The Beatles Release Short Film Documenting the Making Of Their Final Song ‘Now and Then’

November 2, 2023

The Beatles have released a short film, titled Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song, which offers an in-depth look at the making of their final song as a band. The song itself comes out tomorrow, Friday 2nd November.

The film runs for just over 12 minutes and is composed of audio interviews with the group, alongside archival footage. It opens with an admission of the devastation caused by the death of John Lennon, who was killed by Mark David Chapman in 1980. “When we lost John, we knew it was really over,” Paul McCartney says in the film.

Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song

However, in 1994, the three surviving Beatles – McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – got back together after Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, informed them she still had a tape of unreleased songs written by Lennon. “To hear John’s voice, that’s a thing we should cherish,” Harrison says in the documentary.

From there, the surviving trio agonised over whether it was the right decision to work on a Lennon song after his death. In the documentary, McCartney admits to being troubled repeatedly by the ethical consideration of continuing his friend’s work.

McCartney began to have imaginary conversations with Lennon in his head, which helped to silence these concerns. This, he says, made him feel confident that Lennon would’ve approved of the three remaining Beatles continuing his work.

The documentary also serves as a portrait, somewhat, of Lennon. In it, he is described as frequently “hidden”, an elusive artist who appeared to give a lot, but always maintained his privacy and independence. It also features discussions concerning the end of The Beatles, before drawing up to a moving conclusion.

“My God,” McCartney says in the film. “How lucky was I to have those men in my life.”

You can watch the film in full above in preparation for the release of the final Beatles song, ‘Now and Then’, tomorrow.