This is the latest in a spate of ‘big name’ documentaries that have come from Martin Scorsese. They have each been based around live musicians or past directors, spinning their biography or following them on the road. In his latest offering, released on October 10, Scorsese has decided to tackle the biggest band of all, The Beatles, with his eye on ‘the quiet one’, guitarist George Harrison.

Let’s be honest, this is first and foremost a documentary about The Beatles. With rare footage from their first few social club gigs, through to the height of Beatlemania and beyond, there’s a sense of intimacy with them all. And the film benefits from it; it’s almost impossible not to be swept up in their cheek as Scorsese puts clips of them against interviews and anecdotes that he found only God knows where. What Hollywood documentaries lack in creativity, they gain in detail and I’ve never been more endeared to Paul McCartney than by hearing how he used to tease his mother (‘SHURRUP MARY’). Then there’s footage of the four yachting with their loves, an epitome of high sixties life, and a bizarre interview with a home-counties housewife recalling the band’s discovery of LSD and the time they sent a jet for her and her husband, ushering them into a very private party of friends.

As it progresses it becomes much more of a documentary about George Harrison himself; very subtly he follows up George’s trips to India, his attempts to learn the instruments from the people that he met there. Tracks that you’d forgotten were written by Harrison rather than John or Paul are slyly introduced, tracks like'Something' and 'When My Guitar Gently Weeps', those which show his influence on the band’s later sound. And as they band grow apart, it is George’s perspective that you are left with. He is the quiet one; McCartney launches his solo career and John and Yoko do what they did, but Harrison was oddly committed to the spirituality underneath the lifestyle of the 70s. You see all of the members go into the band but you get to see the effect that it had on Harrison for the rest of his life. Celebrity is a novelty at first, but for the older Harrison it is a phenomena, a curiosity, rather than a way of life.

The film itself goes on a little bit too long and gets more into trivial towards the end but, at times, there are flashes of brilliance.