23 replies to this topic

[Inquisitionist]

Martin Scorsese's documentary about George Harrison will air on HBO in two parts next week, Oct. 5 - 6. This recent article in the NY Times presents some interesting background.

“Living in the Material World” is a significant and substantially new take on the band and its most elusive member. It is the first film to center on Harrison, the so-called quiet Beatle, and the first time Mr. Scorsese, whose roster of rock documentaries is gradually rivaling his celebrated résumé of fiction features, has focused on the Beatles.

The three-and-a-half-hour documentary would be noteworthy simply for the scope of the material it uses to tell Harrison’s story, including previously unseen footage he kept in Friar Park, his massive estate in Henley-on-Thames, England, and new interviews with band mates, colleagues and loved ones like Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and Dhani Harrison, George and Olivia’s son.

As much as the documentary has to say about its subject it reveals an enduring kaleidoscope of perspectives on Harrison, who continues to fascinate and confound his admirers long after his death.

Really looking forward to seeing this and (hopefully) discussing it here.

[cherry malotte]

I'm beside myself to see this - huge fan of Harrison and his music. Even if we don't get any new insight into the man, I'm just happy Scorcese is profiling him. Most of the reviews I've read so far have been favorable.

[Inquisitionist]

Here's an excerpt from the review that appeared in yesterday's New York Times:

Within “George Harrison: Living in the Material World” is an argument for Harrison’s essential role in the culture (one that didn’t need to be made for Mr. Dylan) and for the continuing relevance of his explorations of Eastern thought. Your interest in, and patience for, this argument will affect your reaction, though a lack of sympathy shouldn’t prevent anyone from thoroughly enjoying and being moved by the film. In any case, the post-Beatles Harrison is a complex figure, his cosmic and anti-materialist attitudes combining with a passionate love for the life of an English country squire.

And from a review in Salon:

The film’s editing rhythms are distinctive, bordering on peculiar, especially its treatment of George’s music. Sometimes Scorsese and Tedeschi will let a song play out for much longer than most modern documentaries dare, letting us actually listen to the music while the screen shows silent footage of George, the Beatles or other significant figures. The effect is transporting, almost meditative; the approach befits the Beatle who was most dedicated to transcendentalism, and who introduced many fellow Westerners to the transformational power of chanting. But then the song will abruptly cut off instead of slowly fading, and drop us right into an interview with a new historical witness who hasn’t been properly introduced. The effect is like getting lost in a blissful trance, then having some interloper shatter it. It’s a style choice, and not an inherently bad one, because it feels like an attempt to reflect George’s struggle to find inner peace in a world that continually bombarded him with distractions. But it takes some getting used to, and sometimes feels like an affectation.

It sounds like this documentary will require one to pay attention. ;-)

Edited by Inquisitionist, Oct 5, 2011 @ 1:19 PM.

[AmazingGrace]

If anyone has seen Scorsese's Dylan and Stones documentaries I'd like to know if style was the same as GH: Living in the Material World. I have to admit I like my bios to go in order from birth to death. This jumps around so much. One minute it's Beatle!Mania George, then the Anthology-era George, then the 1970s George. Also you can't hear the interviewers questions. I couldn't even tell if that was MS voice or someone else. That was annoying as was the scarce use of putting people's name on the screen. Yes, we all know who Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton are, but if you use them for George's brother, it looks sloppy not putting everyone's name up. Those are small complaints as it was long overdue for George Harrison to get a prime time retrospective spanning over two nights. I look forward to part II tonight.

Edited by AmazingGrace, Oct 6, 2011 @ 8:20 AM.

[Skylergirl]

I loved it and yes, it did jump around, but when it did, it was still discussing the same era. It wasn't Beatle George, then Wilbury George, then Beatle George again. I do agree about the lack of names. I am a huge Beatle fan and I didn't who some of the people were until after they had spoken for a while. I can't wait for part two tonight!

Edited by Skylergirl, Oct 6, 2011 @ 9:00 AM.

[LADreamr]

Loved it, but really looking forward to tonight, and more post-Beatles George. My favorite parts were him discussing his ideas. Even though it was early in an awakening he followed for the rest of his life, his insights were intelligent and wise beyond his age at that time. I would love to hear more of his thoughts and hope we get that tonight. Also, Dhani was great!

[Inquisitionist]

Got home from work very late and very tired, so I watched only part of the first installment, but I liked what I saw and heard. I'd never heard Paul McC mention before that George came up with that distinctive 4-note intro to "And I Love Her" on the fly like that. It's such an important part of that song's feeling.

