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Derek Malcolm's rating
Giving peace a chance
By
Derek Malcolm
7 Dec 2006
Yoko Ono says that, of all the documentaries that have been made about John Lennon, this is the one he would have loved.
And although she may not be the best witness, David Leaf 's and John Scheinfeld's film at least treats him seriously as an anti-war activist.
Perhaps too seriously, since they posit that Nixon and the FBI under Hoover kept Lennon under constant surveillance, tapped his phones and tried to get him expelled from America.
This was for fear that his worldwide reputation would help to mobilise the peace movement in an era dominated by the Vietnam war.
Whether his strange stunts with Yoko did much more than confirm the feelings of those who opposed the war is open to doubt.
But at least he tried, and it's all there in this well-made film which includes testimony from Gore Vidal, Angela Davis and George McGovern. The music was always Lennon's most powerful legacy, and it's in there, too.
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