Imagine: John Lennon

For most of us, seeing the Beatles is like replaying the experiment of Pavlov's dog. The Fab Four walk on-camera, and we sit up and salivate. Well, maybe we don't drool as much as we used to. But the response is still, after all these years, physical. Our breathing shortens. Our hearts speed up a tad. And a prickly feeling starts to crawl up the back of our spines. Can't be explained. It's just the closest thing to magic our generation has experienced. Imagine reweaves that magical tapestry of unforgettable music, charisma, and controversy that was the Beatles and, in particular, head Beatle John Lennon. Much of the new footage in this Lennon-narrated documentary was shot during 1971 at John and Yoko's Tiffenhurst Estates, a sprawling 99 acre spread. We see Lennon trying out songs bound for the "Imagine" LP on other musicians, poking fun at Paul McCartney with fellow Beatle George Harrison, and inviting a garden squatter in for breakfast. The main section, which follows the rise and fall of the band which Lennon called "more popular than Jesus" (promptly getting the Beatles into hot water) offers little new material (most of the concert and interview footage can be seen in the superb documentary The Compleat Beatles). The film really comes into its own during the second half, when John and Yoko stage their Peace bed-in, and have a grueling mud-slinging match with cartoonist Al Capp (Lil' Abner); split up for 18 months (the "lost weekend" which found Lennon spending most of his time with mistress May Pang and songwriter Harry Nilssen); and the reunion and family life with their little boy Sean. What emerges is hardly definitive (the legendary Apple battles are glossed over), but this film does present a working study of a complex figure, whose assassination at the age of 40 left a scar that cut across generations of society. In the film's closing moments, the nation, in microcosm, lights candles at Lennon's funeral and speaks in the most eloquent language bequeathed us: tears. Highly recommended.