Yes it did require concentration and proper listening. From what I know, quite a lot of the worst stuff from the crazy years was left out, probably due to the fact that you cant fit 73 years into 2 hours.
My only criticism is that 90% of the film concentrated on the period up to the early/ mid 70,s and then it skipped through the last 40 years or so.
The comeback started when friends in the business rallied round and organised a concert at the Rainbow theatre in London and coaxed him into doing it.
He was a complete mess, and played Layla so badly that the other musicians on stage had to step in and try to rescue things.
The audience though cheered him so loudly because they were so glad to see him back, he just stood on the stage with tears rolling down his face.
In the early to mid 90,s after his son died, he returned to playing the blues as if his life depended on it, and produced some of the best work of his life. I would liked to have seen some of that period in the film.
He once quoted the phrase from Blake "The road of excess, leads to the path of wisdom." It seems to have worked in his case - eventually.
The "Enoch speech" in Birmingham, which was mentioned in the film damaged his career immensely in this country. To this day there are many lefties in the music business who wont have anything to do with him because of it. They cant show any understanding of the fact that it came from a tortured man, who was lashing out at everyone and everything in a drunken stupor.
The background to the speech was that earlier in the day a man of foreign appearance grabbed his wife from behind and told her she had "lovely child bearing hips". She was actually unable to have children and so was distraught by this.
When Clapton heard about it, he did his usual daily routine of two bottles of brandy washed down with a gallon of beer, and then went on stage and let fly with his racist tirade.
Ive read his autobiography and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in an even more in depth version of the story.
Its great to see him happy at last, but from a purely selfish music fan point of view, it has meant that he has lost that ability to convey huge emotion through his playing.
It would take a hard hearted person to deny him some happiness in his twilight years though.
In case its not obvious, Im a bit of a fan.