Imagine: John Lennon


1h 46m 1988

Brief Synopsis

A portrait of John Lennon making use of extensive archival footage, interviews, and a narration by Lennon himself.

Film Details

Also Known As
Imagine, In My Life - The Story of John Lennon
MPAA Rating
Genre
Documentary
Interview
Release Date
1988
Distribution Company
WARNER BROS. PICTURES DISTRIBUTION (WBPD)
Location
Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Los Angeles, California, USA

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 46m

Synopsis

A portrait of John Lennon making use of extensive archival footage, interviews, and a narration by Lennon himself.

Crew

Debra Ack

Researcher

Tony Adler

Assistant Director

Matthew Allwork

Photography

Peter Allwork

Photography

Nestor Almendros

Director Of Photography

Nestor Almendros

Other

Laura Amelse-luttrell

Researcher

Patrick Andre

Researcher

Glenn Baker

Researcher

Robert Balzarini

Video Assist/Playback

Helen Barden

Other

Ilene Cherna Bellovin

Researcher

Cindy Berenson

Production Assistant

Jessica Berman-bogdan

Researcher

Bert Berns

Song

Robert A Blackwell

Song

John Bolz

Sound

David Bowie

Other

Sidney Brammer

Other

Ira Brenner

Camera Operator

Al Capp

Other

Kimberly Carnevali

Production Assistant

Julia Cort

Post-Production Assistant

Midge Costin

Sound

Richard Daniels

Sound

Tex Davis

Song

Bea Dennis

Production Consultant

Bob Dylan

Other

Jack Egan

Researcher

Sam Egan

Coproducer

Sam Egan

Screenplay

Sukey Fontelieu

Sound Editor

Darren Foreman

Production Assistant

Bud Friedgen

Associate Producer

Bud Friedgen

Executive Editor

Ron Furmanek

Researcher

David Gaines

Editing

Jerelyn Golding

Sound Editor

Walter Goss

Sound

Lewis Gould

Assistant Director

Laura Graham

Production Assistant

Karol Greene

Researcher

Hope Hanafin

Wardrobe

George Harrison

Other

Howard Heard

Sound Editor

Vickie Hilty

Other

Craig Holt

Post-Production Assistant

Andrea Horta

Sound Editor

Elton John

Other

Frank Jones

Sound

Ben E. King

Song

Sarah E. Knowles

Set Decorator

Ted Kurdyla

Unit Production Manager

Paul Lamori

Post-Production Coordinator

Jerry Leiber

Song

John Lennon

Song

Julian Lennon

Other

Sean Lennon

Other

Mark Lewisohn

Consultant

Bert Lovitt

Editor

Kirsty Maccalman

Researcher

John Marascalco

Song

George Martin

Song

George Martin

Other

George Martin

Music Editor

Bernadette Mazur

Makeup

Paul Mccartney

Other

Paul Mccartney

Song

Larry Mcconkey

Steadicam Operator

Phil Medley

Song

Gerard Meola

Researcher

Karla Merrifield

Researcher

Kevin Miller

Associate Producer

Elliot Mintz

Other

Elliot Mintz

Consultant

Tom Murray

Production Assistant

Slim Mzali

Post-Production Assistant

Yoko Ono

Other

Yoko Ono

Song

R J Palmer

Post-Production Assistant

Frank Palmieri

Editing

Julian Pena

Post-Production Assistant

Vikki Prudden

Researcher

Matthew Salvato

Production Supervisor

Phillip Savenick

Photography

Lee Scott

Graphic Artist

Tony Secunda

Researcher

Helene Seifer

Researcher

Helmer Sieber

Production Assistant

Rex Slinkard

Sound

Andrew Solt

Producer

Andrew Solt

Screenplay

John Solt

Researcher

George Speerin

Production Assistant

Ringo Starr

Other

Rob Stevens

Song

Rob Stevens

Music Editor

Mike Stoller

Song

Jonathan Strauss

Researcher

Paul Surratt

Researcher

Howard Tasken

Production Assistant

John Torv

Other

Cynthia Lennon Twist

Other

Jean-francois Vallee

Researcher

Gene Vincent

Song

Susan Welsh

Production Assistant

Fenno Werkman

Researcher

Film Details

Also Known As
Imagine, In My Life - The Story of John Lennon
MPAA Rating
Genre
Documentary
Interview
Release Date
1988
Distribution Company
WARNER BROS. PICTURES DISTRIBUTION (WBPD)
Location
Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Los Angeles, California, USA

