Leaf and Scheinfeld’s film sets out to explain Lennon’s plight in the context of the Vietnam War and protest movements, as well as his origins as an unwanted child.
By: Bob Brown
During John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous Montreal Bed-In for "Hair and Peace" in 1969, the couple was smothered by the press: What’s with this lying in bed for days at a time? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to say?
"All we are saying is give peace a chance," an exasperated Lennon explained. That sounded like a song. John wrote it out and sang it with Yoko for the media. On June 1, he recorded it in their hotel-room bed, with a roomful of sing-along celebrities, including Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, Petula Clark and Dick Gregory, and a gaggle of camera-toting media.
While not a top-10 hit, the song climbed the charts. The chance remark that became a refrain now blossomed into a mantra for the growing anti-Vietnam War movement. Thousands of swaying demonstrators chanted it across from the White House. It became the unofficial anthem of the peace movement. Its power frightened an administration increasingly out of touch with the public, especially youth.
"Give Peace a Chance" was a watershed in the transformation of John Lennon, from one-fourth of the Beatles to a self-appointed guru for world peace. It also reflected Lennon’s status as a marked man among the long list of Nixon enemies who had to be neutralized. The government’s tool was a deportation hearing mounted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, on the grounds that Lennon’s activities and associates made him an undesirable alien.
This documentary is by veteran writers/directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, who have collaborated on several made-for-TV documentaries about pop culture and the rock scene. Like any documentary worth watching, it has a point of view. But it is not the satirical one-sidedness of a Michael Moore. Leaf and Scheinfeld’s film sets out to explain Lennon’s plight in the historical context of the Vietnam War and protest movements, as well as Lennon’s origins as an unwanted child who was angry at all authority.
The filmmakers have alternated newsreel footage of battle-scarred rice paddies, Nixon speeches, protest rallies, administration talking heads, rock concerts and historical events with present-day interviews of the participants and commentators, reflecting with the benefit of hindsight. The musical soundtrack is almost purely John Lennon, from familiar songs to impromptu strums.
Lennon is no longer around to make sense of it all. Yoko Ono, who is thanked profusely in the credits, fills us in on the meaning. There are no revelations or surprises. But several impressions emerge that may not have been perceptible in the media blur at the time. Lennon was a gentle, perhaps even naive, advocate for peace who was as frightened about the government as the government was about him.
His Bed-Ins and Interviews from Inside a Bag seem less Marxist than Marx Brothers. Even many of his fans thought he had become weird. It’s as though wrapping his protest in an enigmatic joke would soften the punch without pulling it. Also evident is how his position as a mega-celebrity gave him the pulpit and the power to write the messages on a much larger canvas than even Yoko imagined. She had thought they would produce posters that said "WAR IS OVER!" with "if you want it" at the bottom in small type. John paid to have this on billboards in major cities.
Lennon compared his non-violent approach to Gandhi’s, which is either a sign of hubris or merely a hint that he was satisfied to be a gadfly. What baffled people was the utter simplicity of his message. As Gore Vidal says on camera, "John Lennon was a born enemy of those who control the United States, which I always say was admirable. Lennon came to represent life, while Mr. Nixon… and Mr. Bush… represent death."
Was Lennon largely responsible for turning the country out of Vietnam and toward the decriminalization of marijuana possession? The film suggests so. But the public mood was already set. Lennon was merely the most visible presence and musical voice for a sentiment already widespread among the rising generation.
Vidal is the only one who compares Nixon’s war to Bush’s. The comparison is, however, implicit enough throughout the film. That being so, it is remarkable how succeeding generations have, by comparison, remained silent, either by choice or because there is no heir to John Lennon with the talent and audacity to sing out.
The final poignant scenes show a beaming Lennon receiving his green card and welcoming the birth of his son. For all his loathing of U.S. policy, he embraced New York as the place to raise his growing family.
Rated PG-13 for some strong language, violent images and drug references.