LOS ANGELES — When Martin Scorsese and Olivia
Harrison first sat down about five years ago to strategize about a
documentary on the life of George Harrison, both quickly zeroed in on a
letter the young Beatle wrote to his family at the height of
Beatlemania.
“It was a letter George had written
when he was not more than 22,” Harrison said of the man to whom she was
married for 23 years before his death a decade ago. “It was in 1965, and
the Beatles would have been really cresting at that point. He was
writing home and told his family, ‘I know that this isn’t it. I knew I
was going to be famous, but now I know I can reach the real top of what
man can achieve, which is self-realization.’ He knew then that (material
reward) wasn’t it.”
That letter figures into a
pivotal moment in Scorsese’s film, “George Harrison: Living in the
Material World,” which premieres on HBO over two nights Wednesday and
Thursday to accommodate its 3 1/2-hour length.
In
the scene, George says how lucky the Beatles were to acquire so many of
the material goods early on that most people spend their entire lives
yearning for, because they learned relatively young how hollow such
things ultimately ring.
Olivia Harrison gave
Scorsese and his team virtual carte blanche access to home movies,
family photos, audio recordings and other items from her husband’s
estate for use in the film, which paints a richly detailed and
unvarnished picture of the man initially pigeonholed as “the quiet
Beatle.”
A more accurate sobriquet might have been
“the spiritual Beatle” to reflect the inward quest that seemed to
capture Harrison early in a life in which he once famously said that his
biggest break had been getting into the Beatles; his second biggest,
getting out.
In talking about the film, Olivia
Harrison makes no bones about how emotional it’s been for her to see the
many aspects of her husband’s life translated to the screen.
“I
thought I had this clear vision of what this story would look like on
screen, but it’s nothing like how I imagined it would be,” she said,
“even though it’s accurate and honest and truthful.”
Even
about uncomfortable topics such as Harrison’s 1974 solo tour that was
savaged by many critics as well as its references to affairs he had
after he married the former Olivia Arias, whom he met in 1974 when she
was working in the L.A. offices of his Dark Horse Records label.
“Nobody
asked me to bring up that subject,” she said, “it just came up. It was
really about being with someone who’s in that position. I’m certainly
not the only one who’s been with somebody who’s charismatic. It’s a big
diversion.”
It’s also just a tiny part of the
overall story, which begins with Harrison as a fairly happy child, born
into a large Liverpool family amid World War II. It follows his ride to
the pinnacle of pop culture as a member of the most popular and
creatively influential band in the world, his exit when the group
disbanded in 1970 and on through his subsequent musical, cinematic,
spiritual and philanthropic endeavors, which Scorsese covers, rough
edges and all.
“Left to me, (the documentary)
would have had no edges,” Olivia Harrison said. “I really had to let go
of that. Marty crafted it that way, and (their son) Dhani was also very
helpful. He told me, ‘You have to have the good and the bad, the black
and the white; you can’t just have it all nice.’ … It took a lot of
getting used to. I had to see it several times before I could look at it
and not wince. It is brutally honest.”
It’s also
exceedingly admiring of a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who for
much of his career lived in the estimable shadows of John Lennon and
Paul McCartney.
In one of the most charming
moments of the film, Harrison, the youngest Beatle, talks about writing
his first song, “Don’t Bother Me,” from the group’s 1963 album “With the
Beatles.” He summed it up as “an exercise. It’s not a particularly
great song.” He simply felt at the time that “If John and Paul could
write, then anyone can. … (It) showed me I just had to keep on writing
and someday I’ll write something good.”
Scorsese
also addresses Harrison’s strong attraction to the classical music of
India, which he explored extensively through his friendship with sitar
master Ravi Shankar; the original rock music all-star benefit Concert
for Bangla Desh that grew out of that relationship; his exploits in
filmmaking through the Handmade Films company; and his latter-day role
in the Traveling Wilburys supergroup. Harrison died of cancer on Nov.
29, 2001, at age 58.
Harrison’s
legacy will be explored further in an exhibition opening Oct. 11 at the
Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, one that shares the title with Scorsese’s
film and Olivia Harrison’s book.
Museum executive
director Robert Santelli said the exhibition will underscore Harrison’s
sometimes underappreciated status as one of rock’s greatest guitarists
and his deeply felt spirituality.
“I see him as
one of rock’s first renaissance men,” he said. “He was authentically
interested in spiritualism and Eastern philosophy; he was experimenting
with electronic sounds in the ‘60s. He did the ‘Electronic Sound’ album,
which was the first Beatles solo album, but we forget that. We know him
for ‘All Things Must Pass’ but don’t know he was a great photographer.
We know him for his interest in films for his work with Monty Python and
his Handmade Films, but he also was a great gardener who was deeply
interested in the natural world.”
Olivia Harrison
has loaned instruments, clothing Harrison wore onstage while touring
with the Beatles and solo, original lyric sheets, letters, photos and
other items for the display, billed as the first major exhibition
focusing on Harrison as a Beatle and his life away from the group.
“It
just so happened that everything was completed this year, which happens
to be the 10th year since George died,” she said from the estate in
Oxfordshire, England, that George bought in 1969, where she was busy
packing up items to be sent to the Grammy Museum.
“I’m
a little nervous about it,” Olivia said. “Sitting by the front door
right now is a huge road box full of guitars that are going out
tomorrow. Letting these things out — it’s a big deal.
“Then
again,” she quickly added, a note of good-humored resignation creeping
in over the worry, “George would say, ‘It’s only stuff.’”
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GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
Part 1, 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday; Part 2, 9 p.m. EDT Thursday
HBO
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