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 46m

Articles

Imagine - The John Lennon Documentary on DVD


John Lennon lost his life at age 40, leaving behind millions of mourning fans. Using many hours of film and audio recordings made with his wife Yoko Ono, Imagine: John Lennon is a feature-length documentary that chronicles a remarkable life in intimate detail.

The big surprise of this pleasing and contemplative film is how non-exploitative it is. Fears that it would be a cash-in fluff piece by Ms. Ono dissolve as the docu plays out. Expert hands have taken a great deal of historical footage and ordered it into a coherent and affecting narrative.

The project started because Yoko Ono wanted to make a definitive film about Lennon with the accumulated film and recordings from their too-short life together. Everything that was needed was there, especially a key collection of over 100 hours of Lennon's voice recordings. Ono put the film in the hands of top documentary producer David L. Wolper and noted Rock 'n Roll documentarian Andrew Solt. Solt has a keen feel for drama as well as biography and must have leaped at the chance to illustrate Lennon's life with such prime source material. The unsung hero is the editor Bert Lovitt. The film is only 106 minutes in length but is culled from hundreds of hours of film and videotape.

Imagine: John Lennon does a fine job of separating the man from the mystique. Lennon's own voice is the predominant narration track. During several years of relative inactivity in the 1970s he taped his thoughts and memories, recordings that are used as an oral history of his life. Almost everything we knew about the Beatles in their heyday was in the form of untrustworthy publicity, so it is refreshing to hear Lennon speak for himself about his unhappy childhood and the blur of the Beatles years. He's candid about being raised by an aunt and the experience of living without his mother, only to lose her to a traffic accident only a few months after a reunion years later. He moved from banjo to guitar to being a rough Liverpool musician convinced he'd someday be a great star.

Solt and Lovitt don't overplay the well-documented Beatles era, concentrating an excellent selection of film clips -- performances, cheeky press conferences -- only as Lennon remembers them. It was all so fast that none of the four could take it in. Lennon's first wife Cynthia recounts the frustration of having to pretend in public that she was not with John to maintain the illusion of availability for Lennon's myriad fans. Both she and Lennon remember with regret an incident in which she was prevented from boarding a train with the rest of the Beatles' entourage because she couldn't keep up and was restrained by security men who didn't know who she was. All of the material in Imagine: John Lennon is keyed to this level of intimacy.

With the Yoko Ono years the show settles into its core content. The breakup of The Beatles seems imminent during the unhappy making of Let it Be, with George Harrison trying to buffer resentment between Lennon and Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono's presence representing the final dissolution of the partnership. Lennon linked himself with Ono as a creative partnership separate from his commitment to the Beatles, and that was that.

Lennon fans still regard Yoko Ono with suspicion but the show doesn't defend her role in Lennon's life; other documentaries use much more footage of Lennon gushing over how much he loves her. We hear none of their experimental album releases and instead listen to Ono admitting that they stopped recording together when John realized that the public didn't want it. They settle into an English country house called the Tittenhurst Estate where Lennon raises his new son Sean and discovers a different set of priorities in domestic life. In a touching candid episode, John receives a spaced-out young man who has trespassed on his estate hoping to connect with his idol. Lennon tries to explain that his lyrics weren't intended as personal messages and that he's just a fellow writing songs, not a guru looking for dreamers to turn into disciples. Lennon invites the hungry fellow in and gives him a meal.

The docu directly confronts the singer-poet's brushes with scandal and notoriety. An offhand remark about being more popular than Jesus results in a Bible-belt campaign of anti-Beatles sentiment at just about the same time that the group stopped touring because screaming multitudes of fans made their music seem irrelevant. A few years later, authorities eager to discredit the outspoken couple's anti-Vietnam position target John and Yoko for minor drug-bust harassment.

