George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese, 2011)

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flyonthewall2983 · Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:10 pm

A two-parter, it will premiere on HBO October 5th and 6th.

Tom Hagen · #2 Post by **Tom Hagen** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:15 pm

All things must pass.

If it's anywhere close to No Direction Home, this should be excellent!

flyonthewall2983 · #3 Post by **flyonthewall2983** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:18 pm

Trailer

AWA · #4 Post by **AWA** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 5:25 am

Glad to see Neil in this, which makes it similar in a way to No Direction Home, which brought back many voices from beyond the grave to comment.

No Yoko? No Dylan for that matter, but that's understandable - close friends and insiders only. Bob was more of an associate.

George would've been amused by the irony of having Revolution #9 as the first piece of music you hear in a documentary about his life though. He would've loved that for a laugh.

Suspect · #5 Post by **Suspect** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:46 am

Shine A Light aside, I find Scorsese's recent explorations into musical figures (Dylan) and movements (The Blues) more interesting than his recent feature film output. I'm not a massive George Harrison or Beatles fan but this looks well worth a watch, and - if akin to No Direction Home - will be of much more substance than the recent Lennon-focused The Killing of John Lennon or The US vs...

MichaelB · #6 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:06 am

Does it just cover the music, or also Harrison's far from negligible contribution to film?

flyonthewall2983 · Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:11 am

The trailer touches on the first Monty Python movie, but I'm guessing something will be said in passing about his production company.

Roger Ryan · #8 Post by **Roger Ryan** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:25 pm

AWA wrote:No Yoko? No Dylan for that matter, but that's understandable - close friends and insiders only. Bob was more of an associate.

I'd say Dylan was closer to Harrison (or, at least, knew him longer) than Petty, but it's not really Bob's thing to do talking head interviews...which is a shame since he's quite witty in a surreal sort of way.

It will be interesting to see how dark this film gets, given that it seems to be an authorized portrait. With Scorsese at the helm, I would have to think the mismanagement of Handmade Films will get some coverage.

Tom Hagen · #9 Post by **Tom Hagen** » Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:20 pm

The 60 Minutes interview he did in 2004 with the late Ed Bradley was his first television interview in like 20 years at the time. Dylan's not an interview guy. It was a gem of an interview, and included this classic ending, which was very much keeping with the spirit of the Dylan that Pennebaker had captured forty years earlier.

Titus · #10 Post by **Titus** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:29 am

Yeah, a little disappointing that Dylan apparently isn't interviewed, but it's hardly surprising. He did contribute to that PBS doc on Joan Baez last year, but that's sort of a different situation.

AWA · #11 Post by **AWA** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:33 am

For the record, I was just pointing out that Dylan it is not in it - I'm not at all surprised, as I am a major Dylan obsessive. You can find me and several years' worth of thousands of Dylan postings over at ExpectingRain, The Never Ending Pool and (via Net archives) the original Dylan Pool, all posting under the same acronym moniker of "AWA". And you can even buy a Never Ending Pool t-shirt to help identify you as a Pool nerd at shows... featuring a design by yours truly.

So yes... I know why Bob isn't in this.

MichaelB wrote:Does it just cover the music, or also Harrison's far from negligible contribution to film?

I think it will likely cover George's spirituality and overall unique (and life affirming / inspiring) world view than it will merely just music, career highs and lows, etc. That's more or less what George was all about, seeing the bigger picture and all the success in the world (which the Beatles certainly can lay claim to having) meant nothing in the face of Everything Else. I'm sure the music / film / gardening / F1 racing / Beatle cultural legacy / family will work as a frame work, but it already seems as though this is definitely going to strive to look at how George looked beyond all of it and into some deeper, more fundamental things.

According to Rolling Stone, Yoko is interviewed and included.

More details about the content of the film are mentioned in the above link.

flyonthewall2983 · Fri Aug 26, 2011 12:12 am

I wonder if this is something Martin will continue doing, amid his other projects. A documentary like this on Van Morrison would be quite interesting and enlightening.

