George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) User Reviews (52)

Life of George

[Lejink · 9/10 · 4 October 2011]

Of course you'd have to be a fan to really appreciate Martin Scorcese's extensive re- telling of the life and times of George Harrison but I am and so I presume was everyone at the sold out screening of the movie tonight at the Glasgow Film Theatre. More assembled than directed of course, Scorcese takes us through the highs and occasional lows of the man's life without signposting anything too obviously so that the near four-hour viewing time rarely drags (it was broken by a half-hour intermission at the showing I attended) and I found myself rapt with attention.

The film starts with a typically humorous, modest and elusive appearance by George seen between the flowers in his massive garden at Friar's Park, which mansion features so extensively in the footage shown that it should almost get a credit too. From there, Scorcese takes us on a linear journey dwelling on the major events in his life without markedly signposting the passage of time at any point, which I think helped the flow of the film. There was much archive photography and video footage which even a die-hard like me hadn't seen before, and the interviewees are well chosen and well edited, although I was surprised that say, Jeff Lynne or Michael Palin didn't get a look-in, although maybe Marty thought re. the latter that the presence of two other Pythons (Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam) was enough. The best of the interviewees are probably Gillam, Ringo and George's widow while the resemblance to his son Dhani is quite uncanny. The shock appearance of a now incarcerated Phil Spector, looking ridiculous in his "wig of the day" is controversial and prompted gales of laughter amongst the Glasgow crowd but he's actually surprisingly lucid. Yes perhaps Scorcese dwells too much on the Beatles time and omits his output from 1973 to 1988 almost totally - it was a mistake surely to not mark the sequence on Lennon's murder without playing even a snatch of "All Those Years Ago" and likewise to make no reference at all to his comeback hit single "Got My Mind Set On You" and parent album "Cloud Nine". Even so, while some may argue as to whether Harrison's own legacy deserves this Scorcese tribute in the wake of the great director's other recent homages to Dylan and the Stones, the fact that the audience I was among thought enough of what they had watched to spontaneously applaud at the end tells its own story, I think. As we near the tenth anniversary of his untimely death, I certainly enjoyed the movie and left convinced that George was a decent, not perfect man who while he may he have been the third most talented of the four Beatles, was more than worthy of this sincere and entertaining tribute.

Another one on the plus side for Scorsese, who always seems to deliver no matter what the project.

[Twins65 · 8/10 · 18 October 2011]

I have a few quibbles I'll get to in a bit which caused me to drop my rating a few notches, but all in all, if you're still interested in "The Fabs" 40+ years after they called it quits, do check this out. The nearly 3 1/2 hour total running time will seem like it flies by in less than your average 2 hour drama, with way more good stuff in it to take with you forever.

I'll agree with the earlier commenter who wanted some sort of narration and/or screen type to fill in some of the blanks and move things along. I'd consider myself fairly knowledgeable in Beatles (and post-Beatles) lore, but I sure was stumped a couple of times:

1) what was the TV talk show (which had to be from the U.K.) and what were the circumstances surrounding George's litigation against Ringo? 2) what was the song and where was the studio shown late in the movie where Paul and George were singing on a track? 3) no current interviews from Jeff Lynne and Robert Zimmerman 4) No clip from the movie "Help" for "I Need You", in my opinion his best Beatles song behind "Something" 5) What was the final resolution of his film company, which produced a few gems among several films up through 1990?

I'd also liked to have heard a bit more from Dhani, who seems extremely grounded despite growing up in tremendous wealth and having a father who was one of the most famous men on the planet. They must have done more than just garden together, right?

Hagiographic, but interesting because of its subject

[paul2001sw-1 · 8/10 · 22 March 2012]

George Harrison was a creative force in the Beatles; not as much a creative force as Lennon and McCartney, but still someone who contributed to their amazing, transformative body of music in a significant way. He was also unusually interested (for a westerner) in eastern mysticism; but was not without his attachments to aspects of the material world. The man's life is told, through old and new interviews with himself and his friends, and archive footage (of which there is plenty), in Martin Scorcese's film. It's fair to say the film is somewhat hagiographic, telling an overwhelming sympathetic story: a reference to a period of heavy drug abuse is made, but not directly commented upon, and no reference is made to the Natural Law Party (whose bizarre platform in the 1992 British general election was actively supported by Harrison). And one might question how much of the story of his later life is really that interesting, or whether his apparent contradictions were the simple consequence of having too much money and time. But one thing does come over: for all his failings, he seems to have been a genuinely loved human being, in a decidedly unusual way; to combine that with the musical legacy of the Beatles is not such a bad epitaph for a life.

Much better than expected

[musicman-1997 · 7 November 2011]

I had very low expectations- I have seen so many movies about the Beatles and they all use the same tired old video clips we've all seen a million times.

Much to my surprise, most of the material was fresh , amazing material that I'd never seen before.. with insights from Paul and Ringo that held me spellbound.. how George was introduced to John Lennon and the first song he played on top of a bus(watch the movie for the details) -just the little things you'd never know unless you saw the movie..

In my opinion, the first half was better than the second half, I think mostly because I knew how things would end... and I really, really didn't want it to end. But it did.

I miss George and John. It was a fantastic movie.

an in-depth film about an elusive but pleasant spirit

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 29 December 2011]

Why did Martin Scorsese decide to make a film about George Harrison? Why did he decide to make a film about the Dalai Lama? Or The Age of Innocence? While this is another documentary about a rock-star icon, following along from Scorsese's own The Last Waltz, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and Shine a Light, it's closest in style and tone to the Dylan doc, as a profile of a man of his time and how he lived through it.