Their "Give Peace a Chance" publicity stunts are covered by reporters and pundits predisposed to expose them as frauds or fools. John and Yoko openly state that they're using their celebrity to promote pacifism, and if that makes them into clowns, where's the harm? Those sentiments unfortunately attract cartoonist and conservative pundit Al Capp (Li'l Abner), who visits during a publicity "Bed-In" for the express purpose of provoking the pair. The uncut footage shows Capp baiting Lennon with racist insults, inferring that Yoko is "Madame Nhu" and a whore. Predictably, it's Lennon who must restrain his own managers from letting Capp start a fight, so he can claim that Lennon is as violent as anyone else.

The second half of the seventies find John and Yoko in New York, perhaps preparing to launch another recording effort. The show proves its worth by avoiding the details of his murder that have been so strongly covered elsewhere, instead showing his new appreciation of his success and his relationship with Yoko. The impression left of Lennon is a man just beginning to become comfortable with his own image as a poet of peace and harmony.

Warners' Deluxe Edition of Imagine: John Lennon is a splendid enhanced transfer of a meticulously assembled show. Most of the music was carefully restored and remixed, and more than half of the running time is accompanied by well-chosen songs from the Beatles era and Lennon's solo career. Néstor Almendros filmed the new interviews, putting a touch of class on the entire proceedings.

The disc extras are a thoughtful selection of prime resources. An interview piece with the filmmakers divides its time between celebrating Lennon and recounting the making of the documentary. A John Lennon trivia subtitle track brings up countless bits of errata as the movie plays. For instance, I had no idea that John Lennon was legally blind without his glasses. We hear Lennon performing Imagine on acoustic guitar. More footage is offered of the construction of a little house on an Island on Lennon's Ascot estate. In addition to the film's trailer there is also a BBC radio interview, an interview with Lennon's grammar school headmaster and DVD-Rom features accessible only on PCs, not Macs.

For more information about Imagine, visit Warner Video. To order Imagine, go to TCM Shopping.

