At various times so far in my life, I’ve had ‘older’ relatives tell me that The Beatles were a great band in the early days when churning out variations of I Want To Hold Your Hand, but interest waned when they started coming up with ‘weirder’ sounds later on. John Lennon is usually named as the culprit responsible for steering the band down the path of both unusual behaviour and music. Could that be right? This engaging documentary checks out John Lennon’s introduction to the late 1960s radical protest movement in the United States which coincided with the first term of the troubled Nixon administration. After watching it, I wondered whether or not I preferred sitting back and getting good vibes just from classic solo albums of the early 1970s like The Plastic Ono Band and Imagine or also seeing the dude develop as a political activist.
The film makers flash on to the counter culture struggle of the ‘60s and ‘70s and Lennon’s growing political activity which included supporting activist groups like the Black Panther Party, for which he was seen as a threat to US national security. It seems that John Lennon was not merely content to sit in some mansion somewhere, but wanted to use his public profile to engage with common humanity while at times writing and recording great music. The narrative doesn’t get bogged down while mapping out such things as John Lennon’s determined efforts to gain permanent residency of the United States after the break up of The Beatles, and the many obstacles placed in his way from tentacles reaching to highest levels of the US Government. With the other stuff, some good visuals and interviews drive the story as well as cool early post-Beatles music and much footage of John Lennon expressing his passionate libertarian views with the stoic and faithful Yoko Ono always at his side.
