John Lennon's last nine years

LennonNYC is a documentary included in the PBS American Masters series about the nine years the Beatle John Lennon spent living with his family in New York City during the 1970's. The period ends with Lennon's assassination in December 1980 two months after his 40th birthday. A long struggle to avoid deportation and obtain his Green Card has been won. In NYC Lennon has been happy, productive, enjoying his young son Sean, reunited with his wife Yoko Ono after a painful period of separation. He has played Madison Square Garden with Elton John and received a huge ovation. He and Yoko have recently made the Double Fantasy album. This film, which is richly illustrated with footage and tapes of its subject, includes some taste of nearly all the music he recorded at various times in America, including some unusual outtakes.

LennonNYC is a good-looking film with handsomely formatted subtitles and hip little black-and-white animations dividing sections and filling in image when only sound is available. The film makes use of plenty of footage of Lennon -- he must be one of the most fully recorded humans in history -- some of it very informal, seamlessly conveying a sense of Lennon's presence. Important talking heads include friends and musicians and producers he worked with closely, including photographer Bob Gruen, producer Roy Cicala, David Geffen, and members of the New York band Elephant's Memory. A centerpiece is an interview with Yoko Ono. Evidently this film has her imprimatur. Without that it would not be much of a film. On the other hand, Yoko is controlling how we perceive John in death as in life. The film doesn't go into much detail about the assassination, and doesn't even mention the name of his convicted killer, Mark David Chapman. Nor do we hear from Lennon's two sons, Julian and Sean.

The positive aspects of Lennon's choice of New York are fully covered: the way people left him alone so that, unlike the situation in London, he and his wife could go to a movie or restaurant, buy clothes, or take a taxi without being mobbed. NYC felt like a freer place for the couple in simpler ways, because of the city's melting-pot identity. But the other reason for leaving England, the fact that Yoko was strongly disliked there for intruding into the life of the Beatles and being instrumental in the group's breakup, is barely touched on.

In some ways this is also a strangely mixed story. John Lennon loved New York and was very happy there. But he was also at his most unhappy. After a night of infidelity Yoko kicked him out of the Dakota where they lived. They had been inseparable, 24 hours a day; to be apart was difficult for both of them. She eventually became very productive, and was enjoying the separation. He went to LA and did some recording and a lot of drinking. This was not a good period for him. He called the time his "lost weekend." With Harry Nilssn and others he got blasted every night, usually in the company of May Pang. Yoko says that she had arranged for Pang to take John in tow, feeling he would be lost on his own. Elsewhere, not here, it is said that Lennon had an affair with Pang. In LA Lennon consumed huge quantities of alcohol. In his own words he "fell apart." He and Yoko spoke very day, but she wouldn't take him back. Not until a thunderous reception Lennon received when he played with Elton John at Madison Square Garden in 1974 and Yoko was there, and she and Lennon sat eye to eye in a little dressing room, pulled together again.

In the period that followed, their son Sean was born and John became a house husband, focusing exclusively on raising the boy, cooking, baking bread, and happy in this role. All this sweetness notwithstanding, Lennon's activism against the Vietnam war lhad earlier led to the FBI's tracking him, and a lengthy attempt to have him deported that went on throughout the New York residence. Through the help of immigration attorney Leon Wildes, somewhat miraculously the attempt was finally dropped and residency was granted.

What emerges from the film overall is a generally positive and appealing picture of what John Lennon was like, his humility, clarity and humor, his scrupulous matter-of-fact honesty -- and what the often awestruck musicians who worked with him in the American years see as his remarkable creativity. He is described by musicians as an artist who even in ostensibly fallow periods had times when the words and the music flowed from him almost like magic. Despite testimony from people then present of serious drunkenness and an episode of violence and obscenity during the Los Angeles "lost weekend," LennonNYC is a very positive spin on John Lennon. The film doesn't go into detail about the specifics of Lennon's drug use. It also does not describe how or where he and Yoko lived after the small apartment in the Village when they first came to the city. Details of the ex-Beatle's considerable wealth are omitted, though there's a quote from John about how Yoko did the accounting because he didn't have the knack for it. Such lacunae notwitstanding, obviously this 115-minute documentary, which contains plenty of archival footage, including newly-digitalized concert films, is a must-see for Beatles and/or purely John Lennon fans, especially New Yorkers.

Seen and reviewed as part of the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in September 2010. Also presented at the Woodstock Festival. The film's television premiere date is November 22, 2010.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.