John Lennon: Love Is All You Need

John Lennon: Love Is All You Need (2010)

*** (out of 4)

If you're looking for a masterpiece of a documentary or a film that's going to feature all around great interviews and information then this here certainly won't be for you. However, if you've seen countless documentaries on The Beatles and Lennon and you just want more then you'll probably want to check this thing out. While you're not going to see anything you haven't seen before or learn anything you don't know, this documentary is at least entertaining and gives one a pretty good overview of the life of Lennon. We hear about his early rebel days, him getting into music from his mother, the early bands and of course the creation of The Beatles. From here we learn about some of their biggest moments and a large portion of the film takes a look at the backlash after Lennon commented on Jesus. We also get to follow him through the break-up years and finally his death. Overall LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED is a pretty good film that manages to keep you entertained. If you've never seen a documentary on Lennon then this here really wouldn't be that bad of a place to start because it has some very good archival footage and it at least gives one a great idea of who the man was. The biggest problem here is that there's not any music, which of course is a big negative. Another problem is that we really don't get too many interviews with those close to him in later years, although there are some nice interviews with people who knew him early on including his first wife.

Like the countless documentaries dealing with subject ,this one is merely a repetition of facts that have already been digested by millions of fans : Beatlemania , the Christ incident and the fans' reactions, the meaning of " Lucy in the sky with diamonds" etc

But this one has something new to offer :Cynthia Lennon plays a prominent part and all her interventions are really absorbing : not only her view of her rival Ono (she's not my kind of person) but also her scenes with son Julian : one sees them flipping through a photo album and Julian remembers the car crash in Scotland (which happened in "Abbey road " recording time ) ; he remembers his sufferings after the divorce trauma and the death of a father he hardly knew ("you knew him better than I "). In all Lennon's biographies ,Cynthia was always praised ,and for all she had to cope with , she's not rancorous.

Feminist writer Camille Paglia blames Ono for Lennon's creativity decline ,which is questionable (his songs from the White Album were among the best he had ever released);and she contradicts herself when she considers "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band " a masterpiece ; much time is given over to Lennon and Ono talking about art ,then their crusade for peace ; hatred for Ono in England is not passed over in silence ( "Cynthia's better than her!");a short-haired Yoko also talks about her relationship with Lennon.

Journalist Paul Gambaccini talks about the musical side , and particularly about the shock "tomorrow never knows" was ;he insisted that when he died ,Lennon had still much to offer and he passes over in silence (like many people) the name of his murderer .George Martin also participates, but it's more interesting to watch him in his own doc ("produced by" ).

This doc does not feature a single note of Beatles (or Lennon solo) music : it's more about Lennon's persona ,his vision of art,and his involvement in politics .