Drucker · #13 Post by **Drucker** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:14 am

No Direction Home is so great. I never read his memoirs, but there are few pieces of evidence stronger than it that Dylan's one of the most misunderstood/over-analyzed musical performers.

No Dylan doesn't really surprise me, definitely more of an associate. But what about Eric Clapton? Patty Boyd?

flyonthewall2983 · Fri Aug 26, 2011 1:24 am

Eric is in the trailer. George was his best man at their wedding.

AWA · #15 Post by **AWA** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 4:58 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:I wonder if this is something Martin will continue doing, amid his other projects. A documentary like this on Van Morrison would be quite interesting and enlightening.

Topping the list of "Things That Will Never Happen". To get Van Morrison to authorize anything like that, much less be involved in it in any shape or form, will happen when pigs and penguins fly in formation over the Bahamas.

The man is miserable beyond belief, paranoid and extremely protective (and paranoid again) about his privacy. He's also seemingly incapable of parting ways with friends, partners, etc without leaving a horribly bitter taint on everything by some parting "Eff You" gesture. Having worked in the music industry briefly, just about everyone I met has a "Van Morrison is a giant asshole" story to tell.

I'd personally be much more interested in a Scorsese doc on Tom Waits. Now there is a great story / character / songwriter.

GaryC · #16 Post by **GaryC** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:29 am

Living in the Material World will have one-day-only cinema screenings in the UK on 4 October.

flyonthewall2983 · Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:05 pm

Article covering a panel (including Scorsese) discussion at the NYFF talking about the project. Can't wait to see this Wednesday and Thursday.

flyonthewall2983 · Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:58 pm

Anyone have an idea who did the interviews for this? I naively thought Martin would have conducted them himself.

hearthesilence · #19 Post by **hearthesilence** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:04 pm

Don't know who, but I was disappointed that Scorsese didn't do them himself. I found this out about two years ago when a friend introduced me to someone who worked on the project. They had just shot one of the interviews the previous day, and apparently Scorsese came in, instructed everyone how to film the interview, and while they set up the camera, track, etc., he left and never came back.

Roger Ryan · #20 Post by **Roger Ryan** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 8:54 pm

I don't believe Scorsese conducted any of the interviews for NO DIRECTION HOME either. Apparently, he just likes to go through all the raw footage and find the story after everything's on film.

hearthesilence · #21 Post by **hearthesilence** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:53 pm

No, it was pretty much Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, conducting the interviews. All of them were finished before Scorsese was involved in the project. (For example, Dylan's was done in 2001, and that was one of the 'later' interviews.) Basically, they accumulated all this footage and then went looking for a director. Scorsese came aboard the Harrison doc much earlier than that.

flyonthewall2983 · Fri Oct 07, 2011 2:40 pm

Really, really brilliant stuff in the second half. As a whole it's great, but I was more drawn in with last night's segment more than the first one. The profound sadness in everyone's body language when it concerned his death was quite moving to watch. And Olivia's memories of that awful attack was harrowing to watch.

Gregory · #23 Post by **Gregory** » Wed Mar 18, 2026 4:15 am

I love this film, and this TV interview excerpt following Lennon's murder takes me out every time:

Interviewer: I wonder what you felt losing someone who was close to you for all those years.

Harrison: It's like losing your parents, or anyone you know and love.

Interviewer: He was no angel.

Harrison. He wasn't. But he was, as well.

Interviewer: Was he?

flyonthewall2983 · Wed Mar 18, 2026 5:39 am

For as quick as he was of the four to question the real validity of their adulation he suffered no fools including the press. In light of the whole creepy implication of the attack which befell him in his home, when he seems to ask aloud what he’d really miss was a moment someone can only come to when you’ve seen those two extremes of human behavior he experienced as a young man and ever since.

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