Director Martin Scorsese said music wasn’t the entire focus of his 2011 documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. Music was an integral part of the former Beatle’s life. However, it was only a method he used to get closer to something that mattered to him even more; God.
Initially, Martin Scorsese didn’t want to take on ‘George Harrison: Living in the Material World’
During an interview, the Wall Street Journal asked Scorsese what his first impressions were of the project, which George’s widow, Olivia’s proposed to him. Scorsese admitted he was skeptical of taking on what became George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
“I wasn’t accepting of it immediately,” he said. “One reason was the amount of work involved. It’s rather formidable. You’re dealing with the most influential group in popular music. And it’s different from doing a concert film, which is formidable in its own way. Here you have a wide range and you have to find a very unique perspective on it.
“Eventually I agreed to a meeting with Olivia. Before anyone comes in the room, they know the kind of pictures I make. There wouldn’t be any sense in making the picture if the family censored it or wanted to avoid, as Olivia put it, the darker side.
“They made me feel that they were open to anything, particularly that. What really caught my imagination was the opening of the archives, these wonderful personal elements. She read me a letter that George wrote to his mother. And that really opened my mind to it, but I did not embrace it immediately.”
Scorsese said George’s music wasn’t too important in ‘George Harrison: Living in the Material World’
Besides the treasure trove that was Olivia’s archives, George’s spirituality enticed Scorsese to come on board. In George Harrison: Living in the Material, the director wanted to explore George’s true story, which included music, but involved more spirituality than anything else.
“I’ve always been interested in Harrison’s quest for meaning and transcendence,” Scorsese said. “I was a Roman Catholic. I was very serious about religion, the clergy, the rituals, the theology itself, I still deal with it.
“My immediate reaction was that that would be the approach. The music would be there, of course, but the music is an expression of his yearning for the transcendent. To my mind it’s not a music film. It’s a film about the man.”
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The spiritual Beatle loved many things, including music, rock ‘n’ roll, fast cars, and gardening. However, as Scorsese said, most of those interests were an “expression of his yearning for the transcendent.” All of George’s interests stemmed from his love of God, even if he didn’t initially know it.
For instance, George loved gardening because every grain of sand, particle of dirt, leaf, rock, and flower was part of God’s “Universal Form.” Every note he played, no matter the genre, brought him closer to God too. One of the first things his musical guru, Ravi Shankar, taught him was that God is sound. Even racing and watching fast cars gave him a heightened experience akin to the feeling he got from meditating and chanting.
And when things got too deep, George always remembered never to take himself seriously. Religion was OK, but one always had to see the humor in the situation. That’s why he loved Monty Python.
There were a couple of disagreements between Scorsese and Olivia
For the most part, the “Goodfellas” director and Olivia worked well together. However, Scorsese admitted there were a couple of minor hiccups.
“I think we showed Olivia an attempt at the first hour and a half,” Scorsese said. “The reasoning was, if there are major objections, why continue? One has to remember, there was no deadline on this picture. It took about four years. That gives it time to gestate. Pictures were very important. Sometimes we’d have a nice picture of George, and she’d say, ‘Oh, I have a better one.’ Why? ‘Because he looks better.’
“If the new picture didn’t fit dramatically, we’d go back to the other one. There was constant discussion on that level. But what’s our purpose in making the picture? With any rock group you can make something down and dirty and negative. I have no intention of that.
“With Harrison, at a very young age he felt he had achieved everything in the material world. And now what? Now where do we go? Where do we all go?”
Most importantly, Scorsese was respectful of the former Beatle in George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
