According to Joel Gilbert, the director, a package postmarked from London arrived at Highway 61 in 2005 containing a couple of micro cassette tapes labeled "The Last Testiment of George Harrison," which immediately bothered me because I would hope that George Harrison could spell the word testament. However, the story that unfolds in the tapes, in a voice which sounds an awful lot like Harrison's, is both unbelievable yet feasible. Supposedly, in November of 1966, the real Paul McCartney was gruesomely killed in a tragic auto accident that was covered up by MI5 in an attempt to prevent the mass suicide of fans. Since that time, the fake Paul, or "Faul" as he was called by the other Beatles, has become Paul through numerous plastic surgeries, learning to emulate Paul's voice, and by learning the bass, although still being right-handed when the true Paul was left-handed. The remaining members of the band were forced to go along with the plot under threat of death (which doesn't really make sense since wouldn't their deaths also cause mass suicide? Ahh, details.) However, they left numerous clues to their fans in the form of song lyrics, album covers and even interviews. In one interview, a much older George Harrison is clearly saying the name Faul when referring to Paul, yet he also takes pains to say "free" and "problem" in the same sentence, showing that he has no problems pronouncing his p's and f's. According to the tapes, which narrate the entire production, the band was handled by a cruel MI5 agent by the name of Maxwell, and it claims that John was assassinated because he had decided to go public, as was Harrison attacked in his own home by a "crazed fan" later on for the exact same reason.
What I found cheesy was that a "picture" of William Campbell (Faul) was often shown when he was discussed, one prior to his plastic surgery, then slowly modified to transform into Paul. They did this often, almost every time they mentioned "Faul." I didn't really see a strong resemblance to Paul in the picture of Campbell they kept showing, which had a very hand-drawn look to it. However, the few times they showed the supposed passport picture of William Campbell, he looked much more like McCartney than the representative drawing they used over and over.
As far as special features, there's not much. There's an odd interview called "Bob Dylan Meets The Beatles" with an elderly Al Aronowitz, the rock journalist who introduced Dylan to The Beatles. It's clearly old (as Aronowitz died in 2005), not very long and deals mostly with Bob Dylan, only touching on his meeting with the band. It seemed thrown in and didn't really have anything to do with the overall crux of the DVD. Soundtrack MP3's are also included and accessed by popping the DVD into your computer, but it was just instrumentals and not actual Beatles' music, just music from the documentary.
Overall, even though there were some bouts of lowered production quality in the film and some events that didn't really feel substantiated, if you have even the slightest interest in The Beatles, Paul McCartney or the conspiracy surrounding his "death," this is must-see stuff. The evidence Joel Gilbert presents is compelling and it's hard to ignore the piles and piles of possible references on The Beatles' album covers and simply chalk it up to their drug use. It's worth watching, possibly even a second time.
