After screening at film festivals and in theaters, the Eric Clapton documentary A Life in 12 Bars premiered on Showtime Saturday.
Eric Clapton on his documentary, A Life in 12 Bars:
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The two-hour-15-minute film covers his life, with an emphasis on his upbringing by his grandparents. Clapton grew up believing that his mother was his sister. It also delves into his heroin addiction and alcoholism, with performance clips of him being drunk and belligerent.
The film covers his falling in love with George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd. It also focuses on his writing "Layla" about her -- but never mentions that Eric later married and divorced her.
Some of the best footage is a Clapton conversation with Jimi Hendrix. After Hendrix died, Clapton said he was disappointed Hendrix didn't take him with him. There is also a clip in which he says he has a death wish.
The film shows him working with Duane Allman in Derek and the Dominos and recording "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with The Beatles.
Perhaps the most moving segment is when he talks about his son Conor, who fell to his death from a New York City apartment in 1991.
Criticisms: There is nothing about the Rainbow concert, which Pete Townshend organized in 1973 to get Eric out of the house during a self-imposed heroin exile, and the last 40 years of his life are wrapped up in the film's final half hour.