Unlike Dylan, who is a mystery even to the most curious of fans (or just one of the more obnoxious, depends how you look at it), George Harrison seems to be, from accounts and interviews, to be a man of spiritual and artistic integrity who had various concerns and ideas, and he expressed them throughout his life - or, if not in the recording studio or as a producer of films, then with his garden. One may not be able to find the link between the sarcastic (if 'quiet') kid from A Hard Day's Night with an old man in a garden (or for that matter the old man having to defend his life against a burglar, as he did, in 1999), but it's all here.

I may not have found Harrison quite as enlightening as Bob Dylan, but should he be? Maybe in his own simple way though Scorsese finds a more direct path or personal link to him through the spiritual side. Harrison was someone who found through the Maharishi, Indian music, transcendental meditation, some kind of path through the noise of Western civilization.

The clash is what's interesting here, and Scorsese knows it too. While the director is fascinated with BIG emotions in his films (see anything with De Niro for more on that), he's also fascinated how someone operates with a calm demeanor on the surface burning with emotion underneath. Harrison was the guitarist for the Beatles and then when the break-up happened, he had to break-off and find another way. He was still a pop star, and his first solo album, the great 'All Things Must Pass' went into the top ten of the charts. But how did he reconcile a working class British-Liverpool upbringing with the teachings of Haria Krishna?

Of course, the first hour of this massive three 1/2 hour films are dedicated to him and the Beatles, and it's wonderful to see the footage, hear the songs, find out some details about the songs Harrison wrote for the group (i.e. the first song he ever wrote, 'If I Needed Someone'). Then the second part is about the spiritual search, or what's close to it, mixed with the start of the solo career (and of course some of the famous tales of romantic highs and lows via Patti and Eric Clapton are included).

There's a section for the film-part of his career, where as a man of faith, though not exactly (it's complicated you see) he helped pay "the most ever anyone's paid for a movie ticket" for Monty Python's Life of Brian. And then about his gardening, his second wife Olivia (and - kind of a shock to me - the candor which Olivia, who was a producer on the film and wrote the book spin-off of the film, talks about Harrison's infidelities in their marriage, something I really admired), and other things like friendships, the burglary in 1999, and his untimely passing from cancer.

It wouldn't be a Scorsese movie without music, and hey, it's George Harrison so there's lots of good stuff here (sadly, for me, no 'I Got My Mind Set on You'), and there's the director via editor David Tedeschi's marvelous way of navigating the story with music. Watch the opening and how 'All Things Must Pass' goes over the WW2 footage, then mixed in with some of the more traditional music of the 1940's period to see some of the brilliance with which Scorsese does this. And the interviews are mostly illuminating and nice, once or twice piling on the adulation (perhaps as one might expect) while still giving some moments for the quirks Harrison had - such as a story Tom Petty tells about ukuleles - and some of his flaws as a man and artist.

I'm not sure if for fans the film will shine a whole lot of new light, though for newcomers it should provide the bulk of know-how. What's great about the film ultimately is the thread of the story, and how the filmmaker is not afraid to jump around, or jump ahead, and expect the audience to keep up. It's not as straight-thru as, say, The Beatles Anthology. We're seeing a life in various dimensions, time-spans, and it's as if not more post-modern than the Dylan doc. It's joyous, meditative, somber, happy, funny, a little daft and a little less than perfect. I can't wait to revisit the life and work.

Beautiful Garden

[italo505 · 9/10 · 12 April 2012]

may seems like a sad song to you, a song about a man that laments everything. But into looking through George Harrison's soulful deep dark stare, I realize the man was lamenting what he had become and the man he could potentially be, while everyone around him told him he should be one way or another. He was a very different Beatle. He was not as big as John Lennon or Paul Mc Cartney but he was a little hidden talent who worked behind the scenes more than anything, he was the man behind the curtains who liked to look from aside, or look at the Beatles as an outsider, very self conscious of where his life was headed but having a strong sense of self, a strong sense of what he wanted his music to carry: this sweet, spiritual side of him that could not be contained inside this phenomenon that was the Beatles.

In the opening scenes of Living in the Material World, the new HBO documentary directed by Martin Scorsese we take an unusual look at the most enigmatic Beatle, the one that was not always in front of the newscasts, the reporters, he was no newspaper headlines material as John and Paul were which helped him create his own sound and his own songs that graced some of the Beatles albums such as Revolver's Taxman, White Album's While My Guitar Gently Weeps or Abbey Road's Something and Here Comes The Sun which became some of The Beatles' most recognizable and beloved songs of their careers. We also meet a man who became more spiritual and embraced Indian culture and Hinduism with his friend and sitar player Ravi Shankar, who appears in the documentary numerous times and was such an influence in both his music and his own life gave a complete twist. He saw something deeper than any of the Beatles had, something that he was searching for, something so unique and exquisite that he spent many hours listening to Ravi play his sitar and teaching him the techniques to perfect the art.

George Harrison was like a sponge absorbing every little essence he could from Ravi and the Indian culture that he even introduced some of this music into The Beatles with songs like The Inner Light, Revolver's Love You To and Tomorrow Never Knows and the incredibly ahead of its time Sgt. Pepper's Within You Without You which, in my opinion, brought The Beatles to a status that had never achieved before. At least first time I heard Within You Without You I thought to myself: what does it mean? How does it come into play into my life? It didn't need translation, it transcended everything and the answer was always there: look inside yourself and there you will find peace, you didn't need no temple, no clergy, no middle man: just you and God.

