An unusual excitement took over me as I entered the room for one of the few screenings Scorcese’s ‘George Harrison: Living In The Material World’. Shown in Lisbon as part of Heartbeat cycle (DocLisboa Film Festival), it was split into two parts, being the first sold out several days in advance. So yeah, it was quite a thrill to see lines of people forming in front of the doors of the screening room, way before the scheduled time, as if Beatlemania was still an issue in the XXIth century.
But I must say I was quite disappointed: the first part of Scorcese’s documentary is centered in George Harrison’s status as a Beatle, and is nothing but a re-assemblage of footage that had already been used in several documentaries to the date – me being a Beatles’ fan myself couldn’t help but anticipate every sentence of every interview -, and as Harrison was kind of left to the background of what was really happening in London during the Swinging Sixties, it brought little or nothing new to what was already known about him during that season. But it also brought the feeling that Part II would add much value to George’s memory as one of the Beatles that had his solo career more shadowed by Paul’s popism with Wings or John’s experimenting with political acts. So, expecting nothing this time, I was pleased to see a much more intense insight of George Harrison’s life and works, his spirituality, and his relationships with family and friends.
The thing with George Harrison: Living In The Material World is that his personality gets somehow erased during the first part – or it’s simply assumed that he was what he pretended to be, no mask involved -, while the second part of the film unveils a different George, more mature both musically and spiritually and with a very specific goal in his life. As we watch his serenity regarding the loss of some of his closest friends and family (his mother, John Lennon, Roy Orbison…) we can’t help but realize the amazing human being that this small lad from Liverpool had become.
So the film is very good even – or especially – if you’re not a Beatles scholar, for providing you with the necessary material and context before throwing you into Harrison’s mind and work. If one word had to be chosen to serve as assembling for the whole story, I guess it would have to be Love; not Lennon’s revolutionary, tough kind of love, but an insightful and universal feeling that everyone that had the privilege to know Harrison could sense. And you leave the screening room with the intense feeling of having been blessed with it as well.
George Harrison by Richard Avedon
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