4.5

Paul McCartney Really is Dead 

The brainchild of heretofore unknown auteur Joel Gilbert, Paul McCartney Really is Dead purports to offer the heretofore hushed-up last testament of late guitarist George Harrison, in which the former Beatle reveals that Paul McCartney did actually die in the mid-1960s, and was indeed replaced by a lookalike, as some news sources claimed at the time.  A series of ‘proofs’ are duly offered in support of rock’s most time-honoured urban myth. 

Recorded on mini-cassette tape as the former Beatle lay dying in hospital, copies of the recordings were, as Gilbert solemnly informs the viewer, subsequently sent anonymously to the office of his Hollywood-based Highway 61 Entertainment.  All of which might make for compelling viewing, were it not for three glaring little factoids: 

1) it seems unlikely that such revelatory recordings, presumably worth several million pounds, would be sent to an unknown Hollywood production firm instead of, say, The Daily Mirror,

2) the whisper quiet, blemish-free ‘tapes’ were clearly recorded in a studio and not onto mini-cassette by a dying man in a busy hospital, and

3) the voice on the tapes is patently not that of George Harrison; in fact, it might be the worst, most unintentionally hilarious Beatle impersonation of all time  

These omissions may be excusable on the grounds that ‘it’s all just a bit of fun’ or the like, but Gilbert plays it so unrelentingly stony-faced that any chance at levity is ruined from the outset.  Some of the proofs offered for the ‘Paul is dead’ are entertaining and plausible enough, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been explored elsewhere, in more detail, by writers and filmmakers of a higher calibre than Gilbert.  At one point ‘Harrison’ pronounces the word catchy as ‘kitchy’, for Christ’s sake, sounding more like a confused New Zealander than a Liverpudlian.  Surely if you are going to stage a spoof then the first thing would be to source an impersonator who can actually approximate the voice of the alleged source???  Some of the video footage and photographs of the Beatles are well-chosen, but again hardly rare or exclusive. 

More crockumentary than mockumentary, Paul McCartney Really is Dead tries its darndest but never really finds its wings.  Perhaps Highway 61 Entertainment should have just let it be. 

Special Features

As evidenced by the name of his production company Gilbert is obviously something of a Dylan fanatic, and the principal bonus feature is a 10-minute interview with ailing Dylan cohort Al Aronowitz, who was present when the folk icon met the four Beatles in 1964.  It’s interesting enough but once again the limited amounts of original video footage feature in terrible sub-bootleg quality, and Aronowitz’s observations aren’t anything that isn’t explored in more depth on No Direction Home or The Beatles Anthology. Further evidence of Gilbert’s high regard for his own output is the inclusion of 16 instrumental mp3s, which comprise the film’s soundtrack. 

Audio & Video

Though the film doesn’t feature any original music by the Beatles, or Bob Dylan for that matter, the two-channel audio is respectable enough.  The 16:9 widescreen transfer is a disappointment; for the most part it’s grainy and video-quality at best, and much of the archive material is blurry, presumably due to having been sourced from bootlegs and obscure corners of the internet.