on this. The documentary shows footage of George in the eighties calling Paul "Faul", short for "False Paul", but I don't think there was anything more than good hearted jesting about it. The Fab Four created a narrative around Paul's death and somehow engineered one of the very first ARGs (Alternate Reality Games). I think Joel Gilbert is a Beatles enthusiast and that he understands what they were trying to do. In that sense, the documentary is a fine tribute to their creative efforts, but don't take any of this seriously. The attempts at making it sound legit are rubbish at best, but you'll get a kick out of the straight-to-video aesthetic and The Beatles' quirky sense of humor.
SCORE: 71%