UPDATE: Due to the unprecedented public response, The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert will be extended at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater through February 20.
The limited screenings, scheduled for this weekend at select theaters nationwide, have been selling out quickly - including at the Aquarium’s IMAX Theater. Therefore, we were offered the opportunity to extend the run of this special IMAX presentation of The Beatle’s final performance.
Additional screenings of The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert are scheduled for:
- Feb 14 through Feb 19 at 6:30 pm
- Feb 20 at 2:30 pm
Tickets are now available for these additional shows (with capacity-limited seating) at: https://shop-us.vivaticket.com/taq/eventtickets.html?statGroup=WEBEVENTS
ORIGINAL STORY:
After 50 years languishing in a vault (and in the memories of the few who were lucky enough to experience it live), footage of the last performance by the biggest name in music will find its way in a special limited run onto the biggest screen in Chattanooga.
The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert will be shown in a three-screening weekend run at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater at 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 11-13.
For fans of the Fab Four, this hour-long production may as well be a love letter from Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson. After finally gaining access to the Beatles’ archives, Jackson lovingly and painstakingly restored footage of the band’s final public performance — the famed (and impromptu) “rooftop concert” — atop their Apple Crops headquarters in central London on Jan. 30, 1969.
For 52 years, Beatles fans have waited to see this historic performance, previously only enjoyed live by London passersby who took in the mid-day concert during their lunch break and, in parts, via grainy footage shot for the 1969 documentary Let It Be.
Restored segments of the rooftop concert found their way into Jackson’s recently, similarly titled Disney+ mini-series, The Beatles: Get Back. However, the Get Back series was — as Jackson describes it — “a documentary about a documentary,” focusing on the Let It Be film crew’s documentation of the Beatles’ work on their final album. When it makes it way to the giant IMAX screen, however, Get Back – The Rooftop Concert will satisfy a half-century of curiosity by showing the performance in its entirety.
“It’s like you’re sitting in a time machine. We’ve either gone back in time, or they’ve come forward,” Jackson says. “It looks like it was shot yesterday.”
For fans of the Fab Four and giant-screen cinema, this limited run offers a chance to see this historic performance in the best possible light.
The Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater’s state-of-the-art IMAX with Laser projection system presents films at levels of brightness, contrast and sharpness unmatched by any theater within 500 miles of Chattanooga. Thanks to Jackson’s use of IMAX’s proprietary Digital Media Remastering® process, Get Back – The Rooftop Concert’s image and sound quality have been up-converted to take full advantage of the theater’s world-class projection capabilities.
For years, the chance to see this historic musical event has been a veritable pipe dream, thanks to the Beatles’ desire to keep dozens of hours of footage under lock and key. Recently, the band’s living members changed their minds, and the end result is a film that celebrates a milestone moment for a group of artists whose impact on pop music has continued to reverberate for decades, Jackson says.
“With the context of it all and the whole thing and the restoration, it’s my favorite Beatles performance now, because you know what they were trying to achieve,” Jackson told The Late Show host Stephen Colbert. “The Beatles totally understand the historic importance of this performance, … and they feel that, after 50 years, it should come out.”
To purchase tickets to the 6 p.m. Friday, February 11 event - with optional cash bar with beer and wine - go to: https://community.tnaqua.org/events/2022-events/beatles
To purchase tickets to either of the 2 p.m. screenings on Saturday, February 12 or Sunday, February 13, go to: https://shop-us.vivaticket.com/taq/eventtickets.html?statGroup=WEBEVENTS
Purchasing tickets in advance is highly recommended. The Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater is operating at limited capacity to maximize safety for our guests.