MartinHafer I should mention up front that I am not particularly a John Lennon fan. I don't dislike him but am somewhat indifferent to his work...especially his work post-Beatles. However, I watched this film because I am a huge fan of PBS documentaries...and in "American Masters" is one of my favorites. The film is about John Lennon and his life when he moved from London to New York in the early 70s. Among the many topics covered in the film is his marriage to Yoko, his anti-war work, the Nixon administration's attempts to deport him, his separation from Yoko (with his subsequent spiral into drinking and being a jerk), his studio work as well as his later years and, once again, fatherhood. The way I see the film, it's a gradual evolution until he became a person most of us could really like...at which point he was murdered.The documentary is made up of the usual interviews and film clips but what makes this one really neat (and a tad spooky) is that so much audio of Lennon talking and recording and outtakes are spaced out throughout the film. It's interesting to hear alternate versions of his songs, his commentary or even his saying goodnight to his young son. All in all, a very compelling, well made and interesting portrait of the guy from about age 30-40. Well worth seeing.

Jakester Overall the movie is good. I believe it was instigated and financed by Yoko under the guise of "Dakota Productions" or some such company. It very subtly whitewashes J.L.'s self-destructiveness - very canny how it does this, i.e., it delves into his craziness in-depth during the LA years of 1972-74 ("Oh, look, we're being honest in this film! We're delving into his madness!") but eschews examining it at all when Yoko accepts him back ('74 to '80). That's whitewashing in my book. Another example of the subtle whitewashing going on here - the film allows May Pang to be a talking head ever-so-briefly ("Hey, this film is honest!") but doesn't give her space to say any of the juicy and awful stuff that's in her book. Essentially the film is a rebuttal to Albert Goldman's book which depicts Lennon during the second half of the '70s as extremely impatient with Sean (the film, by contrast, shows J.L. as a dream of a father, a contemporary Father Knows Best), sealing himself off alone in his room with his books, TV and pot, starving himself to maintain the skinny rock star look, sermonizing naked ad nauseum to the servants, moping around and being generally depressed, and doing a lot of coke to get "Double Fantasy" made (the guy had all the marks of a cokehead in the studio in '80 with a lot of amped-up hyper energy). I will grant you that Albert Goldman's book has holes in it but I think it's more accurate than a lot of people with vested interests claim it to be (Yoko Ono, Jann Wenner, etc.). So anyway, yeah, it's a good movie - for one thing it's very well made technically. It provides nice glimpses of J.L. in the studio. And the sections at the beginning are fascinating when the entire apparatus of the federal government viewed him as evil and the pipe-dream was afoot in radical circles that a rock star could tour the world and singlehandedly change it.

tavm Just watched this on the DVR about three years after recording there. It chronicles former Beatle John Lennon's life and career after moving to New York with wife Yoko Ono. From their recording sessions to his outspoken rallies which led to deportation threats to his lost times in Los Angeles solo to a sabbatical while taking care of newborn Sean to a comeback with Ono just before his tragic fate. Quite insightful with many Lennon comments spread throughout and latter-day interviews with Yoko, Dick Cavett, Elton John, and many of the musicians who worked with him during those final years. So on that note, "American Masters: LennoNYC" is well worth seeing.

blanche-2 "LennonNYC" is a wonderful documentary about John Lennon's life in New York City. It's sad at the same time, because his love of freedom and the Dakota's policy of letting people loiter outside the building cost him his life. Lennon himself took no security precautions, enjoying what he felt was the anonymity of New York. It's true, people are more laid back there about seeing celebrities. But there are always nuts around, and Lennon, alas, met one.There is lots of footage of Lennon in interviews and also recording - he was on top of the world with his Double Fantasy album. Though no one says it, I think he had been "written out" for a time. And when his son Sean was born, Lennon felt like it was the beginning of a new life for him. Before his death, he was happier than he had ever been - grown up, as he put it, and at peace with his life. That someone could take that away from him is very cruel.Excellent.