I didn't much like this John Lennon documentary/biopic, but I should acknowledge at the start that the documentary has some strengths.
First and foremost is of course the music: the soundtrack features tons of great Lennon pieces from both his Beatles and solo career. (I owned a copy of the soundtrack on cassette tape back in the day and have good memories of frequently listening to it.) Second, the documentary has some good interviews with people who knew Lennon: the always smart and likeable George Martin, for one, as well as his first wife Cynthia and son Julian (who provide some of the most poignant comments in the film). Last, we get some interesting footage from interviews Lennon gave and home movies he took, drawn especially from the later years of his life.
These strengths cannot compensate for the documentary's serious weaknesses, though. One problem is that the film is just too short: 100 minutes isn't enough time to do justice to a life as eventful as John Lennon's, and so we get a fairly rushed account. His difficult early life in Liverpool, for example, is covered in a few minutes; the final years of Lennon's life, when he was raising his son Sean and creating his final album, "Double Fantasy," is similarly sped through.
Further, the "Imagine" documentary is clearly far more interested in some aspects of Lennon's life than others. More than half the documentary is concerned with the years after he began his relationship with Yoko Ono, with the most attention (about 30+ minutes of the runtime) devoted to the four years 1968-1971. These were the years of Lennon and Ono's avant-garde art and political activism, culminating in Lennon recording "Imagine"--which is unsurprisingly treated as the climax of the story. Lennon's time in the Beatles and his post-"Imagine" life in New York City get skimped in comparison.
In short, the John Lennon this documentary is interested in remembering and celebrating was John Lennon as Hippie Guru, the Lennon who did bed-ins for peace and led people in singing "Give Peace a Chance." That approach is fine as far as it goes--all that was definitely a significant part of Lennon's life and career--yet it leaves out so much.
We don't get much of the John Lennon who was instrumental in creating the greatest rock band of all time. We don't get much of Lennon's wonderful wit or comedy. We don't get much of the Lennon who so often had a great time playing music with Paul McCartney. In short, we don't get much of a sense of fun from Lennon, when "fun" was so essential to what made him and fellow Beatles beloved.
In fact, far from being fun, this documentary was pretty much a big downer. Yes, any biography of John Lennon is inevitably going to be a downer, given the tragic circumstances of his death. But by focusing on the more earnest, troubled, angry side of Lennon's life and career--and implying his whole pre-Yoko Ono, pre-activist career wasn't who he "really" was--"Imagine" pushes the story too far in a somber direction. (We also are given a few too many foreshadowings or premonitions of Lennon's future murder, which drags the tone down.)
Committed Lennon/Beatles fans should definitely check this documentary out at least once. Afterwards, though, go watch "A Hard Day's Night."
First and foremost is of course the music: the soundtrack features tons of great Lennon pieces from both his Beatles and solo career. (I owned a copy of the soundtrack on cassette tape back in the day and have good memories of frequently listening to it.) Second, the documentary has some good interviews with people who knew Lennon: the always smart and likeable George Martin, for one, as well as his first wife Cynthia and son Julian (who provide some of the most poignant comments in the film). Last, we get some interesting footage from interviews Lennon gave and home movies he took, drawn especially from the later years of his life.
These strengths cannot compensate for the documentary's serious weaknesses, though. One problem is that the film is just too short: 100 minutes isn't enough time to do justice to a life as eventful as John Lennon's, and so we get a fairly rushed account. His difficult early life in Liverpool, for example, is covered in a few minutes; the final years of Lennon's life, when he was raising his son Sean and creating his final album, "Double Fantasy," is similarly sped through.
Further, the "Imagine" documentary is clearly far more interested in some aspects of Lennon's life than others. More than half the documentary is concerned with the years after he began his relationship with Yoko Ono, with the most attention (about 30+ minutes of the runtime) devoted to the four years 1968-1971. These were the years of Lennon and Ono's avant-garde art and political activism, culminating in Lennon recording "Imagine"--which is unsurprisingly treated as the climax of the story. Lennon's time in the Beatles and his post-"Imagine" life in New York City get skimped in comparison.
In short, the John Lennon this documentary is interested in remembering and celebrating was John Lennon as Hippie Guru, the Lennon who did bed-ins for peace and led people in singing "Give Peace a Chance." That approach is fine as far as it goes--all that was definitely a significant part of Lennon's life and career--yet it leaves out so much.
We don't get much of the John Lennon who was instrumental in creating the greatest rock band of all time. We don't get much of Lennon's wonderful wit or comedy. We don't get much of the Lennon who so often had a great time playing music with Paul McCartney. In short, we don't get much of a sense of fun from Lennon, when "fun" was so essential to what made him and fellow Beatles beloved.
In fact, far from being fun, this documentary was pretty much a big downer. Yes, any biography of John Lennon is inevitably going to be a downer, given the tragic circumstances of his death. But by focusing on the more earnest, troubled, angry side of Lennon's life and career--and implying his whole pre-Yoko Ono, pre-activist career wasn't who he "really" was--"Imagine" pushes the story too far in a somber direction. (We also are given a few too many foreshadowings or premonitions of Lennon's future murder, which drags the tone down.)
Committed Lennon/Beatles fans should definitely check this documentary out at least once. Afterwards, though, go watch "A Hard Day's Night."