Directed by: David Leaf and John Scheinfeld
Premise: A documentary film about John Lennon,
focusing on his post-Beatles career and his work as an activist in opposition to
the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration.
What Works: The U.S. vs. John Lennon uses
archival footage and interviews with Lennon’s friends and foes to create a
portrait of the man and his work. The film’s focus on this particular span of
Lennon’s career allows for the film to analyze how a pop artist can function
politically and maintain his artistic integrity. The documentary is extremely
entertaining, following basic storytelling principles to create a film that is
not just a collection of information, but a dramatic narrative that has its
emotional ups and downs. The conflict between Lennon and the Nixon
administration is well drawn and contextualized in the cultural revolution of
the 1960s and 70s and the Vietnam War. This gives a sense of Lennon’s impact
on the entire culture of America and the sets the stakes for which Lennon was
fighting, raising it above two figures snipping at each other in the press.
What Doesn’t: The film mostly ignores Lennon’s
musical work in this period of his life, preferring instead to dwell on his use
of celebrity to bring awareness to social justice issues. While this is
interesting, it sometimes feels as though the film gets away from what made
Lennon great in the first place.
DVD extras: Bonus footage, trailer.
Bottom Line: The U.S. vs. John Lennon is an
effective documentary, paralleling our own political and artistic environment.
Like Inside
Deep Throat, this documentary is able to successfully and entertainingly
analyze how art and politics interact and sometimes collide. The film is also an
inspirational tribute, showing that popular artists can produce meaningful work
if they would simply try.