Music

Watch The U.S. vs John Lennon tonight at 9pm ET 6pm PT

by Allan Tong

Watch it August 15, 1:30 & 9:00 pm, and August 16, 9:00 am & 1:30 pm

Though the Stones were hailed as revolutionaries in the sixties, it was John Lennon who had the gall to say that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus.  After The Fab Four split in 1970, Lennon embarked on a full-fledged left-wing campaign to end the Vietnam War, legalize pot and oust Richard Nixon from the White House.  Though history has proven his judgement correct (the war was criminal, Nixon was a liar), Lennon took a lot of heat for his views.

Approved by Nixon, the George W. Bush of the 70s, the FBI wiretapped and followed John and Yoko across the U.S.  Washington tried to deport Lennon for four years, long after Nixon resigned his presidency in disgrace. This fascinating documentary really kicks into gear when the FBI enter the picture.  It takes too long establishing Lennon’s peacenik views during the 1969 Bed-In and unfairly villifies his enemies, such as the New York Times‘ Gloria Emerson who was one of the key journalists critical of the Vietnam War (the same clip is seen in Imagine: John Lennon).

Politics is complex, and no rock star was more complicated than John Lennon.  Credit this film for putting into context Lennon’s radical activism during the Vietnam 70s.  Credit also for including a die-hard Republican (and convicted Watergate mastermind) like G. Gordon Liddy who slams Lennon at every turn.  That adds dimension to this film.  True, Lennon’s anti-authoritarian streak arose from both his parents abandoning him in childhood, but that trauma also made Lennon gullible.  He sought a father figure for most of his life and in the early-70s that included New York radicals.  This film explores only half of this equation.

Flaws aside, The U.S. vs John Lennon is a fine film, and you can’t help but yearn for a passionate voice like Lennon’s today.