I loved the interviews with Astrid and Klaus about the Hamburg days. I had not seen the photos of John and George after Stu Sutcliffe's death before. Those were very moving, made more so by Astrid's description of John's fragile state and the support George lent him. There has been so much deification of John Lennon after his murder, and he ran his mouth off disparaging his former band-mates for a long chunk of time beforehand, so it's good to be reminded of how much he relied on the other Beatles to deal with his insecurities in the early days. George did have an aura of "wise beyond his years" from the start. And I have to say, his "solo scene" in A Hard Day's Night ("I wouldn't be caught dead in those. They're dead grotty.") is one of my favorite bits from that movie.

Edited by Inquisitionist, Oct 6, 2011 @ 6:44 PM.

[redtulip]

Has anyone heard about a DVD release for this? I tried looking yesterday and didn't really find anything. I am dying to see this as a major Beatles fan, but unfortunately I lack HBO. I want to see this so bad!

[LADreamr]

And I have to say, his "solo scene" in A Hard Day's Night ("I wouldn't be caught dead in those. They're dead grotty.") is one of my favorite bits from that movie.

Yes, he was so natural in that scene! I love that.
"You can be replaced, chicky baby!"
"I don't care."

I haven't seen anything about a DVD yet, but I imagine there would be one soon. HBO doesn't do it for all their docs, but hopefully they will for something as big as this. I'm keeping an eye on Amazon or Netflix.

[Calvada]

Another great George Harrison tribute is "Concert for George" which is available on DVD. One year to the day after George's death, Eric Clapton organized this great tribute concert. The DVD is terrific - contains the documentary shown with parts of the concert (odldy chopped up, songs not shown in order they were recorded), has interviews with the people that participated, and it contains the entire concert, which was almost three hours long. It's a beautiful celebration of George's music. I was weeping at the end when Joe Brown sings "I'll See You In My Dreams."

[Inquisitionist]

Has anyone watched the second part, which aired on Thursday? It was a little meandering at times, but I still enjoyed it. Interesting to hear Olivia recount the events around the intruder who attacked them. I hadn't been aware of just how serious that attack was. Also interesting to hear her kind of imply that George had not been totally faithful during their marriage.

Probably what impressed me most was learning what a friend George was to so many people. Even Clapton seemed staggered by the breadth and depth of George's friendships when he (Clapton) set about organizing the Concert for George. (Which I agree is a terrific DVD set.)

[itsmejessica]

I have not watched either parts yet but the are on my dvr list. I'm looking foward to it.

[LADreamr]

I loved it, too. Could have watched another hour or two, even. Olivia and Dhani seem like such intelligent, classy people. I would like to have heard more from them. Dhani seems to have inherited his straight-forward honesty as well as his looks.

I forgot that Ringo's daughter was dealing with a brain tumor at the same time. He must have felt like his world was falling down on him.

I hadn't heard that before, about what happened when George died. That must have been amazing. I hope he got to have his passing the way he wanted to, after being so deliberate about it. It was hard to hear about the attack on him, but I'm glad they talked about it.

Only wish there had been more. It just seemed like there was a lot more to talk about.

[Inquisitionist]

Tangentially related: on what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday, Sir Paul McCartney married Nancy Shevell at Marylebone register office in central London, where he had wed Linda Eastman 42 years earlier. Ringo Starr attended today's ceremony, and I'm sure George's spirit was hovering. :-)

[Milburn Stone]

Mrs. Stone and I watched part one last night. As lifelong Beatlemaniacs, we were both impressed by how much vintage footage we'd never seen before was in the show. We've seen everything, or at least thought we had, in countless Beatle documentaries good and bad. Yet Scorsese unearthed a lot of new stuff. I'd love to know how he did it.

As for the whole thing, we thought it was great, and look forward to part two.

Edited by Milburn Stone, Oct 18, 2011 @ 8:35 AM.

[LADreamr]

I think you'll like part 2 even more. There's a lot more focus on him and it's fascinating. I also like that they showed all sides of him and didn't just show the good parts. It made me like him even more.

[braggtastic]

I loved the quote about Patty, with George being happy she's with Eric rather than some random idiot. The reporters couldn't believe their ears. I think I also read somewhere that George really wanted kids and Patty wasn't able to have them, but I don't know if that is true.

His home and grounds were magnificent. Does Olivia still live there? I wonder how much it cost when he purchased it, and what it's worth now. I thought he had all kinds of money, but then Eric Idle said the $4 million for producing the film was all he had.

Edited by braggtastic, Oct 18, 2011 @ 3:32 PM.

