Imagine

Although many people don't like IL' Yoko, "Imagine" should be seen. The famous 'chess scene' was the inspiration for the Austin Powers II bit and Yoko and John amuse throughout. Notable are shots where the two row in a boat with one oar, listen to stone monuments with stethoscopes, climb to the top of their mansion to look at a glass box, get lost in the fog, play one shot of pool shrouded from head to toe, and otherwise reenact just about every piece in Ono's masterful text "Grapefruit." Including 'Smoke Piece':

Smoke everything. Including your pubic hair.

1962 Spring.

Essentially a music compilation video running at an hour and ten minutes in length. It ties in with the Lennon and Ono album IMAGINE by offering a series of vignettes shot on low budgets and with both stars featuring heavily. It's very arty and at times feels like something a college student would have put together with lots of dream-like sequences. Some are quite nicely shot and feature interesting backgrounds around Lennon's home although others just look like tourist footage. The bits of Ono dressing up and the little spoofs they do are somewhat awkward. As for the music, Imagine is of course a classic, the others less well-known, and certain ones you need ear plugs for.

I enjoyed this and there is a scene where two young men seem to have hid out on his property in England. John meets them at the front door and talks to them. He treats them with dignity and actually tries to break down the idol of being a Beatle and let them know he is just like them, a man.

Now he could have got some security or whatnot, but he doesn't. He speaks to them and invites them in for something to eat. It was touching...he asks them if they are hungry twice. This was the real John imo. He knew he was a freak of nature as a Beatle...something from another planet for most people like meeting Elvis only to find out he takes a crap and eats breakfast just like you and I. John actually mentioned the crap thing to bring his point home to the guys.

I think this idol worship when met can be either a great disappointment or a moment of reality for some. This is a good documentary of a man who could stand in the room as just a guy and also as a living legend both at the same time. In the end, the line between crazy fame and just being a down and out guy is not too far apart if you peel away the talent of one over the other.

Probably .001% of the population can relate to being literally world famous. I don't think John had any idea how to deal with this so he seems to have chosen to ignore it. He seems very normal and nonchalant by his tremendous fame. This is the power of music, marketing, TV, radio and whatnot.

Imagine (1972)

**** (out of 4)

If you've seen any of the John Lennon-Yoko Ono movies then you know that they really don't feature any sort of plot and instead they're just a bunch of images with a variety of different messages that you can take from them. This here is without question their most reachable film for many because it's basically just a long music video with the songs from Lennon's Imagine album played out.

After Lennon's death the opening video of Imagine pretty much became a staple song and it's certainly a very beautiful song and video. From here we basically see a wide range of things between Lennon and Ono. This could be the two of them walking through the woods. The two in a bathtub. There's even a scene of them playing pool. Those are the type of images that we see and all of this is just fine because it matches up with the music perfectly.

Imagine, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, Don't Count the Waves, It's So Hard, Mrs. Lennon, I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier, Give Me Some Truth, Oh My Love, How Do You Sleep, How? and Oh Yoko are the songs that are performed here and in my opinion all of them are quite excellent. The album is certainly the masterpiece from Lennon's solo career and fans will certainly enjoy this video of the songs.

Just imagine... a looooong and weeeeeird vodeoclip. Off course there are some interesting and funny surrealist moments, and soundtrack is mostly great, but a 20-minute cut would have been an excellent choice.