The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld have created an interesting documentary about how the United States government tried to deport John Lennon. Although there is a bit about John's childhood and his days with the Beatles most of the film concentrates on the period of the late 60s and early to mid 70s. This is the time that he was with Yoko Ono, started to protest the war in Vietnam and moved to New York City.

John was always an outspoken person but it was when he decided to live in the States that he got into trouble. The government and FBI (Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover were up in arms!) got really upset when Lennon appeared at a concert organized to free activist John Sinclair who was arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail for giving two joints to an undercover agent. Lennon had such influence that Sinclair was released from prison shortly after the concert. This did not sit well with the powers that be and they decided that Lennon must be deported. They claimed that it was because he was once arrested for possession of marijuana but we all know that it was because of his political views. It took some time but in the end Lennon won and made New York City his home.

The film focuses a great deal on his relationship with Ono. You can see just how happy John was with her and you also realize that there was so much racism surrounding their relationship back then. She was vilified but she comes across as someone who was a good influence on John. John was also ecstatic after the birth of their son Sean and was a loving father. The film has clips from events with Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and other 60s activists. Besides Ono there are interviews with Sinclair, Angela Davis, George McGovern, Mario Cuomo, Walter Cronkite, Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Tom Smothers and others.

Although the film is sometimes a bit choppy in its feel I really enjoyed watching it. It brought back many memories from my youth. The music, of course, is wonderful and I found myself singing along to myself. But we know that the outcome is a sad one because Lennon was gunned down in December 8, 1980 (and I remember going to the vigil on December 14 that was held in Central Park). At some point in the film Lennon said that both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to bring about peace in a peaceful manner and both were assassinated. The same turned out to be true of Lennon. At the end of the film I had tears in my eyes, partly because of the loss of Lennon and partly because the world has gotten even worse since he is gone. I can only imagine what John Lennon would say about the current state of affairs. To me the best way to honor the memory of this great man is for the world to give peace a chance.