Filmmaker David Leaf believes most people under the age of 40 know only that John Lennon was one of the Beatles, that he wrote Imagine and he was murdered"¦ and you know, he is right.
I went into the screening of the documentary The US vs John Lennon knowing little more and I left staggered at how big a political foe John Lennon was to the Nixon administration. A threat they took so seriously they tried to deport him "¦ pretty good for a guy who was just meant to be a wayward beatnik!
Directed, written and produced by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld the US vs John Lennon is an extraordinary documentary. It chronicles not only the social, political and economic state of the US from 1964 to 1976 but Lennon’s own political activism at the time and the huge influence he was to have over an entire movement and generation.
The beginning of the film felt bogged down in political exposition but this only served to set the scene for the US government’s legal battle to deport Lennon, the peacenik.
America was at war! Vietnam was raging and Lennon and Yoko Ono became a symbol of peace. They aligned themselves with heavy weight political activists and John wrote songs that were to become the peace movement’s anthems.
The film uses graphics, interviews with luminaries such as Gore Vidal and Noam Chomski and of course Lennon’s music to support the narrative but it is the film’s footage from Ono’s private archive that makes this film so unique and provocative.
The filmmakers went to Yoko with their idea for the documentary and gained her trust enough that she herself agreed to be interviewed and it is these interviews coupled with rare footage of John Lennon that truly moved me.
Their collaboration, commitment to peace and love for each other was intense and remarkable.
I had no idea what an incredibly entertaining and witty man Lennon was and I was surprised by how much I liked Yoko Ono by the end of the film.
The US vs. John Lennon is a film that really needs to be seen now as it is not only a reminder to our generation to give peace a chance but it also highlights that one man can make a difference.
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