Film: George Harrison - Living in the Material World

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This is not a film about George Harrison The Beatle, nor is it about George Harrison the solo artist, or even George Harrison and Handmade Films. This is a film about the soul of George Harrison, that in one lifetime just happened to be all those things (and more).

Martin Scorsese's biopic is a touching and fittingly spiritual obituary for the songwriter who died in 2001. Fulfilling George's wish to tell his own story through his video archive it also features interviews with the likes of Paul McCartney, Ringo Star, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Phil Spector, Eric Idle, Eric Clapton, Patty Boyd, Yoko Ono and Tom Petty.

His whole life is retold over the 208-minute film; an intimate portrait that captures the love his friends, the interviewees, still feel for him and evokes his spirituality.

Known for his study of Indian music and spirituality a good portion of the film is dedicated to how this changed him as a person and how he held and practiced his beliefs throughout his life. Indeed many of the interviewees speak of George in reverence and awe as well as love and friendship. The film not only tells of his belief but seems to impart a real sense of it as well.

Of course, you're in safe hands with Scorsese, no stranger to making films about music and obviously a veteran of cinema to boot. Here it's he brings light and dark - the chaos of Beatlemania loud and fast on screen quickly cut to almost silent images of the Beatles away from their fans; humour and frivolity snapping to the solemnity and shock of loss. There were more than a few moments where the audience laughed along with George or an anecdote but there were also tears being wiped from many eyes as we spilled out into the night with his music echoing in our ears.

There was a lot here that was new to me - a casual fan of the Beatles with more love for George's solo work. His post-Beatles canon always seemed eclipsed by Paul and John (Lennon, so well known for his campaign for peace while George went on his own journey to discover inner peace) and it was fascinating to glimpse the close relationship between the four, the changing dynamic as George emerged as a songwriter and the bitterness and bickering as the band dissolved. From the anger of the split it was heart-wrenching to see the sense of loss George felt after John's murder and to see Ringo recount the last words he heard George speak as he neared the end of his own life.

The window into his working relationships away from the Beatles were fascinating. Eric Clapton and Phil Spector describe their work with him and much is made of his work with Ravi Shankar. His supergroup The Traveling Wilburys also features and Scorsese again shows the fragility of life juxtaposed the strength of human spirit to use humour as a weapon against grief. Here Tom Petty recounts, tear in eye, the conversation's he had with Harrison at the time of Roy Orbison's passing and it's hard not to feel the loss he describes.

Harrison's personal relationships are also revealed - son Dhani describes his relationship with his father and wife Olivia speaks of how their shared beliefs shaped their marriage. Most of the interviewees cast George in an almost religious light as they impart their anecdotes adding an extra layer of spirituality to the film. There is an inference in the way they seem humbled by the way they felt around him that his own pursuit of enlightenment and inner stillness was passed on to those he touched and that he was, somehow, more.

Undoubtedly, George's achievements were many and Scorsese shows them off while also making it clear how little celebrity had affected Harrison. A quiet man who pursued his passions, his mysticism and his love of the people around him.

You don't need to be a fan of his music or other achievements to be entertained by the iconic imagery of the cultural revolution that took place during his time or to enjoy the tender telling of a life lived well.

George Harrison: Living in the Material World was had a limited cinema release for just one night (4 October) and I saw it at Quad in Derby (if you live round there, go along, great arts venue and cinema). It's now available on DVD. And if you aren't already give George's long-time friend and phenomenal musician Ravi Shankar a follow on Twitter.