“Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It’s abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we’ll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”
– Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
The Ghost of Richard Harris (Dir. Adrian Sibley) debuted at US film festivals in 2022 but it didn’t become widely available until 2023. I suppose Harris doesn’t have much of a fanbase in the US today so it’s not surprising that the film didn’t get a wide release but that’s unfortunate because it’s one of the best actor profiles I’ve seen.
Unlike typical documentaries that only rely on interviews with experts, friends, family, and colleagues, this documentary relies heavily on voice recordings of Harris himself (much like the wonderful Brando documentary Listen to Me Marlon) along with old interviews and film footage to explore the actor’s life and career. It also focuses on the complicated relationship he had with his three sons (actors Jared and Jamie Harris along with filmmaker Damian Harris) who travel around in their father’s old Rolls Royce and visit a storage unit to dig through family photos and personal journals where they eventually make a surprising and deeply moving discovery. There are also revealing interviews with many of Richard Harris’s collaborators including composer Jimmy Webb, director Jim Sheridan, and actress Vanessa Redgrave just to name a few of the talking heads that do appear on screen.
What’s especially refreshing about The Ghost of Richard Harris is that it’s no fawning or frivolous portrait. The subject’s creative brilliance never overshadows his human flaws and failings. He was a very open and occasionally brutally honest man. But he was also a storyteller and a bit of a bullshit artist, which makes for an interesting mix. Letting the ghost of Harris speak for himself exposes what a complex, sensitive, and difficult character he was. That is evident during interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues who are forced to deal with his shortcomings as well as their own while looking backward but you can’t apologize to a ghost. Misunderstandings, mistakes, and regrets are left out in the open for us to ponder.
If you’ve lost your own parents, as I have, it’s also an insightful and sensitive look at how surviving children process such a grievous and in this case, very public loss. Fathers can become Herculean figures in our lives, particularly if they are beloved, feared, and admired by their children. Wrestling with an imperfect ghost as an adult can be a deeply painful process but it’s not all gloom and doom. There are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments to be had in this documentary as we get to revisit Harris’s notorious “hellraiser” antics in front of and behind the screen. And it delves into all aspects of Harris’s life including his acting career, musical ambitions, as well as his poetry, and political activities.
Overall, it’s just a beautiful film and one of the best documentaries about a creative giant and father figure that I’ve seen. But Richard Harris is one of my favorite screen performers so I’m probably a bit biased. If you haven’t seen Listen to Me Marlon yet do yourself a favor and watch both documentaries back-to-back. Brando was arguably Harris’s biggest influence so it would make for a fascinating double feature.
CINEBEATS 
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