Yellow Submarine
July 16th, 2007
Kinky Boot-Beasts! Blue Meanies! Guy Lombardo! It’s all too much! Last seen around various hazy dorm rooms, Yellow Submarine has now become the favorite movie of a certain toddler of my acquaintance. It must be proof of something or other that the cheery high sixties psychedelia works equally well in both settings: iconic imagery, zany dialogue, “odyssey situations” and songs that will outlive us all. A Hard Day’s Night gets all the critical acclaim, but my day-glo heart belongs to Yellow Submarine. (The DVD happened to be the first I ever bought, and according to Wikipedia, it’s out of print and mildly collectible.)
Yellow Submarine. George Dunning, 1968. *****
All You Need Is Love:
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
February 14th, 2007
John Lennon’s image, life and work is woven so deeply into the fabric of our shared cultural history that, to me, he’s become almost invisible. For the first hour, this well-meaning documentary on his deportation case treads overly familiar ground — the bed-in, war is over if you want it, power to the people. It’s good to be reminded that Lennon wasn’t a given, could never be taken for granted, but the movie doesn’t really take off until Nixon decides that he was a real threat to the state (and his reelection.) In 1972, Dick took the advice of Strom Thurmond and moved to get the damn peacenik out of the country — but after Watergate and a few counter-lawsuits, Lennon got to stay at the Dakota. In the end, it’s obvious not just to Gore Vidal that the Liverpudlian rabblerouser was more American than the patriotic bullies and wire-tappers.
Curious coincidence: Lennon and I used the same immigration law firm. So for what it’s worth, that’s two degrees of separation. And we all shine on….
The U.S. vs. John Lennon. David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, 2006. ***
[tags]film, gore vidal, documentary, 3 stars, john lennon, yoko ono, nyc, immigration, richard nixon, strom thurmond, illegal wiretaps[/tags]
