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Video: Toronto Film Festival, 'The U.S. vs John Lennon' »
Posted by: Alexia 2 years agoJohn Lennon had a simple idea: "Give Peace a Chance." In The U.S. vs. John Lennon, directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld trace the singer's evolution as an activist and the powerful forces that rose up against him. Interviewing both friends and opponents and drawing upon a treasure trove of archival footage - plus an extensive new interview with Yoko Ono Lennon - the filmmakers present a man who speaks directly to our own time.
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Alexia
Documentary filmmaker, interactive mediaist, with a background in theatre and writing. Avid non-fiction reader.
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Comments: 24
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1-2-Oscar
Sept. 18, 2006, 4:51 p.m."The powerful forces that rose up against him?"
You've got to be kidding. Most people regarded John Lennon as a drugged-out has-been, who couldn't even get along with the other Beatles. He talked a great deal about doing drugs and finding inner peace, about sex, and occasionally about "Peace." But talking about peace was hardly controversial in the final phases of the Vietnam War--everybody wanted peace.
Now, apparently, Yoko Ono, with the collusion of Leaf and Scheinfeld, is trying to remake the image of her late husband to fit the words of the only memorable song he ever produced without the help of Paul McCartney. "Imagine."
This would be funny, but it's too sad to be funny. John Lennon was what he was, no more and no less. It's too late to sanctify him now.
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Karina
Sept. 18, 2006, 5:08 p.m.Oscar, if you watch the video, the topic of whether or not the film is revisionist history comes up around 5:20. I've seen the film, and I have to say that although Yoko's influence is felt in the structure and treatment of the material, no amount of hagiography can cover up Lennon's natural arrogance and egotism. One of the things that makes the film really interesting is that the filmmakers leave open the possibility that maybe Lennon was just so self-centered -- and the people around him so paranoid and/or stoned -- that they imagined a minor interest from the INS and FBI into something much more sinister.
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Albion
Sept. 18, 2006, 6:38 p.m.I haven't watched the film yet but I don't seem to recognise the Lennon you are talking of, the one I knew in the sixties and seventies!!!
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jkbella
Sept. 18, 2006, 9:04 p.m.Who are you people? This is John Lennon you are talking about. A great poet and artist whose songs live on. The Beatles and John Lennon still sell.
Jealous are we? Afraid of his power maybe?
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Twistoflex
Sept. 18, 2006, 10:32 p.m.You don't know what you're talking about Oscar. Don't take my word for it, see the documentary because it has primary evidence that you are dead wrong about the perceived "threat" that John Lennon posed to the psychotic Repugnant Nixon regime. Efforts to deport Lennon finally caved in when it was revealed that the FBI, the CIA, the Mitchell Justice Department, Strom Thurmond, H.R. Haldeman, and Nixon, himself, all conspired to rig the case to make him disappear.
They hated Lennon because he represented the forces of life and peace. The peace movement was a big threat to the Nixon regime, which represented the forces of death - as the Dumbya dictatorhip does today.
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justthetruthplease
Sept. 19, 2006, 12:18 a.m.No way the Nixon boys would do anything shady ,huh?
The people who gave us that nice phrase "enemy list" wouldn't do anything like that.Next they're gonna say Hoover kept files on the Kennedy's and that subversive Martin Luther King fellow.What next? Something crazy like the military opening fire on unarmed college students.
Do you really think Cheney and Rummy lurking in the shadows of the Nixon age has nothing to do with where we are today.Same people different dupe at the top.
Who are the W supporters gonna go after next? Probably that peacenik Gandhi.
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ARealPatriot
Sept. 19, 2006, 1:11 a.m.Karina : "...the possibility that maybe Lennon was just so self-centered -- and the people around him so paranoid and/or stoned -- that they imagined a minor interest from the INS and FBI into something much more sinister."
I suppose anything is possible, but still, how many other non-gangbanger-rap musicians can you name who were assasinated?
Hmm.. Im coming up blank on that.
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vor
Sept. 19, 2006, 8:26 a.m."2006-09-18 21:04:53 jkbella:
Who are you people? This is John Lennon you are talking about. A great poet and artist whose songs live on. The Beatles and John Lennon still sell."
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You are so right. These people will condemn John as if he was some evil human being. Yet in the end John was in fact a genius. No other word comes to mind. No other group before or after has had the effect the Beatles brought to the world. And John was the definite mastermind.
John saw the fate of man. He asked that we simply "Give Peace A Chance", after all it has never had a chance. Especially with the trillions of dollars pumped into weapons systems every year. It is just too difficult a concept for most to contemplate.
Easier to dismiss him and call him a subversive commie. But of course that's puts you in the company of J. Edgar Hoover and Nixon, two truly admirable people - NOT!
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vor
Sept. 19, 2006, 8:38 a.m.JUSTTHETRUTHPLEASE said:
"Who are the W supporters gonna go after next? Probably that peacenik Gandhi."
I am sure Cheney thinks Gandhi was an idiot.
The latest thing is to try and revise the past to make heroes of the likes of Joe McCarthy. Ann Coulter used part of her last book to that means. There is even a picture of her worshipping at his gravestone on her website. And of course it works for the Right. Nothing like ratting out your neighbor.
I wonder if J. Edgar is next? If you can just get around the images of him in drag, lounging around the office in hose and heels. Nothing the Right won't forgive.
Hell, they have Bernard Kerik and Ollie North on Fox News now. Nothing like a little disgrace to verify your credibility.
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1-2-Oscar
Sept. 19, 2006, 8:51 a.m.V.O.R.,
You are projecting, as are some others here. No one called John Lennon "a subversive commie," no one identified with the right wing, and no one supported any machinations of Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, or any other demon of the past. Certainly no one evoked the specter of Ann Coulter.
