By Dennis Harvey/Variety

“Clapton is God” graffiti began appearing — to the guitarist deity’s considerable annoyance — very early in his career, which now spans more than five decades. He certainly comes off as a fallible mortal in longtime friend Lili Fini Zanuck’s Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars, which tells the legendary British musician’s story via a wealth of archival footage and (mostly) latter-day voiceover commentary. The Showtime feature is slated for limited theatrical release early next year, prior to its Feb. 10 cable bow.

As absorbing as much of this material is, the lengthy feature does not feel definitive: It commits the typical music-doc sin of devoting nearly all its time to a celebrated first professional decade, then hastily skimming past all events since. Further, the limited attention paid to later years dwells entirely on already amply chronicled struggles with addiction and personal tragedy, basically ignoring any music made after 1972. Though it all, Clapton himself remains somewhat elusive, save when acting badly under the influence; he has never been one to wear emotions on his sleeve.

The first 90 minutes or so here are gold, however, even if fans might wish for more detail on the dizzying number of fabled bands Clapton formed and/or played with over a 10-year span. …

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