George Harrison was idolized by the hippie movement of the 60's which in this documentary he admittedly despised, one weekend he spent with them was all he needed to realize it was not what he was looking for, this world of drugs, peace and love was not what he was searching for and he knew he had to meditate more as to where he wanted to go spiritually and artistically.

It's funny that he said that in this documentary himself since I thought for the longest time that he was a hippie himself, a man who took to drugs and experimented with a sitar and period, that was it. In Living In The Material World I have re-discovered why I've always loved The Beatles so much: they're not just four lads from Liverpool that created the best singles of the 60's and were musically talented but now also I see a side of them I hadn't really come to think about before.

There was something very interesting that was said during this doc, he basically says for a man that has everything, they handed him anything he wished for, anything he ever wanted, anything within his reach he could have but if you have emptiness in your heart and soul then you're still not a rich person and you cannot take it with you. In life everything we own that is material is worth nothing when we leave our bodies and what George Harrison did constantly was to prepare himself mentally and spiritually for that moment in which he had to leave his body for his next adventure. I'm sure that wherever he is, he's playing his sitar contemplating how much he'd accomplished, how much he's left behind: his legacy, his family, his garden. Boy, was he ever so proud of that garden.

Interesting

[Johnny_West · 8/10 · 15 September 2021]

I liked this documentary, but it was just hundreds of bits of film footage and interviews without any explanation. Even a little bit would have been nice.

As a casual fan of the Beatles, some explanation, such as the death of Stuart Sutcliffe and why Pete Best left the band would have been good. Instead, we have pictures of five Beatles, and then someone says that John Lennon was affected by the death of Stuart Sutcliffe, and then a clip of the Beatles with Ringo Starr. No information given about Sutcliffe or Best.

No doubt most fans know the stories, but I don't. Lots of good clips are spliced together, but it seems choppy sometimes. Like Claus Voorman and his wife Astrid are interviewed about the early Beatles, and how they were providing them with food, etc., then they just disappear. A lot of loose ends. I guess after you watch this documentary, you can read some books about the Beatles?

I enjoyed all the information and interviews, but compared to other documentaries, this one lacked a narrative that connected all the clips/photos/interviews together in a timeline.

This wonderful documentary is a film not to be missed.

[Mobithailand · 10/10 · 25 April 2016]

I will always go out of my way to see the work of certain actors and directors – a select few, who, in my opinion, can do no wrong. I will always watch an Al Pacino or a De Niro film – even if it is a bad one, as by their very presence, they will somehow drag it out of the mundane and make it a pleasurable experience.

One of my favourite directors is Martin Scorsese and to me, he can do no wrong, ever since I saw Taxi Driver all those years ago. Since then, he has followed up with masterpieces such as Goodfellas, Casino and Gangs of New York. Recently, his production and directorial contributions to the TV series, Boardwalk Empire has elevated it to the echelons of all time TV greats, such as The Sopranos. Scorsese also has also directed a number of notable documentaries through the years, almost always connected in some way to his love of music and music performers. His latest, about the life of the Beatle George Harrison, is a feast for the eyes.

To Beatles fans, lovers of popular music, or just someone interested in the life and times of this fascinating and talented man, this documentary is a 'must see'. I sat down to watch it at around 10 p.m and sat transfixed, hardly realising that the clock was almost at the hour of 2 a.m by the time the final credits rolled down the screen – along with a few tears rolling down my cheeks… There is no narrator - no quoting of dates or facts - just a cinematic account of the life of George, from his earliest days in the Beatles right up to the day of his death from cancer in 2001. The story is 'told' through mainly previously unseen footage and magical interviews with so many friends and family who knew him and lived through the same life and times as he did. I have a new respect for Paul and Ringo who clearly gave very honest, heartfelt and sometimes surprisingly vulnerable accounts of themselves and their relationships with George and their times with him – both good and bad. There many others; Eric Clapton, John Lennon, both of George's wives, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Tom Petty, Phil Spector, Yoko Ono, Jackie Stewart and so many more. Some of these people were interviewed especially for the film and other interviews were taken from archive footage, much of it never seen before.

At the top of the list of interviewees is George himself, speaking from his very early Beatle days, almost up to the time of his death. George was a fascinating man who lived a very full life, from his music, to his film production, to his love of cars, to garden design and to his almost fanatical involvement in Indian mysticism and trans-meditation. Through the years, this quiet but highly charismatic person acquired an incredible array of devoted friends from all walks of life. I particularly loved the videos of the impromptu sessions shot at Bob Dylan's home recording studio in New York when members of the 'Travelling Wilburys', (George, Tom petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison), collaborated on a new song. It is pure magic. But there again, there are so many magical moments. This wonderful documentary is a film not to be missed.

The farther one travels,the less one knows......

[dbdumonteil · 9/10 · 21 October 2014]

The title is no misnomer.As George sang in the track from the eponymous album,"by the Lord Sri Krishna's grace (....) my salvation from the material world" .At the time many people laughed at Harrison whom they dismissed as unhip and holier-than-thou.

Scorcese's movie is exactly what George would have wanted:a long and winding line of thought of an icon who,little by little ,ditched the material world :an adulated entertainer in the glorious years of the Beatles (to whom he contributed a good handful of classics) ,a peak of musical and spiritual inspiration with his mind-boggling " all things must pass" (which remains,along with "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" ,my favorite solo album).

In the seventies ,it seems that George was not that interested in carrying on with a career which anyway was on the wane after "material world" ,his last number one .The concert for Bangla Desh was a grand gesture (and Bob Geldof's laurels actually belonged to the ex-Beatle),but the rest of it ,the 1974 tour,the infatuation with racing cars ,the homemade productions ,the Japanese tour,even the marvelous Traveling Wilburys, were minor events .