[LADreamr]

Yeah, George's take on that was rather amazing. IIRC, he went to their wedding, too. I hope they haven't left Friar Park. What an amazing place! Olivia and Dhani seem like great people. I would love to have heard more from them. I saw an interview with Dhani online somewhere and he was talking about a conversation he had with George when he was 23, and he was saying all the stuff he had accomplished, "I've got my degree, I've done this, I've done that..." and then George says, "Hmm, what was I doing at 23? Oh, yeah - Sgt. Pepper!" Poor Dhani. It was pretty funny. Sounds like they had a great relationship.

[Roseha]

Olivia and Dhani seem like great people. I would love to have heard more from them. I saw an interview with Dhani online somewhere and he was talking about a conversation he had with George when he was 23, and he was saying all the stuff he had accomplished, "I've got my degree, I've done this, I've done that..." and then George says, "Hmm, what was I doing at 23? Oh, yeah - Sgt. Pepper!" Poor Dhani. It was pretty funny. Sounds like they had a great relationship.

Yes George always was funnier than he generally got credit for.

I take it they didn't interview Patti? I've always speculated that "Photograph" (written by George and Ringo but sung by Ringo) and the Wilburys' "Maxine" ("previously unreleased") may have been about Patti. Though George was apparently quite happy with Olivia later on.

I'd love to see this when it makes it to DVD.

[LADreamr]

Yeah, Patti was interviewed. She was on there a few times. I would love to see the DVD too. I just hope they add some extras. HBO is terrible about not doing that.

[Milburn Stone]

In her interview footage, I found Olivia's honesty about the imperfections in her marriage remarkable. And the same in the choice of vintage George interview footage. Clearly they were devoted to each other. Yet in the clip of George in his last years saying why he might want to go on living, he said, "to be here for my son who still needs his dad," and not a word about "to be here for my wife." Since Olivia was a producer of the film and had say over what got in and what didn't get in, she obviously had a quite intentional aim not to whitewash the truth of their relationship.

Edited by Milburn Stone, Oct 23, 2011 @ 6:57 AM.

[redtulip]

I think I also read somewhere that George really wanted kids and Patty wasn't able to have them, but I don't know if that is true.

I've read Pattie's autobiography and she was unable to have children. When she was married to Eric Clapton they tried a couple rounds of in vitro but were unsuccessful. She also tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant with George.

[mansonlamps]

Yet in the clip of George in his last years saying why he might want to go on living, he said, "to be here for my son who still needs his dad," and not a word about "to be here for my wife."

That struck me as odd too, along with her acknowledgement of his constant infidelity. It seemed they had a pretty great relationship for the most part, but it also seemed quite a bit lopsided in that Olivia loved George more than the reverse. Yet he comes across as being 1000% dedicated to his friends. He definitely was an interesting character. I had never read or heard much about Mrs. Harrison and found her to be quite interesting and intelligent, not to mention beautiful. I'm glad they found each other and that they were happy for the most part.

[applepie77]

I just caught this for the first time On Demand and was fascinated! I loved all of the more personal footage. Yes, a lot of Beatlemania has been thoroughly documented but I enjoyed the cavern footage and the perspective of them entering Shea (?) stadium during their initial US Tour. And George giggling at his young self singing.

The Eric Clapton interviews were fascinating and those two men struck me as profoundly close, despite what happened with Pattie Boyd. To me, GH was closer to EC than he was to his Beatle bandmates, save Ringo. I believe GH was sincere when he indicated he was happy PB ended up with Eric; other bios I have read suggest GH was a bit of a ladies man and could be very absorbed in his music, spirituality, women and at times, drugs; to the exclusion of all else in his life. Amazed they got Yoko to talk at all about anything Beatles. And I had no idea that EC played on "My Guitar Gently Weeps" (not a huge Beatle historian here).

Age, and the passing of time seemed to have softened any differences between the surviving Beatles. It's likely a heavy burden for both Paul and Ringo to carry, to talk about those days. Kind of a brothers-in-arms thing. Of course, the various tragedies, especially the murder of John Lennon, tend to diminish some of the differences the men had. I did like how they showed them signing dissolution papers -- interesting.

Definitely buying the DVDs as a gift for my 20-something daughter -- born 25 years after Beatlemania but who loves the Beatles and especially George.

Note to today's "stars": You might learn a thing or two about how GH lived his life, especially post-Beatle. He did not travel with huge entourages, hit clubs and make huge scenes for publicity, and was genuine in his desire to do something positive in the world that was not about him. Yes, he was likely wealthier than I could ever imagine, but outside of his lovely estate (and apparent penchant for fast cars), I don't recall him being all over the tabloids.

Edited by applepie77, Jun 22, 2012 @ 6:51 AM.