Martin Scorcese’s previous 2 part music documentary “No Direction Home” about Bob Dylan & his 1966 UK tour was a huge critical success, primarily for the unseen footage from those shows & the actual moment from the Manchester Free Trade Hall when Dylan was called “Judas” by an irate folky caught on film.
George Harrison, Living In A Material World unfortunately suffers from over familiarity. Be it Paul McCartney’s story about George playing “Raunchy” for John Lennon on the top deck of a bus or Ringo Starr (sporting a truly odd comb-forward hair-do) letting us know that George had his drum-kit decked out in flowers when he returned from storming off during the recording of The White Album it all seemed a bit like déjà vu.
Split into 2 parts, 1943 to 1968 & 1968 till his death from cancer in 2001, it lacks focus & stumbles from one point to another in a quite haphazard way missing out large chunks of his work.
In the mid-70s, the publishers of “He’s So Fine” successfully sued Harrison for the similarity between that song & his “My Sweet Lord”. Most music fans are aware that this happened yet it wasn’t even acknowledged. It was a huge part of his life (he even wrote “This Song” about it) & even though it might’ve been a negative period it was still worthy of a little time to explain how he felt. There was also little mention of his late 70s & early 80s recorded output (possibly with good reason) nor of his mid 80s “comeback” with the LP “Cloud Nine”.
The interviews with his friends, family & band members are shot with extremely dull backgrounds- We get to see Jackie Stewart interviewed in front of his treadmill & Eric Clapton interviewed in front of a bookshelf (his books include Hip Hop Styles & Tony Adams autobiography…that’s how interesting Eric Clapton is).
Though on a positive note, we do get to see a properly mental looking Phil Spector (with a voice like 2 bits of sandpaper having sex) tell us about the making of “All Things Must Pass” & we also get to play the guessing game of when his left eye will strain so hard it’ll escape his head & there’s some very interesting mid-70s footage of George playing live to a packed arena somewhere in America, watching The Beatles perform This Boy in 1963 & signing documents that will finally end Apple alongside Paul McCartney (sporting a fetching mullet). There’s also an extremely cute photo of George & Dylan together from the late 60s even though his Bobness is strangely absent from the interviewees.
In the end then an oddly underwhelming film about a man who was in The Beatles & liked to garden.
George Harrison, Living in a Material World DVD review: 2/5
By Simon Stone