George had warned us on the overlooked B side "the inner light" in the words he set to music on a college professor's request:"without looking out of my Windows ,I could know the ways of Heaven" .

His final years were probably the happiest of his life ,with a marvelous wife ,Olivia ,who shared his way of life ,and a son to carry on.Two hundred years after Voltaire,like Zadig,he cultivated his garden while continuing his spiritual quest.His ultimate album,"brainwashed" ,lived up to its name:although terminally ill,the musician produced a cheerful album,full of serenity .More than thirty years after the song,he had learned the "art of dying" ;"I've never seen such a confident patient " a physician said .

Like Scorcese's take on Dylan ("no way home" ) ,"living in the material world " is never off the point .Nothing sensational,nothing scandalous,but an absorbing portrayal of a man,who,after conquering the whole world,realized he could "arrive without traveling " and "see all without looking".

Fascinating Stuff

[richy-782-441259 · 10/10 · 13 July 2015]

Stumbled onto the second part of this documentary and enjoyed it so much, I had to go looking for part 1. Love the way it was done with stories told through film clips of George himself and others in his life. Really personal insights into the man. I didn't realize how many great songs he had written. I don't consider myself spiritual at all, but found his philosophies and ideas to be extremely interesting. So many great photos and clips of him and all the Beatles. Mesmerizing to see the surreal life they lived, and very touching moments. I didn't know much at all about the quiet Beatle but, even though he had drug problems, I admire him greatly now. What an interesting guy who made such a mark on the world.

Well, I enjoyed it, but...

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 4 December 2011]

Martin Scorsese's 4 hour documentary on George Harrison bears very few of Scorsese's fingerprints. It is assembled from familiar Beatles footage, Anthology interview outtakes, previously unseen personal footage and photographs, and fresh interviews with certain individuals (Olivia Harrison, Clapton, and Ringo all have meaty interviews).

For the non-Beatle enthusiast, this will be overkill with a vengeance. For the casual Beatle enthusiast, it is probably just about perfect. For the die-hard, it is an experience which is rewarding and frustrating in equal measure. It is rewarding for two reasons: one, there are some lovely moments (chief among which are two anecdotes, one from Olivia and one from Ringo, which illuminate George's mordant sense of humour in the face of adversity) and, two there are some terrific musical moments which had previously been kept under wraps - indeed, I think I detected some unheard elements in Beatles mixes.

This is also one of the frustrations because, as is so often the case with this sort of project (Anthology was just the same) none of the musical items is seen through to completion - everything is cut short. Also, there are some major omissions, of which the Cloud 9 album is the most notable.

Even so, you come to the end of this feeling George's loss very keenly.

Scorcese Lays The Law Down On Doing A Rock Star Documentary

[iamyuno2 · 9/10 · 4 January 2014]

The rock doc format is a tricky one and one that's not been done well very much, ever.

The Beatles' Anthology was a huge exception - that was one hell of a great documentary, giving us an incredible number of new insights into the world's greatest rock band ever. But that documentary was done with the full cooperation of the surviving Beatles.

Here, Martin Scorcese takes on a trickier subject - that of a reclusive Beatle, post mortem - and produces a gem. Like any great documentary, there were many revelations that rewarded the viewer with insights into a great but little-known man. This was the least-interviewed and least-public Beatle and it took a lot of hard work to produce this, no doubt. So kudos to Scorcese indeed.

True, too, is that this is a warts-and-all biography - which any great documentary should be. It doesn't tarnish the love you likely feel for Harrison. It just makes him more human. Turns out, for instance, that he was not only the funniest of all the Beatles (as you will find out), but also capable of the most biting honesty when he didn't like something a person did (and his wit was perhaps even sharper than John Lennon's, in the doing). OK - so he was human, like you and me. Not perfect, but nothing revealed makes us lose the slightest bit of admiration and respect for him.

The movie did, however, tarnish my view of one of my other idols, Eric Clapton, who is caught in a big lie in this film. Shame on you, Eric. George forgave you but I don't.

Finally, like any great documentary, you're going to be sad when it ends. (Any other footage you could use for a part 3, Marty?)

Scorsese? I don't understand....

[eskimosound · 7/10 · 15 October 2020]

How Scorsese Directed this is beyond me...from it's very awkward silent start, through its incredibly bad editing to it's interesting ending, I cannot see how Scorcese was involved, he must have Directed it on paper, and Produced it by phone but it's like they just used his name to get the never before seen footage and interviews. Like the Rolling Stones Shine A Light this proves Scorsese should just stick to making movies. It is an interesting documentary, sure, with some lovely footage and great interviews but it's not put together well...so it gets a 7, hey it did better than the very boring Stones Shine a Light which I gave 3.

I will just say it once more Martin Scorsese should stick to making Movies and stay away from aging Pop Stars... Documentary Maker he is not.

A few clarifications

[kdhymes · 5/10 · 6 May 2012]

I can't claim direct knowledge of the topics addressed by many reviewers here, but I can say that I have read just about every significant book published about The Beatles in general, and Harrison in particular. I totally understand the issues people express about this film: long without being either balanced or comprehensive; curiously silent on some key events (perhaps Olivia Harrison's wishes are a factor here?); missing some key points of view (though getting Dylan, for example, to talk about anything in a useful way is notoriously difficult). But I feel I must address a couple of points raised.

