This incredible documentary features in-depth contributions from wives Yoko Ono and Cynthia Lennon, son Julian Lennon and many previously unseen interviews with John himself.
Through rare footage, we learn of his rise to fame with The Beatles, his divorce from Cynthia, his first meeting with Yoko, split-up of the band, and his decision to become a solo artist and advocate for world peace. Lennon: Love is All You Need captures one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century with some truly unique interviews and unseen footage from those closest to him.
Stuffed with amazing footage, this magisterial history of pop – partly narrated by Liberace, partly written by Stephen Sondheim – got more than a little help from John Lennon’s contacts book
The result is quite simply stuffed with amazing footage, touching on everything from gospel, vaudeville, ragtime and musicals to protest songs, country, R&B, swing and acid rock.
Palmer makes excellent choices in collaborators, with Liberace narrating the episode about vaudeville and Stephen Sondheim scripting the one about musicals. And he picked a good time to make his history: Elvis was still alive and so, therefore, was rock’n’roll; John Lennon, too, something that had practical benefits, as the Beatle was a longtime champion of Palmer’s, always willing to open his address book and make introductions – or beg favours – on his behalf.
He came to save the world, and they crucified him. John Lennon, that is. By now it’s possible to reconstruct the entire path of his eventful life through the medium of biopics, from Sam Taylor-Wood’s ‘Nowhere Boy’ (2009) covering his childhood, through the Hamburg years as Ian Hart in ‘Backbeat’ (1994), then into Christopher Eccleston’s ‘Lennon Naked’ (2010) taking in the Epstein years. There’s even Christopher Münch who fabricated his film ‘The Hour And Times’ (1991)
The half-brothers, aged 58 and 46 respectively, were on a road trip in California. Posting a snap on Instagram yesterday, Julian wrote: ‘A lil bit wind blown and tired after a few hours driving through the mountains to the sea but so worth it. A magical day.’
Julian decleared: “I love Sean very much. He’s a very smart kid. But I do think there are things done without his knowledge. Someone in the camp could be manipulating events.If I’m in New York, I try to see Sean,” says Julian. “If I move, I always give him my new number. I call him from time to time, but I never get a return call. I think it’s to do with the difference in our ages.
It is too, for their trip along the Pacific Coast Highway is a bit of rock history and a healing moment dubbed ‘life changing’ by Julian. Excerpt from viacasinos.com)
For Julian is finally making peace with the partial estrangement from his father before his death. And it seems his friendship with Sean is going some way to provide the paternal relationship that both men have missed so deeply.
As Julian says, Sean is ‘the one person I care about more than anything in the world . . . I’m here to love and support you, ’til the end of time and then some.’
It wasn’t always the case. John’s bitter divorce from Julian’s mum Cynthia, and marriage to Sean’s mother Yoko, led to strained relationships. Then, after John’s murder in 1980, there were decades of mistrust — plus a dispute over John’s £250 million legacy.
Recently Sean Lennon is asking Twitter users to stop sending him the lyrics to “Imagine”, pointing out he’s already ”vaguely familiar” with the tune.
The musician, who’s the 44-year-old son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, made the request on social media.
“Although delightful, please know it is not absolutely necessary to quote the lyrics of Imagine to me as a response to each and every tweet I make,” he tweeted.
People talk about them as if they were enemies, and there was a lot of pain, and a lot of that was very public, but not any more.
‘Julian and Sean have always had a bond outside of all of that. They love each other.’
The public chapter of this brotherly reunion started on Friday, at the LA launch of the Disney+ three-part documentary, The Beatles: Get Back.
They sat next to each other at the screening and, afterwards, mingled at a party thrown by Sir Paul McCartney’s daughter Stella.
Julian wrote that night: ‘The One True thing I can say about it all is that it has made me feel so proud, inspired & feel more love for My/Our family than ever before. And the film has made me love our father again in a way I can’t fully describe. Life changing.’
Julian, who has never married, lives in Monaco, while Sean is based in New York with his model girlfriend Kemp Muhl.
Their last public meeting came when the two men recorded a conversation together in October 2020 for the BBC, to mark what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday. They reminisced, though some memories were maybe too raw to share.
Like how Julian taught Sean to play guitar to George Michael’s Faith, and was so much Sean’s ‘hero’ that Yoko flew 17-year-old Julian out to New York in 1980 to break the news of John’s death to the then five-year-old Sean.
