Customer Reviews

Harrison, George - Quiet One

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I bought this DVD and I just watched it once and I would of returned it if I could and get something else. Why? well, because I hate to be decieved by this kind of oportunities companies putting together a few things and releasing a product so superficial and that doesn't represent George at all.
So let's analize this DVD in three points:

* The interviews: well, it's just interesting George Martin and Paul McCartney, both of them appears for 5 minutes in the whole thing, and some old interviews by The Beatles. The rest is related by a childhood friend of George who probably spent 10 minutes playing soccer with him and that's it. I mean, he's not the most autorizhated person to talk about Harrison for almost an hour, right? So he bores you actually.

* The music: YOU WON'T LISTEN TO ONE SONG BY GEORGE HARRISON or THE BEATLES. Believe it or not. The only soundtracks here is by some British forgottable "mersey-beat-like" sixties band, which is insulting !!!!! since they show you glimpses of The Beatles performing live with that stupid song playing. This is the part that I hate the most about this DVD. The Story of a Musician including NOTHING of his music.

* The story: well, it doesn't tell you anything. You don't get a clue of his musical life. Just interviews here and there. Suddenly in the middle of something, an interview with the Beatles where they talk about getting the MBE and next thing his childhood friend talking about a particular memory when they were kids.
HIS post-beatle musical career DOESN'T EXIST here!!! You don't know about the Concert For Bangla-Desh, for example. UNREAL.
Suddenly from being a Beatle it skips to the NEWS about him being attacked in December, 1999.

I'm a Fan, and I know very well his story and music. But my reason to be SO UPSET at this "Let's Make Money With The Artist's Death" DVD, it's because for someone who doesn't know him well and wants to take a peek at this genius' life, will end up bored and confused.

You know you're in trouble when the back cover reads:

"This is an unofficial programme which does not seek to represent the George Harrison Estate, Apple Inc. or any other official body associated with George Harrison. This programme does not contain the music or performances of The Beatles or George Harrison."

Add to that the false advertising:
DVD Running Time approximately 75 minutes
--> Try 57 minutes when the credits roll

I'm taking my copy back to my store for a refund. It is certainly not worth the purchase price - I might buy it if it was $5.

I only have listened to the audio cd, tho I have read an review of the DvD itself, ofcourse just after I already bought it.I still think some warning should be placed. Regarding the Audio cd, on the back it is stated that you get about 60 minutes of interviews with George, what you get is about 30 minutes of wortheless Beatle covers, not even George's songs! And one made up piece called "In Spite Of All The Danger" which doesn't sound at all like the Beatles song with the same name! What I read of the DvD itself is that it has little to do with George also, and based on the audio cd I believe that.The release date isn't right also, it is already in the shops, which I sadly found out today.Save yourself the money go listen to George's albums instead.

Interviews offer very little of interest for fans and shoddily put together, seemingly from scraps of old footage.

Do not be fooled by this DVD's slick packaging as I was. This DVD is a truly awful mess, so much so that it cannot be called a documentary. It's just a disordered mish mash (there is no story line!) of some very, very poor, rambling interviews of people who clearly barely knew George and bizarrely whole clips from BBC and ITN news broadcasts about the knife attack on George and about George's death. The truly incredible thing about this package is that there is next to no music on the DVD. Come on. How can you make a so-called documentary about a great musician like George Harrison and not have any of his music on it? It looks like this thing was slapped together by a small group of amateurs who simply wanted to exploit George's death. Everyone involved in this project should be ashamed of themselves.

Well, the review from the other fella stated that the cd wasn't George in his own words, but he may have gotten the PAL version from the UK, because that's what I found with the UK version as well. However, the US version of the cd **IS** a 60 minute audio cd with mainly early Beatles interviews. It's more "the lads in their own words" rather than "George in his own words", but it's still early interviews and such that some fans might not have heard.