1. Re: Concert for Bangladesh. The amount raised by the concert itself was about a quarter of a million dollars. Sales of the iterations of the album and the movie raised about 12 million, to be administered by UNICEF. The money DID go to refugee relief, BUT was delayed by 11 years because of the failure of organizers to apply for tax-exempt status. So... bad planning, but not a scam or a failure.

2. Re: Harrison's relative contribution to the Beatles. On the one hand, the evidence is quite clear that Ringo was far more crucial to the Beatles sound in the studio than Harrison - the band simply did not function well with any other drummer (rumors of McCartney sitting in are based on photos, not the meticulous records kept by Abbey Road; when Ringo quit for 6 weeks in 1968, numerous replacements including Ginger Baker were tried, and no one was able to provide the subtle and generous and dare I say feminine approach that the Beatles suddenly discovered was a key ingredient in their process, causing them to beg for his return). Harrison was great at coming up with carefully planned, often double-tracked parts, which added beauty and flavor at a higher level than McCartney or Lennon could offer (the 15 seconds or so of Harrison on Getting Better, e.g., truly makes the recording). But he was an indifferent electric rhythm guitar player in my opinion. His songs were only occasionally as good as L&M's, however there is no denying the fact, attested to by Martin, Parsons, and others, that Harrison got short shrift in studio time to realize his ideas.

It is essential to keep in mind that L&M were given INCREDIBLE amounts of time for the era, virtually unlimited takes after 1965, to get the basic tracks right, and then to try dozens of approaches to the sweetening and vocals. Harrison was never given this opportunity until the last two real albums produced (White Album and Abbey Road), and suddenly his work shows a massive uptick in quality, both of writing and execution (Savoy Truffle, Piggies, Something, Long Long Long, Here Comes the Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps - all of these outclass his earlier work by miles). It can't be a coincidence that once the Beatles essentially stopped being a team and became each others' session players, Harrison flourished. Also worth noting that he produced the first truly satisfying album as a solo artist, All Things Must Pass - overly long, but a big hit and a good listen, using in part songs he had been carrying around for a few years.

With regard to the contradictions between his lifestyle and his purported spiritual values - in what way is this unusual or even notable? Seems like standard operating procedure for entertainment celebrities to either need a frame of self-justification, or to have trouble avoiding the temptations of riches, or both.

I obviously appreciate Harrison's work, but I'm not an uncritical fan - his "middle period" of solo work is pretty awful, just a few songs are keepers; and even Cloud Nine is really a few good songs surrounded by oddly paced, indifferently written material. His last album, Brainwashed, is weird but really interesting, and at a higher level lyrically than anything he had done since All Things Must Pass.

He was who he was: not a genius on the level of L&M, but an ingredient in their recorded output that would be sorely missed were we somehow able to remove it. And there is an argument that his presence and his influence enriched the Beatles philosophically, lyrically and musically. They were very competitive: if George was spiritual, well by jove they were going to be spiritual too. A thin veneer of spirituality perhaps, on lives that were primarily about fame and money and art, but again an ingredient that, if not present, would have made the Beatles a very different band.

A passionate and clear documentary

[tomgillespie2002 · 20 October 2011]

Martin Scorsese has throughout his career, made several labor of love documentaries mainly on the subject of another of his passions, music. In this one his focus is on "the quiet" Beatle. Harrison was always seen as completely secondary to Lennon and McCartney. However, in this film , Scorsese shows the complexity of his character. We see his very important contribution to The Beatles, not only through his own song writing, but also the elements that essentially made many of the Lennon/McCartney compositions.

We follow him through his exploration of, particularly, Indian mysticism and philosophy, and how he integrated this into his everyday life. His contribution to the film industry is summarily gone over, from his involvement with Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1974), through to the creation of the production company, Handmade Films, that became involved in some of the great British films of the 1980's.

What is apparent throughout the film is Scorsese's clear love of the music. Using still photographs, there are many sections that fill the three and a half hours with Harrison's songs. Scorsese uses these throughout, and presents them chronologically, so that we are able to witness the evolution of Harrison's song writing.

A clear documentary made by someone passionate about the subject, the film paints a picture of a very interesting man, who lived through much change around and within himself. This is a very well researched, well constructed story, and whilst long, does not seem that way whilst viewing.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

"He just lit the room." - Olivia Harrison

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 28 November 2017]

When all is said and done, the viewer comes away from this documentary knowing more about George Harrison than one did before, but I couldn't help thinking that there was just too much of a stream of consciousness approach to getting it all down on film. I can't tell you how many times the narrative got muddled with clips of Harrison presented in no semblance of chronological order. You would see him alternately with a beard, clean shaven, mustache with no beard, lean in appearance and then heavier with age, all within a short time span as he reflected on his role with The Beatles and discussing other areas of his life.

But even for long time Beatles fans, there are probably enough nuggets of new information to make the nearly four hour effort worth your while. Most of the first disc in the two disc set talks about the Beatles years, but with somewhat of a superficial gloss to a handful of topics that in some cases seemed to apply more to Paul and John. What particularly interested me was how George entered the post-Beatles phase, delving into Indian philosophy and spirituality. I was happy to see the transition to The Traveling Wilburys period. To this day, I think it's some of the finest music one can listen to from an incredibly talented assemblage of performers.

When I think back upon my own life and recall the history of The Beatles as they first emerged on the music scene, I feel kind of bad for those who missed that experience simply by being born too late. It's easy enough for seasoned citizens like myself to pick out contemporaries in the documentary like Donovan, Twiggy, Petula Clark, Billy Preston and Leon Russell, but because their appearances are so fleeting without being identified, they become just nameless faces in the crowd for casual viewers. For some reason it makes me a little sad.

