Scorsese's HBO doc on George Harrison
HBO's " George Harrison: Living in the Material World". (9 p.m., HBO) � Filmmaker Martin Scorsese examines the life of musician George Harrison, weaving together interviews, concert footage, home movies and photographs. (Part one; part two airs tomorrow night at 9.) Credit: Dezo Hoffman/Apple Corps Limited/Dezo Hoffman
THE SHOW "George Harrison: Living in the Material World," tomorrow and Thursday at 9 p.m. on HBO.
REASON TO WATCH This is Martin Scorsese's third major bio of rock icons, after the Stones ("Shine a Light") and Dylan ("No Direction Home").
WHAT IT'S ABOUT Scorsese's three-hour-plus portrait of George Harrison covers the full career, from The Beatles through The Traveling Wilburys, with special emphasis paid to his spiritual journey. There's a bounty of music, archival footage -- doubtless, some of it rare -- and many interviews, including with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Yoko Ono and Phil Spector. An unexplained omission: Ravi Shankar, 91, who is still performing. Of special interest, Olivia Harrison speaks in considerable detail about the 1999 stabbing of Harrison at his home, Friar Park, at the end of Thursday's telecast.
MY SAY "Living in the Material World" gets a jump on the 10th anniversary of Harrison's death, which falls in late November, but the timing almost feels incidental -- or even irrelevant. Scorsese here aims for something that's deeper and richer than a mere anniversary tribute. This is almost a reappraisal, or, at minimum, a concerted effort to strip away the enduring enigma of Harrison. The latter mission is certainly achieved. Filled with interviews of friends and family, a fully human portrait emerges that is most striking in just how normal and fundamentally decent the subject was. By contrast, "No Direction Home" was dark and brooding, its subject almost swallowed by the shadows. In this, Harrison is voluble, smiling, laughing -- a family man who tenderly hugs his son, Dhani, in a private moment. There is no shyness, or remove, and certainly no shadows. Scorsese may have permanently banished that old "quiet Beatle" label. As the title indicates, this film is also about Harrison's spiritual journey, and Olivia explains that his life after the Beatles was in preparation for the moment of his death. Scorsese indeed establishes that Harrison's passion for eastern mysticism had a profound influence on his life and art. Harrison, foremost, was the thinking Beatle.
BOTTOM LINE The first part covers the Beatles years, the second after 1970s classic "All Things Must Pass." It's all excellent.
GRADE A
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