Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

LennoNYC Blu-ray Movie Review

A lot happened after The Beatles.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 7, 2011

Don McLean achieved a certain lasting entry in the annals of pop culture history when his mammoth song “American Pie” vaulted to the top of the charts in 1972. His ode to “the day the music died” was a remembrance of the 1959 plane crash which claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, but for a younger generation, it might just as well have referred to December 8, 1980, the day Mark Chapman shot and killed John Lennon. Lennon was an unusually divisive figure for a rock star, at least from the moment he proclaimed the Beatles to be “bigger than Jesus.” While rightly or wrongly Ringo and to a lesser extent George often faded into the background even during the Beatles’ heyday, Paul was often seen as the more easily accessible and “family friendly” member of the group, and he worked the mainstream pop-rock world incredibly well post-Beatles, while John’s perhaps more “authentic” rock presence seemed to dissipate into political screeds and a dearth of Top 40 hits. That of course only endeared him all the more to a certain class of freethinkers, many of whom applauded John’s resolute indifference to the worlds of fame and fortune, even as McCartney’s continued musical exploits tended to dissipate themselves into more and more formulaic pabulum. Lennon was just beginning a sort of major comeback attempt in that early winter of 1980 when his life was cut short outside of the Dakota two weeks before Christmas. Anyone who was alive then and old enough to remember will tell you Lennon’s death had the sort of worldwide impact usually reserved for the assassination of a major political leader, and that is perhaps completely appropriate, given Lennon’s own penchant for making political and sociopolitical statements, both musical and otherwise, throughout his professional life. LennoNYC is a fascinating, if sometimes disjointed, documentary chronicling Lennon’s post-Beatles life in New York City, and it provides a really intimate look at someone who resisted, perhaps not entirely successfully, being seen as a product by the public at large.

Lennon’s post-Beatles persona was one of an agent provocateur, a supposed “voice of reason” in an insane age that saw the United States involved in the quagmire of Vietnam while the Nixon administration was already showing signs of the paranoia which would ultimately bring it crashing down. In fact, after Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City in 1971, they became leading members of Nixon’s “enemies list,” and LennoNYC has some brief interstitials of FBI and CIA memos detailing the couple’s meanderings about the Big Apple. What becomes obvious throughout this riveting documentary is that as clear-headed (if politically objectionable to some) as Lennon’s thinking about large social, economic and political issues may have been throughout his most strident period in the early to mid 1970’s, personally Lennon was still trying to find his emotional footing, something that sadly he seems to have achieved only relatively shortly before his murder.

What will probably appeal to most fans about LennoNYC is the unvarnished look at the man, and for some wonderfully intimate interviews with a lot of people who knew and worked with him through the years, chief among them Yoko Ono. The disparaged “Dragon Lady” who supposedly destroyed The Beatles comes off in her interview segments and in the huge amounts of archival footage this documentary includes as a rather quiet, down to earth sort who may have been decidedly outré as a musician and artist herself, but who as a wife and mother seems almost like an Asian American version of June Cleaver. One of the many touching moments in LennoNYC is from the Double Fantasy sessions, when Yoko interrupts a take to have John say goodnight to the then young Sean Lennon. It’s a really heart-rending peek into the world of a superstar who in his own way was attempting to craft a normal home life for his child.

What may anger some fans is Lennon’s penchant for self-aggrandizement and his seemingly genetic need to confront people’s bourgeois “pretensions.” There’s a very funny segment with Dick Cavett where Cavett recounts the “world premiere” of Lennon and Ono’s Woman is the Nigger of the World, a song so confrontational (if absolutely correct in its own way) that radio stations resolutely refused to play it. The only way Cavett could get permission from ABC to air the song was if Cavett prefaced the performance with an apology of sorts. Cavett slyly remembers that ABC did indeed receive hundreds of complaint letters—all about the apology, none about Lennon’s song. But there’s little question that Lennon often went out of his way to push people’s buttons in a generic sense, in what seems at times an almost childlike (or childish perhaps) attempt to simply see what would happen. Lennon's perhaps brusque treatment of Ono herself is also dealt with in a segment also featuring Lennon's mistress May Pang.

While LennoNYC details a wealth of information from the early 1970’s up through Lennon’s shocking murder, what may be of most interest to the bulk of viewers is the in depth look at Double Fantasy, the album which might have heralded a major comeback for the singer-songwriter, after several years of dissolute behaviors and questionable personal activities. The final third of the documentary has the unmistakable air of the bittersweet, as so much seems to be going so well for Lennon (and Ono) after years of trial and tribulation. Knowing what the denouement is going to be makes some of this footage almost unbearably sensitive to sit through.

LennoNYC does an exemplary job of mixing contemporary remembrances and interview segments with a lot of archival footage and background information. Though its focus is obviously on Lennon’s United States escapades, a general sense of what the man himself was like emerges throughout the hour and a half, and most audience members will be left with an unmistakable sense that, warts and all, Lennon was one of the supreme artistic consciences of the 20th century.

LennoNYC Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

LennoNYC arrives on Blu-ray with a generally nice looking VC-1 encoded transfer in 1080p (some archival segments are from interlaced sources) and (for the most part) in 1.78:1. Contemporary interview segments look sharp as a tack, with nicely saturated color and great fine detail. As might be expected, some of the archival footage is grainy, soft and obviously sourced from small millimeter formats. There's nothing unwatchable in any of this, there's just the usual varying degrees of quality throughout the wide variety of source elements utilized. Both color and black and white archival footage is included, and there's quite a bit of footage and stills from the Double Fantasy sessions, all of which may not be spectacular looking, but which is fascinating to see.

LennoNYC Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While LennoNYC is offered with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, don't expect an immersive showcase here, as the bulk of this piece is, as it should be, a documentary featuring interviews and talking heads. All of that speaking is presented front and center with absolute clarity and excellent fidelity. We do get some nice, if fleeting, surround activity with the many snippets of Lennon recordings the documentary utilizes, including some rare demo material and other unreleased recordings, and that is where real Lennon fans will be listening with their ears figuratively glued to their home theater systems. The good news is that these rarer recordings all sound great for the most part, with no egregious dropouts or damage of any kind to report.

LennoNYC Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supplement on the Blu-ray is a collection of Bonus Interviews, unfortunately split into some fairly short chapters without the ability to Play All. These segments deal with everything from Lennon piloting a sailboat in a horrible storm to his macrobiotic diet to, in the longest segment, some touching remembrances from people about how they found out he had been killed. The segments (all in 1080i) are: Sailing (1:41); Mission: Impossible (3:12); New York City T-Shirt (1:17); Newsmakers (1:01); Juice Fast (2:06); Hong Kong (1:16); Answering Machines (1:16); December 8, 1980 (8:08).

LennoNYC Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

LennoNYC has occasional disjointed elements which distract from its overall excellence, but taken as a whole, this is a riveting and involving piece of filmmaking which helps peel back some of the veneer from one of the most important figures in rock music. Lennon had issues, obviously, and it's to LennoNYC's credit that we get an unvarnished look at a man who made his share of mistakes but who still managed to craft some impeccable music along the way. Highly Recommended.