As far as the dvd goes, it's no 75 minutes, although it also has a discography and biography. Some great footage of The Beatles, but it tended to jump around a bit, like going from George's first interest in the Maharishi to the attack in 1999 (with a little too much focus on the attacker), then back to Brian's death and then skipping forward to George's appearance in court to keep the Kingsize Taylor tapes off the market. The production seemed to ignore nearly everything from about 1960 until 1998. Still, there was a very nice interview with George Martin, appeared to actually be from 11/30/01, and Paul's comments that day. Some video I'd never seen before, a lovely one with Ravi probably in 1998ish (about Chants of India? The Palace Interview?), video of Olivia going to court, Dhani's statement after court, footage of Patti and George's wedding day, and some absolutely priceless anecdotes from an old school chum, regarding George's childhood and school years. Some of the video was things I'd seen before, but not in as good quality.

I'd give it a about 3 and a half out of 5 stars, mainly because of skipping so many years between 1969 and present. The cd was all right, but I don't think it was anything I hadn't heard before.....but it could be 'new stuff' to fans who haven't heard a lot of interviews, mainly early Beatles.

I enjoyed watching the DVD, but it could have been better.
CM

I bought this DVD today and I must say that it was the worst representation of a man who deserved so much more. I pictured a George Harrison DVD to have interviews with Ringo, Paul, Olivia, Dhani, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Jeff Lynne, Ravi Shankar, etc. None of these people had a real interview. Instead there was George Martin and some childhood friend who spends about 20 minutes telling stories about George befriending the "smelly kid" in school.

It has an uneven flow to it. One minute, the Beatles are still together and the next, he gets stabbed. It is certainly not 75 minutes, which the DVD states. Oh, and the CD is not worth it.

But probably the most dissapointing aspect of this DVD is that it's about a musician and it has no music!

So, George fans, I must warn you all. Don't waste your time or your money. You will never get it back, and you could easily be spending time starting a garden or learning the sitar.

Maybe I was pleasantly surprised because I was expecting the worst in this disc. After all, it was put together by the same people who made the terrible quality and totally worthless "John Lennon-the Messenger" DVD. Sure George deserves a much better and complete tribute video than this, but considering it's unauthorized, this is not that bad. I can't imagine anyone really expecting there would be music or new interviews with the "big name" friends in a small label unauthorized release. Get real, it wasn't the BBC or Rolling Stone or Apple putting this together. Even the ABC/NBC/CBS tributes at the time weren't that great either.

This does have a lot of George segments and news reports from the BBC archives that I am quite happy to have now. The subjects and timeline jump around a bit, but it's not like that ruins the clips. I have taped a bunch of video off various TV shows and reports that does the same thing--big deal. And, in this case, I thought the "far fringe friend" interviews were kind of fun. At least it was a guy that actually went to the same school, at the same time, and not some "author" acting like an expert and telling hand-me-down stories. One of the highlights is the George & Ravi European interview from the same time as the VH1 interview was here in the states. Wish that segment was longer, but I love having it in any form. Their relationship comes shining through. Plus, you have Paul & George Martin giving their statements after George's passing.

The audio CD interviews are all old Beatle clips, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, with only a couple of minutes of that actually being George speaking. Not at all the content the sleeve states it is.

The packaging is pretty nicely done otherwise, considering the source. I would buy this again, and I am sure I will watch this again, unlike some other Beatle related DVDs I have collecting dust. That at least is telling in itself.

Since George Harrison is a great musical spirit, who brought and still brings so much joy to us now, this documentary movie was a severe disappointment. It was so bad, it was almost laughable. It appeared that the movie was made in someone's basement -- the quality, in addtion to the content, of the film -- was very poor.

Curiously, there were no words or songs by Harrison in the movie, perhaps, because the producers could not get the copyrights or permissions from Harrison's estate. If this was the case, it was a good thing they did not get the permissions, as this was an awful rendition of what should have, and could have been done to honor this great music giant.

There is still a movie to be made, so wait until someone else makes, it, cause you won't find it here.

I am a big George Harrison fan. Even to the casual Beatle fan there is nothing here for you. No interviews with his rock friends Clapton, Lynne, Ringo, Paul. No insights into the man or his music or his character, (unless you are interested) in what he was like 50 years ago.

Better labeled as a worthless piece of plastic vs a tribute to an inspired musician and kind gentleman.