ViewGuide

Created Nov 04, 2011 02:29AM PST • Edited Oct 18, 2017 06:57PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   Essential Beatles viewing. Say no more. Say no more.

   Well … here’s more.

   • A Martin Scorsese Picture, which says right there you gotta watch it. I mean Martin F’ing Scorsese making a picture about George Harrison is a fusion of two pop culture demigods.
   • It’s a treasure trove of Beatles home movies and interviews with personal intimates. These unspool like recovered memories from the Baby Boomer Generation, proving that Beatlemania still grips those of us who remember them in their prime.
   • Untold stories get told, from how George came to write Here Comes the Sun to how he created The Traveling Wilburys. Most of these are fascinating, some jaw dropping.
   • For instance, Paul relates how George auditioned to join the Beatles in John’s impromptu office on the top level of a Liverpool doubledecker bus, a scene dramatized in Nowhere Boy. Raunchy!
   • George proves to be a true Flower Power Demigod, a prince of peace and love. But he also comes across as a bundle of contradictions. For instance, this left-wing hero was an anti-tax rebel who wrote the right-wing song Taxman and ran from the real taxman. He also lived his life in a way that the Occupy Wall Street crowd would find reprehensible. Further, he comes across as a Prince of Self-Absorption, his extravagant inward journey only possible for someone very wealthy.
   • That spiritual journey gets revealed as never before, heavy on Indian music, meditation and mindfulness. He declares Ravi Shankar the only person who’s ever impressed him. Eric Clapton didn’t, John Lennon didn’t, Jimi Hendrix didn’t, Charlie Watts didn’t. Ravi Shankar did. Scorsese fixes on a still image of the young Shankar – circa mid-60s – riffing his sitar, beads of sweat rolling down his face. And we understand why.

   The documentary is comprised of two 90 minute parts:

   • While My Guitar Gently Weeps ends Part 1. It helps to be into Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s. The first two are my favorites of recent decades, while Pepper was my teen idol album.
   • Part 2 covers late Beatles and post-Beatles, the period when George Harrison became a major Rock Star in his own right, creating all time great songs Something & Hear Comes the Sun with the Beatles and legendary songs like My Sweet Lord with his own Rock Star band.

   Part 2 ends as Part 1 begins, with older George posing behind magnificent tulips, soon to leave his body. That’s death to the rest of us.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   George – befitting a Beatle – looked, acted and became a consummate Rock Star.

   Lots of George looking back, enjoying Beatle George on tape.

   • Strong doses of Paul and Ringo.
   • John only in hindsight, singing, declaiming, strutting.
   • Eric Clapton reminiscing about falling in love with George’s wife, Patty Boyd.
   • Patty Boyd reminiscing about visiting the Stones.
   • Astrid Kirchherr & Klaus Voormann recalling the early avant garde Hamburg days, and then Voormann telling tales of playing with Harrison during his mid-70s solo heyday.
   • Dhani Harrison describing a dream in which he met his Dad after he’d died.
   • Jane Birkin reminiscing about being a Beatles Girl.
   • George Martin bravely recounting George coming in with inferior songs.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Martin Scorese unspools a low key, well-flowing documentary that doesn’t stint on Harrison’s nonpareil music with the Beatles and beyond. Its only flaw is that it requires the viewer to be familiar with the minutiae of George’s life and career. Non-initiates are likely to get lost.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    Scorsese’s previous rock doc: Shine a Light. Pretty Fing solid, Stones then the quiet Beatle. Bam, Pow.

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Musically, 70s George has a Grateful Dead thing going.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0