George Harrison: Living In The Material World
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Double DVD pressing. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Living In The Material World is the stunning, award winning double-feature-length film tribute to one of music’s greatest icons. Features never-before-seen footage from George Harrison’s childhood, throughout his years with the Beatles and solo career. Includes interviews with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia and Dhani Harrison among many others.
George Harrison: Living In The Material World
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Scorsese delivers a fine bio-pic of the deeper Beatle,
Following on from his outstanding 2005 documentary of Bob Dylan’s early career `No Direction Home’ and his excellent series on the blues, Martin Scorsese again proves himself to be a master of the craft of in-depth bio-pic documentary film-making with this glorious, colourful, warts-and-all portrait of George Harrison.
The film is available either on two separate DVDs with the Beatles break-up as the divider, or as one single uninterrupted DVD – if you can take a three-and-a-half hour film in one sitting. Despite its 210-minute running time it never drags and holds the viewer’s attention throughout.
The format is a roughly chronological narrative which follows Scorsese’s usual `fly-on-the-wall’ style of no-voiceover-commentary, allowing for the interviewees – Paul McCartney, Ringo, Eric Clapton, Phil Spector, Jackie Stewart, Klaus Voorman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Olivia and Dhani Harrison and George himself (not a complete list by any means) – to do the talking. The memories are poignant, honest, heartfelt and engaging, offering a mostly sympathetic portrait of this most introspective of Beatles juxtaposed with archive footage and stills from George’s long career, plus some live concert and studio sessions.
Some of the most arresting moments explore George’s rejection of the trappings of fame, lack of interest in awards and quest for deeper self-knowledge and `spirituality’. Harrison’s long friendship with Ravi Shankar and interest in Indian mysticism, his wicked sense of humour and his warm generosity, his love of privacy in his Surrey home which he carefully re-landscaped himself with spade in hand, all reveal a man who strove, sometimes in small ways and sometimes on a big canvas – like his 1971 visionary project to raise money for victims of the Bangladesh famine, a blueprint for Bob Geldof’s `Live Aid’ project 15 years later – to make the world a better place; to make a difference.
George Harrison was in so many ways an exceptional and atypical rock star, and Martin Scorsese has done him proud with this superb film. If you are of a later generation who missed the 1960s and 1970s, and the name George Harrison means little to you, then seeing this film might be time well spent; it’ll give you a flavour of this talented, generous and unusual man. And BTW if you love and appreciate the Pythons’ `Life of Brian’ – well, it would never have seen the light of day without George, whose financial support enabled the film to be made.
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