One thing I had long forgotten about was the attack on Harrison's home in England by a deranged 'fan'. Harrison's wife Olivia opines on that event in frightful detail. Other folks who have things to say about Harrison throughout include Paul and Ringo, Eric Clapton, other Harrison family members, and a whole host of performers who shared the stage with the former Beatle. I found it particularly ironic, only due to my timing in watching the film, to hear Tom Petty speak about the phone call he got from George the day after Roy Orbison died. Harrison's only words were "Aren't you glad it's not you?" With Petty's own death a mere month or so ago as I write this, it won't be long in the grand scheme of things for all these musical icons to eventually move on to a better place. Quite sadly, those that have passed on are already terribly missed.

The Great Energy getting personal

[ptsj-music · 10/10 · 15 July 2017]

George Harrison's dearest love in life, Olivia, sums it up in a very fine and simple way in the end of this film, that isn't an ordinary documentary about a famous pop rock star. Neither was he an ordinary star, if there is any, but still he saw himself as an ordinary man, or he wanted to be just that. It's not in the film but Harrison once said that if he wasn't a Beatle, he'd probably just be a regular guy. As much as he never got to be that, this is what made much of his confidence and down to earth attitude, being straight forward and truthful, but still making the ones surrounding him feel relaxed.

That really is what this film is about, not so much about the great and famous George Harrison, but what he tried to live, be and give. He had very much to give, of love, wisdom and perspective. And in the film it is presented in a very balanced way that he had this formidable energy that had been build up through the years with the Beatles, and that he spent the rest of his life searching how to use this energy for the better of himself and all those he loved. It is simple and there is no particular magic to it.

I once in my very younger years was asked who I like most of John Lennon and Paul McCartney - and I replied George Harrison. The band could not have been the same without him.

Living In A Material World tries to communicate what most concerned this man from Liverpool, who somehow in a special moment of history got to materialize the Great Energy, and make it personal, for the benefit of millions of people. I can't really see it being made any better.

"What is Life?"

[LeonLouisRicci · 8/10 · 5 November 2012]

On the Beatles Albums most of the Songs were Written by Lennon/Mccartney (and other covers of RnR and R&B standards) but there was usually one that was Penned by a Fella named Harrison.

That one Track was always Stack-able next to the others and was not just a throwaway or token Inclusion. The song was just as Cool and Rocked along with the others, and if one Listened Closely it did have an Ethereal and Otherworldly Feel that was not only from the Heart but linked to the Soul with a Mystical Presence Apart from the other three minute Teenybopper Soaps.

That was George Harrison. Even before, even He, knew that there was more..."it's just things", he would say, "it really doesn't matter". But it turned out It Did Matter as He would Discover.

While the Juggernaut of John and Paul was Prolifically Pounding out a stream of Wonderful, Timeless little Ditties of Poetry with a Back-Beat, George was Gently Pushed to the Peripheral and as it turned out, that is where His Clever Cultivation Occurred. The Results were Not as Numerous but just as Substantial as His Mates.

This was His Essence, the Spiritual seeking and the Oneness of it all that became His Belief and it proved to be rather Reflective in Retrospect.

Part of the Sum of the Parts as to what the Beatles without the Fab Four could Never have been. It's like Paul says in the Film..."A square with four corners, remove one and it is gone".

So the Documentary Lays Bare that in this corner we have George, and it (He) is clearly Exposed as the most Self-Conscious, Introspective of the Group and Shows the Band to be simply...John the Mind...Paul the Heart...George the Soul...and Ringo Wrapped it together on the Skins.

The Film is Not all Encompassing, what could ever be?. The Film is Not always Entertaining, no One Life ever is. The Film is a Long Exposure of a Moving Snapshot. A Look in on the Life and Times of a Man, a Dreamer, an Artist, and a Sensitive Soul that tried to figure it all out by being..."IN the Material World...but not OF the Material World".

The Movie is a Stark and Welcome Compendium and a Compilation of Images, Thoughts, and Feelings about an Interesting Fella that can still "Light Up the Room".

Great movie

[mitsubishizero · 9/10 · 22 May 2019]

It's 3 hours long so you'll be sitting down for a while but even so this is a great documentary. It's cool to see both George Harrison as a Beatle and a solo artist. The documentary really dives into how complex he was as an individual. He never wanted to be famous rather instead he was searching for his purpose in life and saw music as a way to help him achieve that.

Personally I thought George was the most interesting of the bunch due to his quiet yet larger than life persona. The people who knew him that are being interviewed do a good job in telling what kind of a person he was along with the events that happened to them both good and bad. The footage of him being interviewed is also interesting. It was cool to hear his thoughts about things such as the music industry and the current state of the world.

He really wanted to make a difference before he left this world and it shows. If you're a Beatles and or Harrison fan I highly recommend you check this out. It can get boring and slow at times but there's enough to keep you interested.

