All music fans love a good self-indulgent music documentary from time to time. You know the type – it’s late on a Saturday evening, and after you’ve watched a repeat of QI, the guitars strike up and the old wrinkly rockers talk about how much fun they had over library footage of them making mischief on stage. What purpose does it serve? To make you believe in real life sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. Or at least to convince you that it existed at some point in the last few decades.
But this isn’t your regular rockumentary. For starters, Martin Scorsese is at the helm who has in fact directed documentaries (much to this reviewer’s initial surprise) on Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and the blues music scene during his almost 50 years in film. Not a stranger to rockstar egos in the slightest then.
The film documents George Harrison’s life through the memories of those that knew him best: his first and second wife, Patty Boyd and Olivia Harrison; his son Dhani; his band mates, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr; and his good friends which include Eric Clapton, Eric Idle and Ravi Shankar. From joining The Quarrymen as a teenager, to Beatlemania, to travelling India, to carving his solo music career, to his life at home and fighting cancer, Scorsese uses home video footage as well as interviews, archive footage and photos and Harrison’s own discography to capture the story. Each shot and sound is deliciously put together invoking excitement and emotion and intrigue that will surely have Beatle fans satiated.
But out of the Fab Four, why choose Harrison as the subject for the film? Often referred to as The Quiet Beatle, he appears relatively mundane on the surface. He wasn’t as political as John Lennon, or as cool and laid-back as Ringo or as prevalent in the public eye as Paul has continued to be. But this mystery is precisely what makes him such a fascinating subject throughout the film. Eric Idle talks of Harrison financing Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Ravi Shankar tells of his devotion to music and Jackie Stewart talks of his passion for motor-racing, suggesting a man who had a great interest in many aspects of life and what it had to offer.
As Scorsese uncovers all the different sides of this kind, gentle man (as described by almost every single interviewee), the film focuses on the journey Harrison took to find an inner peace with himself and the world. With the current obsession with celebrity culture and barrage of information we can plug ourselves into 24 hours a day, Harrison’s desire to find a calmer, more spiritual way of living is a notion that some of us will be able to relate to. Ultimately, this film is a story of a man’s self-discovery, who just happened to be part of the biggest British band in the last century. It makes for a touching film about an incredible life, and could even help you realise that George was your favourite Beatle all along.
Living in the Material World is currently available to watch in two parts on BBC iPlayer until Sunday 20th November.
The DVD and Bluray of the film, as well as the accompanying book written by Olivia Harrison, are both available to buy now.
Review by Zofia Skrakowski
