NYFF ‘11: George Harrison: Living In A Material World review
Martin Scorsese’s epic 2 part 3 1/2 hour documentary about the life of “quiet Beatle” George Harrison is a massive undertaking to say the least. Five years in the making, Scorsese along with editor David Tedeschi (“No Direction Home: Bob Dylan”) and aided by Harrison’s widow Olivia, uncovered hundreds of hours of footage, some of which hasn’t been seen in nearly half a century. The musician, in addition to being 1/4 of arguably the greatest rock group of all time, also had a remarkable solo career though it peaked early with the release of his first album (presumably of backlogged and rejected Beatles material) “All Things Must Pass”. The title track from which is used to soundtrack the opening of the film featuring footage of England being bombed during WWII. Tracing the now-familiar story of the origin of the Fab Four, part one is still completely absorbing no matter how many times you’ve seen or read their story.
The editing has all the punch of Scorsese’s fiction work, slamming in and out of scenes and zipping back and forth in time, placing the footage of the signing of the papers to disband the group at the beginning of their formation. The filmmakers uncovered some extremely rare footage of television appearances, photographs and home movies so that it’s not the same highlight reel you’ve seen in other biographies of the band. But perhaps the single greatest thing that makes the doc exciting is the music. You’ve heard the songs before but they’ve probably never sounded like this. I’m not sure if this will come across on HBO (depending on your sound system) but in the theatre, the songs (now nearly 50 years old) sounded rawer and more rocking than anything being produced today. The team spent several years adjusting the mixes and avoiding a cleaner sound for one that captured the excitement of being there in the room. Mission: accomplished and Beatles fans should be thrilled by this.
The second part of the doc opens with the dissolution of the group and focuses more on George’s inner journey. Realizing early on that being rich and famous didn’t make him happy, he led a quest to find spiritual enlightenment which occupied most of his life. The film also has to cover the remaining 3 decades of his life which included organizing one of the first ever benefit concerts, co-founding Handmade Films (which financed “The Life Of Brian”), forming supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. Because of the greater range of time the second half isn’t quite as focused as the first and doesn’t pry too deeply into his contradictions. (Brief mentions are made to a serious drug problem in the 70s and also cheating on his wife but not how they might reconcile with his religious beliefs.) Still, the doc manages to cover quite a lot of ground in an organic way without being overly concerned with covering every career highlight. (For instance, “Got My Mind Set On You” and his late career resurgence is never mentioned.)
Fans of The Beatles or his solo work should be satisfied with this lovingly crafted tribute and other documentarians should take note: this is how it’s done. Now if Scorsese and co. could just keep making docs on the rest of the group, we’d be all set. The film will have it’s North American Premiere at the NYFF tonight before airing on HBO in two parts: Wednesday Oct. 5 and Thursday Oct. 6.
Check out my recap of the NYFF press conference at The Playlist/IndieWIRE
film review nyff george harrison: living in a material world
