George Harrison: Living in the Material World

We're opening season four with one of the big hitters: Martin Scorsese's 2011 George Harrison documentary. George's life gets a proper going-over for three hours, and we talk about how the film approaches his spirituality and how it relates to familiar religious themes in Scorsese films. This is an interesting film for the calibre of talking heads it attracts, Scorsese's milkshake very much bringing all the boys to the yard: Astrid Kirchherr, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Phil Spector (!), Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison and Olivia too. We talk about Dhani and Olivia's contributions in particular, and how the film uses talking heads like theirs in a different way than you'd usually expect: framing them in "lived-in" surroundings and encouraging them to discuss ideas and philosophies rather than just reel off anecdotes.

• You can watch the film on NOW TV in the UK, or rent/buy it on Prime and YouTube: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/george-harrison-living-in-the-material-world
• Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/AGMMXK-661M?si=e9xecTinAJSVaWB7
• The Johnny Marr article we refer to is actually sort of two: in a 2016 interview he called George one of his favourite guitarists https://medium.com/@JonnieWilks/the-johnny-marr-interview-c9f9ae53eaed and he complimented him again in Uncut's 2021 Revolver issue https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/the-beatles-best-revolver-songs-132652/
• You can rent Scorsese's No Direction Home: Bob Dylan on Apple TV, and buy/rent it on Prime and YouTube. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/no-direction-home-bob-dylan
• Watch a short video where Scorsese explains the process of making the film, and what inspired him about George: https://youtu.be/L_YRmLgpT7I?si=61Mbjhx2xqO7DW1T
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1113829/

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

• Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpod
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/
• Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.