You need to think about what was actually posted, rather than reflexively taking offense. John Lennon was a human being, complete with his own flaws. It does him no honor to make him something more than he really was.
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dtress1d
Sept. 19, 2006, 9:25 a.m.John Lennon wrote music that was popular and was in a group that was popular, but this film (what I have heard in the live interviews) is about his "girl" giving a version that is Pro-John, somewhat based on truth and her recollections, but it may put John is a light that most did not see him at the time!
Again, I enjoyed some of John Lennon's music, but I don't remember him as he was portrayed in the Live interviews with clips from the film.
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dpete
Sept. 19, 2006, 10:43 a.m.1-2 Oscar, who are these "most people?" BTW, all the Beatles were drugged out at one time or another. Also, Ringo Starr AND George Harrison briefly quit the Beatles at different times. I'd say more than just Lennon didn't get along with the rest of the group.
Lennon was talking peace toward the end of the sixties, especially with his '69 bed-in; hardly the end of the Vietnam War.
Oscar, I think you're a McCartney fan, and that's fine, but I don't think you know what this film is about. The two filmmakers have been trying to do this film since the '90s, and enlisted Yoko Ono for interviews because she was there when LENNON WAS UNDER SURVEILANCE BY THE GOVERNMENT. Factual information that was kept secret. Hardly about remaking his image. What does this film need McCartney for? The filmmakers said so: he wasn't there during this time.
I'd say see the film, or read John Weiner's book.
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PINTO
Sept. 19, 2006, 11:21 a.m.Im guessing the people who are knocking John Lennon didnt grow up in the 60's and 70's and if they did were most likely in some small hick town that was stuck in the 50's. While kids were growing their hair long, you guys were getting "brush cuts" and listening to country....get a life
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vor
Sept. 19, 2006, 11:43 a.m.You need to think about what was actually posted, rather than reflexively taking offense. John Lennon was a human being, complete with his own flaws. It does him no honor to make him something more than he really was.
I referred to John Lennon as a "genius". Enough said. Even geniuses are flawed.
You call it projecting...what do think Hoover's view of Lennon was? There was some "reason" the FBI kept files on these people. I simply proposed that it was becuse Hoover viewed Lennon as a subversive element. I don't think that's projecting anything.
I will however admit that I WAS projecting that some idiot right winger would come on this board and start bad-mouthing John.
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1-2-Oscar
Sept. 19, 2006, 12:55 p.m.V.O.R.,
I am sure that the FBI file on me is much more extensive than their file on John Lennon. While in service I applied for, and was granted, the highest security clearance. Later, I was in charge of a guard detail at a nuclear weapons storage facility. After discharge (in 1965), I was one of the first veterans to publicly oppose the war. I associated with many "radicals" of the day in planning demonstrations and organizing educational gatherings. I'm pretty sure they even had a "tail" on me for a while.
PINTO,
You're right--I didn't grow up in the 60s and 70s; I was already grown. I did, however, become a Beatles fan when I saw them perform in Hamburg, more than a year BEFORE the release of their first record in the US. The hick towns I lived in the 1960s included Augsburg and Berlin (Ger), Brussels (Blgm), Paris (FR), Washington, DC, and Van Trinh (Rep of Viet Nam). I guess you really nailed me, buddy.
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justthetruthplease
Sept. 19, 2006, 1:48 p.m.This would be funny, but it's too sad to be funny. John Lennon was what he was, no more and no less. It's too late to sanctify him now
Sorry Oscar, but I believe he already has been by many in the world.
I don't see anybody holding candlelight vigils for Nixon every year.....or even Reagan for that matter
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MacR
Sept. 19, 2006, 2:36 p.m.Ok the moron that wrote the only meaningfull song that he wrote was Imagine without Paul... SHOWS YOUR IGNORANCE of the man and his music. Other than Paul releasing one album in how many years. Compared to the number of albums since Johns death.
And by the way you do realize that John and Paul wrote songs that the other never helped on. It was something they decided to do at the beginning when they did write tunes together. Yoko has always had an agenda, she never would have made it where she is at without him. And she still knows this.
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1-2-Oscar
Sept. 19, 2006, 3:31 p.m.justthetruthplease and MacR,
Thank you for your opinions. I will value them as they deserve.
Of course, there is also an annual ritual honoring the late Rudolph Valentino, and Southern Democrats celebrate Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, but there's no accounting for taste. I will busy myself for a while elsewhere, perhaps where the opinions of others are treated with respect and the persons of others are granted dignity.
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FrankieT
Sept. 19, 2006, 3:41 p.m.lennon and the Beatles were the most influential musical group - ever!!!!
Give Peace a Chance is not a great statement?
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vor
Sept. 19, 2006, 4:10 p.m.2006-09-19 12:55:31 1-2-Oscar: Send Message
V.O.R.,
I am sure that the FBI file on me is much more extensive than their file on John Lennon.
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That is a badge I would wear with honor. Made me start thinking about what kind of files they are keeping these days? I suppose that is for them to know and we only find out when the records are available for public viewing.
You sound as if you have lived quite a life. Seeing the Beatles in Hamburg, pre-fame, is a relic I am sure you will never forget. I did promotions for a sporting goods company and got to meet nearly every major band of the past 20 years but nothing that cool.
I hope you are keeping up your radical ways...
peace
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Twistoflex
Sept. 20, 2006, 2:12 p.m.Oscar just pulls stuff out of his ass, regardless of what the documented and corroborated record reveals. This is how he can be such an ardent Dumbya supporter.
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1-2-Oscar
Sept. 20, 2006, 5:45 p.m.Twistoflex,
Where did you read that I was a supporter of the President? Or did you just pull that one out of your ass?
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