Paul Mc Cartney Really Is Dead the Last Testamentofgeorge Harrison Review

April 21, 2022 Post a Comment

Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Concluding Attestation of George Harrison

Other // Unrated // September 1, 2010

List Price: $14.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

By the way...I've left subconscious clues throughout this review, telling the savvy reader out there exactly how I really feel about this documentary. Shhhhhhhh.....here's the first one. But play it backwards: sknits ti.

Jesus, I detest documentaries like this 1. I mean...they really hit me where I alive. Of grade it's all utterly mad. Anyone can see it's been faked. The scenario doesn't even make any sense. I know that (judging by some of the hilarious comments below, it seems a few, um...challenged Facebook readers skipped these opening sentences...). But conspiracy theories are like kryptonite to me, and so.... Highway 61 Entertainment has released Paul McCartney Actually Is Dead: The Final Attestation of George Harrison, an unintentionally hilarious rehash of all those old "Paul is dead" clues and theories that bedeviled The Beatles vocaliser dorsum in the late 60s. Nothing here is believable, from the structuring device that consists (supposedly) of George Harrison'southward secret record confessions near the fraud, to the central hoax theory itself. Fans of The Beatles volition exist appalled (or practise I mean, "A Paul'ed" which is all the same another clue indicating that John and George were being harassed past MI 5, and and then they...oh, forget information technology), while conspiracy theorists will no doubtfulness chortle with glee. A strange Bob Dylan extra is included--to no avail.

Here's the theory in a nutshell, for the uninitiated. On a rainy evening on November 9th, 1966, Paul McCartney had a violent argument with John Lennon and stormed out of the recording session for their latest anthology, Rubber Soul, and sped off into the night in his white convertible. Picking up a beautiful hitchhiker who identified herself as "Rita," McCartney lost control of the vehicle when the girl, in a fan-frenzy state of excitement, realized exactly who had picked her up. Fighting off the crazed fan (whom later, nosotros're told here, turns out to be...Heather Mills), Paul smashed his convertible into a lorry, where he was decapitated, his caput gruesomely disfigured. All three of The Beatles were brought to the crash scene, where they were forced to place the body, devastating them in the process. Later that morning, an MI v agent known simply to them equally "Maxwell," offered a solution to John Lennon when he expressed a wish to go along on with the band: the government espionage bureau would provide their best plastic surgeons to transform the unofficial winner of a Teen Shell magazine/American Bandstand "Paul McCartney Await-a-Like Competition winner, "William Campbell," into a new "Paul McCartney."

This hoax would, MI 5 asserted, stave off any mass suicides of young girls all over the world should they detect out that Paul had died in a car crash. At present secretly known equally "Faul" past John Lennon ("False Paul"), the imposter has to undergo a series of plastic surgeries to fool the public (all supposedly documented on The Beatles anthology covers, if you await closely enough, where Imitation Paul has scars and beards and odd-looking poses), while John goes through his backlog of songs already composed with Expressionless Paul. Feeling guilty, however, about the subterfuge, John tells George he volition leave clues throughout subsequent Beatles album covers and songs, providing an alibi of sorts for the ring, should the truth ever surface almost what was perpetrated on their adoring public. Finally fed upwards with the lies, John tells George he'southward going to sing about the hoax (as in, "spill his guts"), but winds upwards dead viii days later--a warning to the rest of The Beatles from MI 5 that squealers will get it in the head every time. Eventually George Harrison, suspicious that his recent attacker was sent by MI 5 (Harrison was stabbed and nigh killed in his mansion), records a confession of the ruse, and sends it to the Highway 61 Entertainment offices.

SPOILERS Warning FOR DOLTS!

Paul McCartney did not die in a car crash in 1966, merely to be replaced past a plastic surgery double...a double who miraculously seems to have caught on playing the singer/composer quite well, launching a successful solo career long after he quit The Beatles and after John Lennon supposedly quit supplying him with songs. The notion is utter lunacy. While the purported subconscious "clues" to Paul's expiry on the album covers and in the songs, repeated over and over over again for the last 40 years now by new generations of head cases, are delightfully screwy and inventive, they hold zero weight with anything budgeted rigorous investigation. Not one element of the conspiracy theory holds upwards to factual scrutiny, and quite clearly and nearly obvious of all, McCartney is still effectually as living proof of the absurdity of the hoax.

