The U.S. vs. John Lennon
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Movie Reviews of The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Movie Review: No "Sympathy For The Devil" Here
Summary: 2 Stars
DEAL with it: I'm Honest. A movie whining about the naughty ol' US's efforts to deport an acidhead who spent 8 years of hs life here walking around with a sign on his back that said "KICK ME?" Oh, be serious...Movie Review: A Gross Misrepresentation of an Artist.
Summary: 1 Stars
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
I have nothing but problems with this documentary. Firstly, this is a manipulated version of the events. The seal of `Authorized' has cost this documentary its impartiality and honesty.
This documentary has all the hallmarks of a Yoko Ono production. She is portrayed as a sympathetic talented artist with a heart of gold and inseparable if not the catalyst of John Lennon's emerging talent. So the message of this poor documentary is that `John would have been nothing without Yoko!'
Not once is Julian Lennon mentioned in this perversion of History. Julian suffered all his young life with the pain of being ignored and rejected by his own Father. Yet when Yoko's son is born it is reported as if this experience is revelatory and the only one of significance.
John and Yoko were having relationship problems before he died. In fact John was sleeping with another Asian girl introduced to him by Yoko. When John started to fall for her, Yoko terminated the relationship.
It is a crime that John Lennon's legacy and fortune are in the hands of Yoko Ono who has proved on numerous occasions how morally malleable she is. Julian Lennon on the other hand is forced to go to auctions to bid for articles that once belonged to his dad. He still to this day not received a penny of John Lennon's wealth.
The final insult to John's memory is having a sell-out like Geraldo Rivera comment on his life.
Movie Review: The Past Haunts the Present
Summary: 5 Stars
George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Much is made, particularly in the Bonus Features on this disc, of the parallels between the obsessively-secretive and vindictive administration of Richard Nixon and our present administration. Whether or not you agree with these parallels, the facts of what Haldeman, Erlichman, Hoover, Thurman and others in power did to a humble rock & roll singer cannot be denied. From the perspective of 35 years on, it's hard to remember the urgency that drove both sides to such acts of desperation.
If we are to head off a similar cataclysmic division in society today, we must heed the lessons of history, we must acknowledge and discuss the trends and currents which draw us into the same whirlpools.
This documentary is valuable as history, whichever side of the debate you're on.
Movie Review: More important now than ever
Summary: 5 Stars
The younger you are, the more important it is that you see this movie. You've heard of John Lennon. You are maybe even familiar with his songs, and you know that he was murdered. But this movie is about more than the man - it is about his times, his legacy, and the U.S. Government's paranoia and involvement in his life. You will be amazed, if not outraged, that such things can happen in this country; and frankly, compared to today, what happned to John Lennon was tame.
See this movie. Share it with your friends, and your brothers and sisters. And never forget his talent, his spirit, and the beauty of what he was trying to do.
Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)
Movie Review: Hippie Nostalgia- Dawdling, Tiresome, Vapid; Don't Waste Your Time
Summary: 1 Stars
In a final hurrah for publicity, the aging peace activists of the dire 60's decade bare their dusty rainbow flags and dove-shrouded guitars and tambourines once more in beguiling the infamous Lion Gates Films (Fahrenheit 9/11) into believing after all these years they'll finally deliver a new, worthy message to be heard.
Unfortunately, as is always the story with this dying breed of time-warped zealots, it is always the same old malcontent sour meal that bangs the drums of conspiracy while yearning for the days of centered-staged publicity. With ambitious hopes of spreading their tainted, jaded message of always distrust authority or "the establishment" while proselytizing others into their nihilistic lifestyle, the remnants of the 60's era whose former glory days of ceaseless narcotic usage and promiscuity under the auspices of love and peace were abandoned for authentic careers and families, have mounted a forceful effort to expunge any infamy of their memory.
In a circus-like parade of invidious junkies, tie-dye bohemians, and snarling leftwing extremists, "The US vs. John Lennon" digs deep to amass 99 minutes of archival footage of former friends, associates, and journalists interviews to puzzle together a colorless, diluted "documentary" film in memoriam of former Beatles star turned headlining drug-addict, peacenik, and New Left radical, John Lennon. An assemblage of now nostalgic gray-haired "cultural revolution" veterans and admirers gather from afar to reminisce about the fanatic's applauded lifetime and legacy now celebrated by media stiffs and Hollywood elitists circles.
The film's cast of characters abounds with prominent leftists and starch anti-Americanists that could seemingly only be concocted in the Sulzberger family's wet dreams. Once reputable journalist figures, Walter Cronkite and Geraldo, join the dramatis personae of Marxist fanatic Tariq Ali, Black Panther/Communist Angela Davis, the ever-provocative George Liddy, indicted-murderer Bobby Seale, and the always-amusing George McGovern; along with the priceless input of gay playwright Gore Vidal and extremist professor Noam Chomsky.
With the notable titans of the era amassed, struggling documentarian/director David Leaf, trills audiences with retrospection of solely John Lennon's political movements, and exploits his many fans' appreciation of the musician with vacuous adoration of his beliefs as opposed to his talent which is most likely why you chose to watch in the first place. If you're a fan of the Lennon's music you'll most likely be disappointed; it was never Leaf's intention to commemorate a prominent musician of the era but rather adore a morally-superior political martyr of their radical agenda.
In addition to being veraciously cloying, the film is inappreciable to anyone without fond memories of Woodstock and a cordial reverence of marches on Washington with Viet-Cong banners alongside Black Panther terrorists, and needless to say, apolitical Lennon-admirers/music fans. In the same fashion of most Lion`s Gate propaganda films, storyline direction is scarce and the jumbled shorts of interviews digress from a central point that they hope to offer viewers, presenting only exclusive input from fellow conforming ideologues eulogizing his eccentric political antics.
The film opens with Lennon and his cohorts wailing at a concert with sardine-packed hippies for their marijuana-martyr John Sinclair. Ardent music follows over stills of Lennon's childhood, cutting in and out of disordered interviews with the star-studded cast of former cronies while the monotonous rhyme of their "righteous" cause tickles the air. Theories of Soviet-styled purges the "vile" Nixon Administration is contriving begins to flow through the film's veins reaching a climax when the INS deportation proceedings commence.
With further archival footage of "Bed-Ins" and sappy, pretentious pacifist tunes, our concealed story's moral shine through: this atrocious, murderous president abuses his power in conspiring to assassinate the message of a Utopian, harmonious world by our renown leftist demigod, John Lennon.
After Lennon's murder, a frayed viewer leaves to the note of Gore Vidal: "..and Mr. Bush represents death." How the current president ties into the John Lennon expurgation conspiracy is still unclear but with a cast like this lucidity is often scarce.