During my recovery from shoulder surgery these last 3 weeks I've watched quite a few movies, most of which now seem somewhat blurred together, except for this one which has compelled me to attempt a review even if I have to write it with one hand.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon is the kind of movie that makes you think, makes you wonder, makes you "Imagine", what if ? And, makes you angry at the same time as it brings tears to your eyes at the very end.

All those emotions are what I felt as I watched this documentary by directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld who bring forth the story of John Lennon and how he became a voice of the anti-war protesters in the late 60's and 70's, during the Vietnam war and how he was perceived to be a threat to the Nixon administration, so much so, that they wanted to have him deported back to England and how they tried to silence him, but to no avail, thankfully.

I remember all of it...the documented scenes shown in this film, the body bags of the soldiers when they were brought home, the beginnings of the protest marches, growing bigger and more volatile with each one, the Chicago Democratic Convention, where Chicago's Mayor Daley sent armed guards into the crowds to stop the demonstrations outside, the Kent State killings of 4 students by the National Guard, most of them just kids themselves, called up to quell a riot with guns, not really knowing what or why...and I remember John Lennon and his music, the interviews he gave in protest of the war, the times he and his wife Yoko Ono demonstrated their feeling about the war in some very strange and provocative ways. All shown in this film with actual footage guaranteed to make you see the frustrations we all felt and question what went wrong with our democracy during that period. And then, the inevitable comparisons to our government and the administration today.

Throughout the film there are interviews by many of the people involved either intimately with Lennon or in the Nixon administration and in the news media...We are also shown the efforts of Nixon and those around him who felt so threatened by his explosion of popularity and music, to have him spied on, his phone tapped and to attempt to have him deported, but they failed and his words and music went on to haunt them. The film also shows how he became such a vocal anti-war activist from his beginnings with the Beatles until he met and married Yoko…His years in New York and the happiness he found when he became a proud father, until, that horrific day when he was murdered in front of his apartment building in New York...

But mostly it is an anti-war movie, from the days when we viewed the nightly news reports, saw the massacres and the demonstrations while they were going on, growing in intensity with each one...throughout it all we hear his music and his words which give meaning to what we are witness too.

The interviews in the film were with men and women who were either held in high regard or were considered threats at the time: Angela Davis, Bobby Seale on one side, John Dean and G. Gordon Lady on the other side...footage of Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman, as they provoked and brought the crowds to a fever pitch...others interviewed were: Yoko Ono, Walter Cronkite, Geraldo Riviera, Carl Bernstein, George McGovern, Mario Cuomo, Tommy Smothers, Paul Krassner, Gore Vidal and many others, one interview really sticks out in my mind of Ron Kovac, now a paraplegic due to his injuries during the war, who went on to write the movie Born On The Fourth of July, he tells his story about how he volunteered for the army and went to Vietnam, what he saw there and his experiences...There were also interviews with the Beatles and Lennon and how he evolved into being the Anti-war activist he became...through out it all, we see the actual photographic scenes of the war, the riots and Lennon, with his music always in the background, provide a most provocative look at what went on, how the U.S. Government reacted, trying to silence him and, most of all, how Lennon inspired and provoked so many thousands and thousands of people to speak out and cry for peace…..The U.S. vs. John Lennon also reveals, in its own way, that these struggles are still going on.

Give Peace A Chance….a cry that was heard around the world and is still as meaningful today as it was then.

50,000 American Soldiers were killed during that war!!


The U.S. vs. John Lennon premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 to rave reviews and was distributed by Lions gate Films who gave us Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911

The film is 96 minutes long…..

The DVD extras include more interviews by many of those featured in the film itself and some deleted footage.




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older