Wistful look at the "quiet" Beatle's life and times

[paul-allaer · 8/10 · 29 August 2020]

"George Harrison: Living In the Material World" (2011 release; 210 min.) is a two-part documentary about the life and times of George Harrison. As the film opens, several talking heads (including Eric Clapton) are asked "what would you say to him if he were here?" (to which EC replies: "have a cup of tea!"). We then go back in time to WWII footage, as George's two brothers talk about what he ws like growing up. It's not long before George is brought on by Macca to join Paul's and John's band. George was barely 16-17... At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest music documentary directed by Martin Scorsese, and per the usual, he does a very fine job of it. All of the usual highlights of the Beatles are captured, with a George-specific angle of course. It is hard to believe that George, born in 1943, was only 17 during their Hamburg days, and still not even 20 when the Beatles started to rise in the charts. Resulting from an LSD trip, George soon finds himself asking questions that lead him to spiritualism and meditation, something he would pursue the rest of his life. Part 1 of the documentary ends with the Harrison classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in finished mode. Part 2 opens with the same song, but as a demo, as we learn that competition for songs is such that the Beatles pass on "All Things Must Pass", and Harrison stockpiles song upon song, leading to his triple-LP debut album "All Things Must Pass" in 1970. 1971's "The Concert for Bangla Desh" gets ample screen time, and in fact the last 40 years take up just the last hour of this documentary. It's nevertheless hard to fault Scorsese or Olivia Harrison (who produced and gets ample screen time).

As one of the talking heads sums it up well towards the end: "George battle the material world vs. the spiritual world". Along the way, this documentary oozes with fabulous music and tons of rarely seen archive footage and photos. If you are a fan of the Beatles and/or George Harrison, I am confident that you will enjoy this documentary from start to finish. We are now almost another decade later, yet this documentary is as relevant then as it is still now, and the legacy of George Harrison, if anything, continues to grow as time passes.

"George Harrison" (2011) documentary it the best "trip" back to the 1960's era

[DavidAllenUSA · 10/10 · 9 September 2012]

"George Harrison" (2011) documentary it the best "trip" back to the 1960's era mentality Harrison never abandoned! See it and you'll experience "the 60's"...the noblest era of modern times! ----------

See this noble documentary by Marin Scorcese! It will take you back to the fabled "1960's" and everybody needs to re-visit those times, including people like me who remember it well, and also people never part of it, or who were there but left it when the calendar changed and "modern times" after the "60's" started up and continued to the present (2012).

The famous movie titled "My Dinner With Andre" (1981) asked the important question "What if the '60's were the best years ever to have happened, and it's been all down hill after that?" Worth thinking about! The "'60's" were a highlight in human history of great importance, a benchmark of cultural and human excellence.

They somehow got disappeared, and more to the sad point, never properly or adequately explained or communicated after the times changed, and glory of the '60's died.

George Harrison was an icon of the 1960's, and his life after the '60's was devoted to ideals part of the high water mark times of the '60's.....and we see his important life in this wonderful documentary movie.....created in 2011 by Martin Scorcese.

Scorcese attended NYU Film School in the mid-1960's and was a senior camera crew tech guy for the "Woodstock" (1969) documentary when Scorcese was still in his 20's. He was there for all of it, and never forgot it.

"George Harrison: Living In The Material World" (2011) is a memorial to the whole decade as well as to Mr. Harrison who was and is a remarkably representative person part of the 1960's.

You had to be there to understand it, and remember it.

No adequate documentary or other cinema art work effort ever came near to communicating what the 1960's were all about, why they were so important, and truly different than times before or since.....not until this documentary.

See it, and you'll see the 1960's ideals and way of life, mentality.....so important and beautiful and worth preserving and studying.

The 1960's were more than "flower power" and "social protest" times and events......those years, for some people, were a way of life never to be forgotten or abandoned.

Yet, they are hard to describe......memories supported by visual and sound images need to be presented about the 1960's.

This documentary is the very best effort doing that...succeeds as no other documentary about those times has ever done, to my thinking.

You'll "feel" the 1960's........if you screen this documentary movie....and that's a worthwhile experience...one worth repeating often until you "get the point" and then start working to bring it back...somehow.

-----------------

Written by Tex Allen, SAG actor.

More about Tex Allen at WWW.IMDb.ME/TexAllen.

Email Tex Allen at [e-mail]

Disappointed

[aki75 · 6/10 · 19 October 2011]

I was very disappointed by this doco. Being a Scorsese film I had high hopes, but I was let down. It felt very jumbled, particularly the beginning where it just kept chopping and changing from one piece of footage to the next, and one person to the next. It did get better as it went along thankfully. I'd say Part 2 was better than Part 1.

I like George Harrison, but I didn't know enough about him to really keep track on who a few of the people were in the film. I would have been nice for them to have been introduced somehow. It just seemed like the doco was bits of stuff just stuck together and wasn't overly coherent. Lennon's death and Harrison's reaction to it was barely touched on. It was quite all quite clinical and unmoving.

If you want to see a documentary done very well, see SENNA. Living in a Material World pales in comparison. After watching Senna I was speechless for about an hour and it has effected me ever since. Living in Material World? Well it didn't even really effect me while watching it. While leaving this movie I wished that Senna had gone for the same length as this movie and that Living in a Material World had gone for less than 2.

Living in the Material World is not a fitting tribute to a great man.

More than outstanding documentary!

[michaelRokeefe · 9/10 · 12 August 2014]

This is Martin Scorsese's elaborate and deliberate profile of George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001. This documentary explores Harrison's contributions to The Beatles, the Beatles' breakup, his roller coaster solo career, the concert for Bangladesh, the Traveling Wilburys, spirituality, human dignity and his battle with cancer.

Among those sharing memories: Olivia Harrison(wife), Dahni Harrison(son), Paul McCartney, George Martin, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Phil Spector, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty, Ravi Shankar, Jackie Stewart and Eric Idle.

