THE U.S. vs JOHN LENNON
THE U.S. vs. JOHN LENNON
ARTIST. HUMANITARIAN. NATIONAL THREAT.
2006 – LIONS GATE – 96 minutes – Directed by David Leaf & John Scheinfeld
Anyone who lived through the sixties and the seventies can’t help but relive the turbulent times depicted in The US vs John Lennon. For those too young to have experienced that time, the documentary will bring insight in to those years and how John Lennon seems to have evolved from mop top Beatle to political activist. Set to Lennon’s and the Beatles music, this is a fast paced, well made documentary that shows how John Lennon came to be what the Nixon administration called an “enemy of the state,” and someone who needed to be deported.
John Lennon was born October 10, 1940 in Liverpool, England. The documentary covers some of his childhood days where we learn about his childhood experiences and his tendency to rebel against authority. Archival footage of the Beatles and Lennon are used in conjunction with remarks, made by Lennon, that “The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.” At the time right wing Christian groups and the KKK protested the Beatles and burned Beatles records.
But the real focus of the film are his days with Yoko Ono and their “Give Peace a Chance” demonstrations including their honeymoon “Bed In” peace protests in Amsterdam and, after the U.S. denied them entry, in Canada. The archival footage is skillfully edited with interviews and appearances of John and Yoko on the Dick Cabot show and other interviews.
Also highlighted is the relationship that developed between Lennon and activists like Jerry Rubin, Abby Hoffman and Bobby Seales, where it appears Rubin and Hoffman used the celebrity status of Lennon to help their causes. In particular the case of getting John Sinclair released from a ten-year sentence for giving two joints to an undercover agent. This event also shows how the potential power Lennon’s celebrity might be used in the protest movement.
The documentary makes use of a great deal of restored archival photographs, film and video footage of John and Yoko plus the events of the years from the late sixties up to Lennon’s murder in December of 1980. Interviews with John Lennon, Yoko Ono Lennon, Carl Bernstein, G.Gordon Liddy, Walter Cronkite, Mario Cuomo, George McCovern, John Dean, Bobby Seale, Gore Vidal and many others gives candid insight into the events surrounding John Lennon’s life at this time.
At times it seems that story is more about the Viet Nam War and the peace movement, rather than John Lennon, but after awhile the historic footage serves as back story to his activism and the US government’s attempts to have Lennon deported as an undesirable alien. Behind this attempt is the fear of the Republican establishment and Nixon administration that Lennon might be able to rally young voters to vote against the war and Nixon. Lennon made Nixon’s well known “Political Enemies” list and was followed and wiretapped. In addition J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI took steps whenever possible to neutralize these supposed “enemies” of the state.
Today thirty years after Lennon’s death it seems that history is repeating itself in Iraq and Afghanistan without the protests of peace activists like John Lennon who would have been seventy years old today. This is a documentary film worth seeing from many standpoints including a unique time in the history of the world.
JRMartin
