FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE:
“THE BEATLES: SHOWER & SHIT”
On the occasion of the ground-breaking 8-hour documentary “The Beatles: Get Back,” Disney Plus is proud to announce its next collaboration with Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson, “The Beatles: Shower & Shit.”
Guaranteed to excite long-time fans and newcomers alike, the film is the result of Jackson combing through reels of previously unseen archival footage of The Fab Four: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, showering and/or shitting.
Filmed at the same time as “Get Back,” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s intimate footage of the band from 1969 redefines the term “total access.”
“We’ve got 11 terrific hours of each Beatle separately showering and shitting,” said Jackson. “Plus, we’ve got three hours of the Beatles showering together and — this is very special — a thought-to-be-lost half hour of the Beatles shitting together in a circle at Twickenham Studios. This demolishes the myth that the Beatles only shit in a circle once, with the Maharishi, Donovan, Mike Love and Mia Farrow at Rishikesh.”
The film vividly illustrates why “alone time” was an underexplored, but crucial, component of the Beatles’ creative process. In one scene, George Harrison composes “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on the loo, while Eric Clapton sits on the edge of the tub.
Said Jackson, “They treasured that time. As artists, the Beatles were at their most vulnerable and personal with their flared trousers around their ankles.”
The film features extremely rare audio of producer George Martin and pianist Billy Preston shitting as well. Despite internal tensions within the band, the “Abbey Road” sessions were clearly a team effort.
“We never complained about Paul taking a shit break,” remembers one engineer, “Because we knew when he “got back,” he would have the chord structures sorted for “Mean Mr. Mustard.”
An emotional highlight of the film is a 55-minute sequence showing John Lennon and Yoko Ono showering together in real time, plus six minutes of toweling off.
“The digital restoration of the original film is so realistic that it’s like you’re there in the shower with them. My fingers were getting prune-y just watching it.”
The “Lord of the Rings” director came away humbled by the experience, which involved spending five full years in the editing room. “Take away all the money and the adulation,” says Jackson, “and it’s the story of four talented young men from Liverpool who shit just like everybody else. It’s timeless.”
Said one rock critic, “I have seen a six-hour rough cut and I can say that “The Beatles: Shower & Shit” is the Rosetta Stone of shower and shit rock documentaries. It gets us closer to the Beatles than most of us ever dared imagine.”“The Beatles: Shower & Shit” premieres Thanksgiving 2022 exclusively in theaters and streaming.
T. Kent Jones has written for The Daily Show on Comedy Central, Air America Radio with Marc Maron, The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Points in Case, Two Fifty One, MuddyUm, The Daily Drunk, End of the Bench and many others.