That being settled (take that, you conspiracy nuts), allow'due south look very briefly at this purported "documentary" that presents "new evidence" to propose that Paul indeed did die back in 1966. Directed by a man named Joe Gilbert, who introduces the film and clues us in on the strange package that arrived at his function in 2005, containing George Harrison's tape-recorded confession of the con, Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison makes about equally much sense as the stupid "Faul" theory itself. First off, setting bated for a moment the validity of the claim that it is indeed George Harrison speaking on the tape, allow'due south discuss the audio I hear on the documentary'southward soundtrack. Is that supposed to be the actual recording sent to the offices of Highway 61 Entertainment, or has it been transcribed and performed by an role player? If Gilbert wants me to believe those are the actual tape transmissions, a couple of problems immediately come upwards. First, information technology doesn't audio like George Harrison, particularly when the accent goes in an out on words like "flat," "loved," "gods," and many others that I would assume Harrison had mastered in his own accent. Equally delivered to usa on the soundtrack, the tape narration sounds far besides actorly and staged (and young) for what would be a shaky cocky-confession of an older homo. Who dictates their memoirs in this fashion, total of convenient dramatic pauses and emphases just every bit a voice actor might do? And for a crappy microcassette recorder, that audio is sparklingly clear...almost as if it was recorded in a studio, since there doesn't seem to be any of that pesky ambient dissonance associated with such a on-the-fly recording.

If it is supposed to be Harrison, technical and presentational questions bated, why would Harrison transport this popular civilization bombshell to these guys at Highway 61 Entertainment? Why not send it to ane of his British newspapers, like The Times, or The Telegraph or The Daily Postal service? Why non ship it to the BBC, or Rupert Murdoch? Why non send it to The New York Times or The Washington Post...that is if they haven't already had their quota of made-up stories for the week? Or how about their shady equivalent: the Big 3 newscasts? Why not send it to Entertainment This night? Or Access Hollywood? Or Oprah? Or Approximate Judy? Maury? Hell, my local Farm Written report gets more coverage than Highway 61 Entertainment. And on a lighter, but equally nonsensical annotation, why does he send the recorder forth, too? Wouldn't he just send the ii trivial tapes (when I saw all those stamps on the envelope, I hit the floor). If it was Harrison on the tapes, why would he conveniently spend so much fourth dimension talking about the history of The Beatles...as if he was padding out a crappy fiddling documentary? Wouldn't he assume his anonymous listener would already know all that stuff? And what does any of that have to practise with Paul being expressionless? How is all that background germane to the confession? He has time for that? Apparently, he doesn't have time to check his facts--facts you would think he'd know--such as the Rubber Soul anthology, which the physician spends a lot of time on, discussing all the clues contained within the songs and the cover art as proof positive that Paul had been replaced, was recorded prior to the covered-up November ninth, 1966 death appointment of Paul. Or that Heather Mills, whom you'll call up was "Rita," the crazed fan that killed Paul by freaking out in his machine, wasn't born nonetheless in 1966? Exercise I demand to betrayal whatsoever more of these factual errors? Nope. 5 minutes on the internet should do it for anyone interested in completely debunking Paul McCartney Actually Is Dead: The Final Testament of George Harrison.

The DVD:

The Video:
The anamorphically enhanced, 1.78:1 transfer for Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison looks okay, with the archival footage suffering from dupe racket and reframing. Otherwise, the new re-creations wait sharp and slightly dark.

The Sound:
The Dolby Digital English ii.0 stereo audio rail doesn't characteristic any Beatles music (large surprise), only its recording level is generous. No subtitles or shut-captions.

The Extras:
A ten-minut extra, Bob Dylan Meets The Beatles has admittedly nothing to do with the subject at mitt...and thus it's ten times more than apparent than the main feature. Interesting account of The Beatles and Dylan getting high...if you lot're into that.

Final Thoughts:
I hateful...it'southward then f*cking stupid. I thought this nonsense died out effectually the fourth dimension my older brothers finally sobered up and quit staring at their Beatles albums all day long. I can't imagine what Beatles anniversary or production tie-in is coming up to prompt the creation and release of Paul McCartney Actually Is Expressionless: The Final Attestation of George Harrison, but in that location has to be some reason for this rehash of the stale, onetime "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory. For Beatles fans, I'one thousand recommending the title (for laughs, if anything else). However, as silly every bit all this is...these conspiracy nut-chore docs do concord a special fascination for me (like the guy on my bus who talks to his bologna sandwich), and Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Attestation of George Harrison may arrange a similar fan of the genre when he's looking for a hasty 3:00am rental (I write "he" because women are fashion too smart for this garbage).

Paul Mavis is an internationally published film and idiot box historian, a fellow member of the Online Film Critics Society , and the author of The Espionage Filmography .