Movie Review by Henri Roe
Performers: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty
Director: David Leland
To be truthful my first thought when I heard about this film wasn’t very promising. I was torn between the ideas that the film was either a complete recording of the concert, which left you with the sensation you would only have really enjoyed the music if you had been there, or a montage of old and seen before clips of George Harrison with brief glimpses of the concert, that didn’t really show the concert in its full magnitude.
However, from the first few seconds it was clear that David Leland had created a fantastic tribute to George. The film tastefully cuts between songs from the concert to behind the scenes footage of those who knew the Beatle best. The camerawork gives you a feeling of not only being right there in the audience but up on stage sitting in between the performers.
This film also captures the impact the concert had on everyone involved in it. All the performers injected their memories of their friend. It also contains extra quirks, from the extract from the Monty Python cast, which makes you laugh out loud, to Ravi Shankar’s beautiful composition. Other performers include Joe Brown, Jools Holland, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to name but a few.
Each track left you with a sensation that it was the last only because they couldn’t better it but then every time the next song would prove you wrong. The film also seems to perfectly finish on time with the last track sending goosebumps down your arms.
The only problem I found with this film was that I could only really see real fans of the Beatles watching it, with a greater chance of the CD being purchased, which would be a pity as the film captures the expressions that are not spoken out loud.
