Thirty years ago, the world lost John Lennon. The former member of the Beatles was shot and killed outside of his apartment in New York City, a place that he had embraced as his second home, at one time saying "I should have been born in New York." In the three decades since then numerous films have told the stories of John Lennon, from his life as an orphan in England, to meeting Paul McCartney and starting the greatest band of all-time nearly every portion of his life has been cataloged. With LennoNYC, writer/director Michael Epstein wanted to look at Lennon beyond all of that. After the lights had faded and Beatlemania had waned, there was still John and Yoko.
The documentary chronicles the post-Beatles years for Lennon and Yoko Ono, after leaving England to move to New York City where they feel as if they will have more privacy and can live freely. There is no central narrator; the film subsists on original concert and interview footage from the period, with interviews from many of the individuals who were there to witness it. Various band members and music producers that Lennon worked with at the time fill in the precious details, including how Lennon used to always keep his guitar slightly out of tune so that his guitar would stand out a bit.
Though she is not the focal point of the documentary, Yoko Ono herself provides new insights in her interview, granting the film additional credibility and a wonderful inroad into the life of one of the world's most famous people, well after the hysteria of Beatle mania had subsided. The moments where she discusses the aftermath of his death are particularly affecting.
The film is not entirely centered on his time in the city. It spends a good amount of time giving scope to John Lennon's activist efforts during the early 70s, including footage of the concert for John Sinclair, and several interviews with other musicians and activists from the time. Even chronicling the attempts by the government and the Nixon administration to get him deported, and his subsequent time spent in LA.
This is a darker movie than you might anticipate. There is significant time spent discussing the strife that John and Yoko go through and the trouble John has with alcohol along the way during his darkest moments. As well as the toll that the threat of deportation took on him over time.
One of my favorite little details of the film is the raw recording studio audio that is worked into each transitional portion of the film. We get to hear John and his fellow musicians talking in the middle of a recording session; teasing each other and generally bantering back and forth.
Those types of details are what separates LennoNYC from other films that have told stories about Lennon. We get as close a look at the man as we possibly could. And for the better part of the film, New York City serves as the background. The city was a sanctuary for John, a place he came first to establish a life with Yoko, and a place he returned to after Los Angeles had led him down a road of drinking and empty depression. All of this culminates in a recording from a home video, featuring Sean Lennon as a child singing "A Little Help from my Friends" to John and Yoko, asking so innocently to his father "did you sing that?" This moment so perfectly encapsulates the intimacy of the film, how different it is from all the other documentaries that have ever been done about Lennon.
Even if you think you know John Lennon, you're probably right. Being the leader of the most famous band ever affords you little privacy, but chances are you haven't ever been privy to the intimate moments that LennoNYC provides.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The Blu-ray release of LennoNYC features 20 extra minutes of interviews not included on the original DVD. This extra moments are seamlessly integrated into the film and are not separated by any means. There isn't any earth shattering information in these new interviews, just a few additional insights into the later life of John Lennon by the people who experienced them with him. Purchasers of the original version won't have a need to upgrade. Aside from that, there is virtually no difference between the Blu-ray and the standard DVD release. The image quality on the interviews has been improved slightly, but really that is of little consequence. None of the archival footage has been restored or scrubbed really and the sound quality while slightly improved, again isn't that much of an upgrade over the standard version.
"LennoNYC (Blu-ray)" is on sale January 11, 2011 and is not rated. Documentary. Written and directed by Michael Epstein. Starring Yancy Butler, Yoko Ono.
