Director Martin Scorsese was one of the first to score big with the rockumentary format with his 1978 film "The Last Waltz," which covered the farewell concert by The Band and their musician friends such as Neil Young and Van Morrison. He's kept a hand in it ever since, making boomer rock docs on Bob Dylan ("No Direction Home") and The Rolling Stones ("Shine a Light"). His latest, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World," is a loving tribute to singer/guitarist Harrison, which gives "the quiet Beatle" the sort of respect usually reserved for John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
While Harrison provided the fleet fingers The Beatles needed for lead guitar early on, he was slow to blossom as a songwriter, although by the time of The Beatles' last studio album, "Abbey Road," he was arguably providing their best songs ("Something," "Here Comes the Sun"). Yet Harrison's other influences on the band — psychedelics, meditation and Eastern spirituality, and Indian instrumentation — were clear.
The film follows Harrison's life well past The Beatles, continuing through his solo successes ("Dark Horse"), the first rock-star charity benefit, Concert for Bangladesh, and his super-group stint with The Travelling Wilburys. Scorsese takes the usual approach of mixing period footage and photos with contemporary interviews with Harrison's friends and family, including his widow, Olivia, who gives a dramatic account of the night Harrison was stabbed by an intruder in their home; filmmaker Terry Gilliam, who describes how Harrison mortgaged his home to put up the funds for Monty Python to complete their controversial "Life of Brian"; and fellow guitar hero/rival in love Eric Clapton, who famously fell for Harrison's first wife, Patti Boyd.