by Glenn Erickson
Imagine - The John Lennon Documentary On Dvd

Imagine - The John Lennon Documentary on DVD

John Lennon lost his life at age 40, leaving behind millions of mourning fans. Using many hours of film and audio recordings made with his wife Yoko Ono, Imagine: John Lennon is a feature-length documentary that chronicles a remarkable life in intimate detail. The big surprise of this pleasing and contemplative film is how non-exploitative it is. Fears that it would be a cash-in fluff piece by Ms. Ono dissolve as the docu plays out. Expert hands have taken a great deal of historical footage and ordered it into a coherent and affecting narrative. The project started because Yoko Ono wanted to make a definitive film about Lennon with the accumulated film and recordings from their too-short life together. Everything that was needed was there, especially a key collection of over 100 hours of Lennon's voice recordings. Ono put the film in the hands of top documentary producer David L. Wolper and noted Rock 'n Roll documentarian Andrew Solt. Solt has a keen feel for drama as well as biography and must have leaped at the chance to illustrate Lennon's life with such prime source material. The unsung hero is the editor Bert Lovitt. The film is only 106 minutes in length but is culled from hundreds of hours of film and videotape. Imagine: John Lennon does a fine job of separating the man from the mystique. Lennon's own voice is the predominant narration track. During several years of relative inactivity in the 1970s he taped his thoughts and memories, recordings that are used as an oral history of his life. Almost everything we knew about the Beatles in their heyday was in the form of untrustworthy publicity, so it is refreshing to hear Lennon speak for himself about his unhappy childhood and the blur of the Beatles years. He's candid about being raised by an aunt and the experience of living without his mother, only to lose her to a traffic accident only a few months after a reunion years later. He moved from banjo to guitar to being a rough Liverpool musician convinced he'd someday be a great star. Solt and Lovitt don't overplay the well-documented Beatles era, concentrating an excellent selection of film clips -- performances, cheeky press conferences -- only as Lennon remembers them. It was all so fast that none of the four could take it in. Lennon's first wife Cynthia recounts the frustration of having to pretend in public that she was not with John to maintain the illusion of availability for Lennon's myriad fans. Both she and Lennon remember with regret an incident in which she was prevented from boarding a train with the rest of the Beatles' entourage because she couldn't keep up and was restrained by security men who didn't know who she was. All of the material in Imagine: John Lennon is keyed to this level of intimacy. With the Yoko Ono years the show settles into its core content. The breakup of The Beatles seems imminent during the unhappy making of Let it Be, with George Harrison trying to buffer resentment between Lennon and Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono's presence representing the final dissolution of the partnership. Lennon linked himself with Ono as a creative partnership separate from his commitment to the Beatles, and that was that. Lennon fans still regard Yoko Ono with suspicion but the show doesn't defend her role in Lennon's life; other documentaries use much more footage of Lennon gushing over how much he loves her. We hear none of their experimental album releases and instead listen to Ono admitting that they stopped recording together when John realized that the public didn't want it. They settle into an English country house called the Tittenhurst Estate where Lennon raises his new son Sean and discovers a different set of priorities in domestic life. In a touching candid episode, John receives a spaced-out young man who has trespassed on his estate hoping to connect with his idol. Lennon tries to explain that his lyrics weren't intended as personal messages and that he's just a fellow writing songs, not a guru looking for dreamers to turn into disciples. Lennon invites the hungry fellow in and gives him a meal. The docu directly confronts the singer-poet's brushes with scandal and notoriety. An offhand remark about being more popular than Jesus results in a Bible-belt campaign of anti-Beatles sentiment at just about the same time that the group stopped touring because screaming multitudes of fans made their music seem irrelevant. A few years later, authorities eager to discredit the outspoken couple's anti-Vietnam position target John and Yoko for minor drug-bust harassment. Their "Give Peace a Chance" publicity stunts are covered by reporters and pundits predisposed to expose them as frauds or fools. John and Yoko openly state that they're using their celebrity to promote pacifism, and if that makes them into clowns, where's the harm? Those sentiments unfortunately attract cartoonist and conservative pundit Al Capp (Li'l Abner), who visits during a publicity "Bed-In" for the express purpose of provoking the pair. The uncut footage shows Capp baiting Lennon with racist insults, inferring that Yoko is "Madame Nhu" and a whore. Predictably, it's Lennon who must restrain his own managers from letting Capp start a fight, so he can claim that Lennon is as violent as anyone else. The second half of the seventies find John and Yoko in New York, perhaps preparing to launch another recording effort. The show proves its worth by avoiding the details of his murder that have been so strongly covered elsewhere, instead showing his new appreciation of his success and his relationship with Yoko. The impression left of Lennon is a man just beginning to become comfortable with his own image as a poet of peace and harmony. Warners' Deluxe Edition of Imagine: John Lennon is a splendid enhanced transfer of a meticulously assembled show. Most of the music was carefully restored and remixed, and more than half of the running time is accompanied by well-chosen songs from the Beatles era and Lennon's solo career. Néstor Almendros filmed the new interviews, putting a touch of class on the entire proceedings. The disc extras are a thoughtful selection of prime resources. An interview piece with the filmmakers divides its time between celebrating Lennon and recounting the making of the documentary. A John Lennon trivia subtitle track brings up countless bits of errata as the movie plays. For instance, I had no idea that John Lennon was legally blind without his glasses. We hear Lennon performing Imagine on acoustic guitar. More footage is offered of the construction of a little house on an Island on Lennon's Ascot estate. In addition to the film's trailer there is also a BBC radio interview, an interview with Lennon's grammar school headmaster and DVD-Rom features accessible only on PCs, not Macs. For more information about Imagine, visit Warner Video. To order Imagine, go to TCM Shopping. by Glenn Erickson

Quotes

Trivia

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Fall October 7, 1988

Released in United States on Video March 8, 1989

Released in United States on Video March 8, 1989

Released in United States Fall October 7, 1988