The Thousands

Is there a modern day equivalent to John Lennon? Musically, maybe, but John Lennon the muso/peace activist? We think not.

In the 1970s, after the Beatles split, Lennon went all left-wing, writing peace anthems staging brilliant PR stunts and generally rallying against The Man. Of course, this didn’t please Tricky Dicky, who, true to form, did everything in his presidential power to shut the meddling hippy down, including, it seems, bugging his phones and threatening him with deportation.

None of this is new information, but in ‘The US vs John Lennon’ it all comes straight from the horse’s mouth for the first time, via previously unseen footage of John, graciously released to director David Leaf by Yoko Ono.

**The doco features lots of talking heads giving commentary that’ll have all good liberals nodding along enthusiastically, as well as some scarily pertinent advice from Lennon, himself. “You have to be more politically aware in a day and age like this – it’s impossible to close your eyes to it.” He’s talking about the Vietnam War, of course, but he may as well be speaking from beyond the grave about the current mess in Iraq, such is the film’s relevance today.

Ah, politics. The more things change, the more they stay the same.