Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Concert for George Blu-ray Movie Review

A beautiful concert in honor of the "quiet Beatle."

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 8, 2011

Please note: this review was based on an advance 'check disc' provided to me by Rhino. Typically check discs are the same as the final retail version, but there may be some differences. I should be getting a retail version of this title as we get nearer to street date and I will update this review if appropriate at that time.

John was the prankster. Paul was the cute one. Ringo was the buffoon. And that left George, the quiet Beatle in the background who seemed to be something of a cipher. Only as the sixties wound down their tumult and discord did audiences suddenly realize still Georgian waters ran deep, deep enough to give us stunning songs like “Something”, "Here Comes the Sun" and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and deep enough to infuse pop music with an Eastern mysticism and thereby imbue a whole generation with a certain meditative ethos that may have invited scorn, but which perhaps helped that generation move beyond the very tumult through which they had just lived. And after The Beatles parted ways, it was George who managed perhaps most successfully to meld a social consciousness with a still very potent musical and lyrical language that saw him slowly emerge from the rather formidable Lennon-McCartney shadows to claim some of the limelight himself. McCartney started out pretty strongly post-Beatles, but soon devolved in the pop pabulum of songs like “Let ‘Em In”, and Lennon often seemed more intent on shocking people than in crafting brilliant pop songs. Ringo was obviously a sort of also-ran in this company (as amiable as he obviously is), so that left George to pick up the pieces and try to bring the sociopolitical consciousness The Beatles had helped to foster in the pop-rock world forward into the 1970’s and beyond. What becomes obvious throughout Concert for George is just how deeply beloved he was by his collaborators and friends, and how lasting his legacy remains.

The Royal Albert Hall, November 29, 2002, the first anniversary of the death of George Harrison.

This new two disc Blu-ray release offers us the complete, unexpurgated Concert for George on Disc One, as well as the Theatrical Release and several extras on Disc Two. The piece starts with some ritualistic Indian chanting as Harrison’s widow Olivia comes out and lights some ceremonial incense. Eric Clapton is quickly on hand with some beautiful if halting comments about George. The complete concert may be slightly slow for some not used to the drone-like chant of Indian music, for the concert begins with a 42 minute piece entitled “Arpan,” by Ravi Shankar. Arpan translates as “to give” or “to offer” and Shankar’s heartfelt homage to his friend is very touching. He tells us that Harrison was like a son to him and that therefore he’s pleased to have his “grandson,” Harrison’s son Dhani, in attendance. For those who, like George himself, love Indian music, this opening concert piece is an extremely moving and colorful exposition which manages to blend traditional Indian ragas with some more Westernized elements. Shankar’s daughter Anoushka proves she’s as facile a sitarist as her father and she later leads the large ensemble in some conductor’s moves that almost resemble ritual dance or Yoga poses at times.

After a brief intermission, we get some comedy relief courtesy of Monty Python. With a decidedly politically incorrect song capped by some full non-frontal nudity, Act Two gets off to an hilarious start. Michael Palin then comes on for a faux remembrance of George which segues fairly seamlessly (believe it or not) into “The Lumberjack Song.” There’s a special guest in this segment whom you might not immediately recognize, but keep your eyes peeled for a little surprise. Finally after this comedic interlude we get to a wonderful assortment of George’s music, played by an amazing lineup of musicians.

Clapton and Jeff Lynne headline the band here, and their love of George and his music shines through each and every performance. A number of great guest stars turn up, including Billy Preston, who toured with Harrison years ago as part of the Dark Horse tour, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Sam Brown, Joe Brown, and just for good measure, George’s old bandmates Paul and Ringo. Best of all, there are absolutely no star egos on display and everyone seems to realize, rightly so, that they're there to pay tribute to their longtime friend and collaborator. Probably keeping everyone in check is the participation of Olivia and Dhani Harrison as well. Dhani looks like a young version of George and acquits himself very well on several songs.

There are a number of highlights in this “George’s Band” segment but among the standouts is McCartney actually managing to play “Something” on the ukulele. The whole band with McCartney and Clapton plays a riveting “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” that almost serves as an elegy for Harrison himself.

There’s a wonderful selection of Harrison’s music from both the Beatles and post-Beatles periods. With a career as long as varied as Harrison’s (however soon it was cut off by his untimely death), there are bound to be songs some fans will wish had been covered, but all in all, we get a fitting career retrospective delivered with a lot of heart and finesse by some of George’s closest friends. The complete concert set list of the “George’s Band” segment consists of:

I Want to Tell You
If I Needed Someone
Old Brown Shoe
Give Me Love
Beware of Darkness
Here Comes the Sun
That’s the Way It Goes
Horse to the Water
Taxman
I Need You
Handle With Care
Isn’t It a Pity
Photograph
Honey Don’t
For You Blue
Something
All Things Must Pass
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
My Sweet Lord
Wah Wah
I’ll See You In My Dreams

Concert for George Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Concert for George is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The first part of the concert featuring Ravi Shankar's orchestra is noticeably softer than the second half of the concert. The Shankar segment is bathed in an omnipresent orange-red lighting scheme which robs the image of fine detail and casts an overall hazy softness on the image. It actually works toward the dreamlike atmosphere the music itself conjures. Once we get to the more traditionally lit Monty Python and George's Band segments, things improve somewhat, though the overall image is still plagued with softness and a lack of fine detail. Close-ups fare best, as might be expected, with reasonable detail of faces and instruments. Far shots are often murky at best. Colors are very well saturated and fleshtones are accurate. Contrast is fine, and handles the lighting changes very well.

Concert for George Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Concert for George features a very beautifully immersive lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (as well as an uncompressed stereo LPCM 2.0 option). This is a track which bristles with life, able to handle the low drone tones of the Shankar segment with ease, but which also doesn't shirk on the higher frequencies later in the concert. Personally the Shankar segment actually showed off the capabilities of the 5.1 surround mix more abundantly than the more traditional "Western" section of the evening. With tables thunking, the quicksilver sitar work, as well as strings, a chorus and other indigenous Indian instruments, the Shankar segment acts as a musical travelogue of sorts and the DTS track invites the listener into the soundscape effortlessly. The George's Band segment also features sterling fidelity, if perhaps a bit less showily than the Shankar segment. Guitars and drums are balanced very well, and the keyboard is nicely separated and cuts through the band mass very well. Voices are very well mixed and immaculately reproduced.

Concert for George Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The second disc of this two disc set features the following supplements:

• Theatrical Version of Concert for George (1080i; 1:40:13)
• Mini-Featurettes offer peeks behind the scenes and interviews with the following participants: Ravi Shankar (1080i; 11:00); Monty Python (1080i; 12:09); George's Band (1080i; 7:13); Interviews (1080i; 9:55) which offers brief snippets with Starr, Monty Python and others; Drummers (1080i; 5:38).
• Photo Gallery

Concert for George Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is one of the most beautifully heartfelt concerts in recent memory and is a fitting memorial to a man who quietly changed the course of pop music. The full concert version gives us more insight into the Indian music which so deeply affected George, and with the raucous Monty Python segment and the wonderful George's Band assortment of Harrison tunes, Concert for George helps to keep Harrison's memory alive. Highly recommended.