When the first notes of The Beatles’ “Let It Be” ring out in the closing minutes of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 10-part, 18-hour documentary The Vietnam War, you’d be forgiven for letting out a disappointed sigh. You’ve heard the song, which Paul McCartney plucked from a dream about his dead mother, countless times. The feelings it evokes in you are well-trod territory.
And yet, within just a few seconds, despite however many times you’ve heard “Let It Be,” it is redefined — made new again — as the words take on new meaning in the aftermath of the moving passage read by writer Tim O’Brien, a military veteran whose story is one of those featured in Burns and Novick’s exhaustive film.
It’s a remarkable moment.
“It was the one thing I insisted on, from the beginning,” Burns tells me during several long conversations about the moving and powerful use of music in the film. “As soon as I knew there might be a remote possibility that we could get The Beatles’ music, I chose that as the final piece. I knew it was the only way for our audience to exit this film.”
https://medium.com/@esquire_67482/the-music-in-ken-burns-the-vietnam-war-is-remarkable-here-s-how-it-was-chosen-42fec82cf48d
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