A few of those also appearing(some via archive footage): John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Stuart Sutcliffe, Pattie Boyd, Julian Lennon, Jeff Lynne, Klaus Voormann, Brian Epstein, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Linda McCartney, Mal Evans, Joe Cocker, Neil Aspinall and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Just a few of the songs featured(The Beatles and solo): "Don't Bother Me", "If I Needed Someone", "Within You Without You", "Savoy Truffle", "Beware Of Darkness", "The Inner Light", "Something", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes The Sun", "What Is Life", "My Sweet Lord", "Give Me Love", "Isn't It A Pity", "Wah-Wah", "Dark Horse", "Brainwashed" and "All Things Must Pass".

Intriguing and long - but non too critical - look at the quiet Beatle.

[Pedro_H · 7/10 · 14 November 2011]

The central problem with documentaries is that they are - at best - when they surprise, intrigue or even shock. The story of The Beatles is only behind the story of Jesus in being constantly re-told.

Even with the novelty of the focus being on George Harrison (for a change) you come with a heavy heart: knowing that you are, probably, going to see a lot of familiar film stock, hear a lot of familiar songs and yawn through a lot of misty-eyed wasn't-he-great backslapping from the great and the good.

Thankfully Martin Scorsese knows all this and - at least - tries to get original and unseen material, original interviews (but no Dylan or Jeff Lynne - why?) and dabbles with unorthodox approaches, including home movies. The opening and closing images (George in his beloved garden) being the most striking.

(The balance he gets totally wrong - his son Dhani gets so little interview time for a start.)

This clearly isn't going to be the best doc about Harrison in a hundred years time. It is aimed at me - the all-too-knowing viewer who has lived it though the papers, TV and even cinema. To enjoy this (and even make sense of it) you have to be able to fill in the many blanks yourself.

Major bombshells are avoided. Sometimes for no reason. The My Sweet Lord plagiarism case (he lost) is not even mentioned once! The farce of the Concert for Bangladesh which saw not one penny go to those in immediate need (here the film is deceptive to the point of being misleading!) The media comments about after hearing about Lennon's murder only to go back to sleep!

People loved this man. As Madonna said, "there isn't a bad bone in him." Well there was a few small ones. He took a lot of hard drugs (probably explaining his pasty-faced shambling stage performances glimpsed here) and he smoked very heavily. He also dosed unknowing people with acid. He cheated on his second wife (she says so herself in highly rehearsed code) and was strange (maybe greedy) with money. Who else goes in to tax exile when fighting cancer?

(How many mansions and exotic holidays can anybody want?)

He didn't actually write much, but it was usually pretty good when he did. Some of my favourite Beatles tracks are his, but the constant claims about "being squeezed out of the albums" has never borne much examination. When it was brilliant it got on. The mediocre stuff was junked. Lennon and Macca were the only ones allowed so-so material.

As a guitarist, not very good. OK on a good day. Here they give half-hearted praise about his slide work. Pete Townsend said (on hearing the tracks without the vocals) how ropey and out-of-tune they often sounded. Next to (best mate) Clapton he sounded like a guy playing in a pub. Not that he actually pretended otherwise.

I simply don't understand eastern mysticism or like eastern music. That is probably my ignorance/loss. However it clearly involves a lot of sitting on bottoms trying to feel good about yourself. Mansions, motor racing and electric guitars - his other three clear loves - are built by people who don't do a lot of these things. You know something, the material world has more going for it than these orange-clad layabouts would acknowledge.

Shoddy

[sokeep · 2/10 · 8 October 2011]

Let me state this from the off: I've got a lot of respect for Martin Scorsese. And I'm a big George Harrison fan.

But I was so bored of this documentary that I had to leave it an hour and a half through.

The biggest problem? There was no narrative. No flow. You're given no over-arching journey or picture at all, and no purpose or drive to what unfolds. It was assumed you knew the story anyway, and so it was simply ignored (I can't imagine how confusing someone unfamiliar with the Beatles would've found the section about Astrid Kirchherr and their Hamburg days. Even to fans like myself, it was told in a way that was insubstantial and unclear) (That you're told Stuart Sutcliffe's death was difficult before you've even been introduced to him or told his relation to anyone else is one example of this).

The story was told in isolated blocks - ten minutes of George and the Beatles coping with screaming fans and hotel rooms. Followed by ten minutes of them entering the studio. - and it didn't work. Not only did it disconnect things that were actually intimately entwined, but it removed any sense of development. Things were presented in a roughly chronological way, but not such that any of it felt meaningful. "This, and then This" rather than "This, and therefore This".

It was as though someone had made two checklists, one of "Events" and the other of "Footage", and they just indiscriminately filed all of the latter into the arbitrary structure of the former.

Some of the cuts also stood out (never a good sign for a cut anyway) as really poorly done - music stopping abruptly as we cut to a talking head, or a scene with an older George inexplicably squashed in amongst something utterly different (Did it cast those shots in a different light? Reframe the meaning, recast the subject? No.)

Another real disappointment was the failure of the documentary to convey any atmosphere, sense of place or sense of character. Who was George Harrison? What were his relationships like? Nothing came across. Or how about the places and the mood of their existence, be it in hotels, or the studio, or during his childhood or in India or...again, the documentary was empty, vacant, frustrating. This was partly due to the talking heads, who didn't offer any insights or anecdotes beyond their own self-importance (Eric Clapton calling himself a "lone wolf" was inadvertently hilarious though), but also due to the disconnected, inexpressive editing.

My overriding thought throughout was "Man, this is really poorly done". I didn't expect that, I was entering this film full of excitement. But after an hour and a half of time and again catching myself saying it, I decided enough was enough. A real disappointment; one of the messiest, dullest, directionless documentaries I've seen in a long time. The subject matter deserves a much better, more sensitive, meaningful treatment.