Review of The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006) by Alex M — 27 Nov 2009
An excellently executed and moving documentary about a truly beautiful man who started off as a simple young pop star, but quickly realised he could use his popularity for a good cause, and became one of the most artistic and open-minded pacifist revolutionary activists of all time.
The interviews were fascinating (G. Gordon Liddy always makes me laugh - ignorant right wing toolbox...); the footage was awe-inspiring and powerful, and the documentary was in general so well thought out and constructed as to leave you with a pretty detailed sense of the progression and the complex make-up of this amazingly amazing human being, without ever boring you; and the soundtrack was, as expected, incredible :D.
One glaring issue I had with this otherwise flawlessly brilliant documentary / biography, was that I got the sense that Lennon was being portrayed as a sometimes naive little boy with fantastical views of what the world could be (see his ideas regarding us all being citizens of a borderless world country - Newtopia), and as a sometimes pawn in a much larger game played by the more leftist and radical activists (The Black Panther dudes (like Angela Davis, Bobby Searle, and Malcolm X) and those crazy mofos Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin) and the oppressively fascist (made out to be (scarily) almost Orwellian in this movie) right wing republican government.
He was a fantastic human being stolen from us far too soon (like so many before and subsequent to him) by a raving lunatic (or a stealthily trained Manchurian Candidate, depending on whether you believe the American government or Chris Carter ;) and if you know little or nothing about him, this film does an excellent job of showcasing who and what he was.
This review of The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006) was written by Alex M on 27 Nov 2009.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon has generally received positive reviews.
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