Customer Reviews

John & Yoko's Year of Peace

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This documentary gives the viewer the chance to see firsthand what went on during John and Yoko's honeymoon bed-in for peace (the type of nontraditional honeymoon I'd love to have myself!) and their pro-peace activities during the rest of 1969. We see a lot of the people they met with (such as Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau and Rabbi Abraham Feinberg), people who became allies of theirs as well as people who deliberately tried to provoke them. I was also delighted to see the footage of Yoko's daughter Kyoko. Overall it really serves to recreate the hopeful mood of the late Sixties, when people believed anything was possible and believed their voices could make a difference. John and Yoko didn't care if people thought they were freaks or naïve, since they had a powerful message to get across, and the public exposure they were guaranteed as celebrities would make a much larger audience of people tune in to their message and get inspired to work for change themselves. And as we see, during that sadly brief time, it did seem as though the world were listening, people were actively campaigning for world peace and an end to the Vietnam War (and all other wars), and world peace really seemed like it would happen very soon. Till the very end of his life, John believed that love and peace were eternal instead of some cliché from the Sixties. As he says in footage near the end of the documentary, world peace isn't impossible or unobtainable. It's as simple as people the world over deciding they want peace. As soon as enough people want it, it can happen. The late Sixties might seem like a dated joke to some people today, but even though clothing styles and other fashions have changed, the basic premise has not. This is a powerful message that's chillingly just as relevant today as it was back in 1969.

This documentary rates 4 stars instead of 5 only because it is less than an hour long. Much more could have been included, even restricting the story to 1969, the year John & Yoko staged their Bag-In, two Bed-Ins, got married and recorded "Give Peace A Chance." The story of how quite possibly the world's biggest star devoted his celebrity to fighting against a war halfway around the world -- a war he had no financial reasons to oppose -- is continued on the DVD of "The U.S. Vs. John Lennon." These two movies together make a nice overview of the idealism on the era, when two pop stars thought they could end the war by willing it.

Naive optimism, idealism, "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." One naive optimist is worth a thousand jaded cynics.

This is a CBC colour production and it has many shots of John and Yoko that aren't commonly viewed, probably because they sit in a Canadian archive and are primarily used in Canadian broadcasts as the big networks already have plenty of John Lennon footage. There are some great early shots of John and Yoko in white suits prancing around. "Better to do something than to do nothing." Early on, John and Yoko had decided that they could use their celebrity to send a message, and they did their bed-ins, and they launched their advertising messages. "Promoting peace was an uphill battle in 1969' (and we get a sense of this when John and Yoko are confronted by right wing cartoonist Al Capp). "It was cruel and angry, and several wars took their daily toll." Yoko admitted that they were naive, but they were doing what they could at the time. John and Yoko were looking for a new place to host their stuff, and after two hours of negotiation, Canada agreed. They go on to talk about what this all meant, that Canada was the first state to really give them something, and the Canadian prime minister was the first global leader that a Beatle had met. Lennon proved to be a rock start who could emerge from his castle on the hill and re-engage with the kids and what they cared about. At the Montreal bed-in, journalists came to see if they should take John and Yoko seriously. Timonthy Leary was there. Rabbi Feinberg: "the love that they have or each other is so strong that it extends itself to all humanity." Right wing cartoonist Al Capp tested their commitment to love with aggression, but from the edit it seems that there was no incident (who knows what the real story is, though).

Jerry Leiviton, a 14-year-old kid won an early interview through his temerity, but eventually the room was full of journalists all the time, they even had radio station CFOX broadcasting live. John managed to mix serious messages with horseplay, and it became a fun place to be.

Then there's the description of the stuff that went on around the bed-in. There was a gathering on Mount Royal, that ended up on John and Yoko's doorstep. The organisers later on drove John and Yoko around Ottawa, eventually dropping in on prime minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau (then freshly-elected, but eventually going on to serve 15 years as the head of government). There's a picture of John writing a note to Pierre. The driver of the car notes that, as they drove around Ottawa, "Get Back" came onto the radio, and he had John Lennon in the back of his VW Beetle singing a Beatles song. Surreal.

The concert in Toronto was the first solo show by a former Beatle, and took place only two weeks after the show the Beatles broke up officially. John got a motorcycle escort to Varsity Stadium in Toronto, but there is no footage.

Eventually, the "War Is Over" media campaign went to Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris, Berlin, London, Rome and Athens. John explains why he likes Canada, as does Yoko in an interview conducted in 2000. In the earlier interview, John tells Lloyd Robertson of the CBC Weekend "Canada is the first place that has given us something. For instance, the media and the press treat us as human beings. I'm astonished." John and Yoko hold hands on the show, she gives him a nice smile. When explaining why he doesn't do this sort of thing in Biafra, Vietnam or Cambodia, "I don't want to be Mr and Mrs Dead Saint of 1970." They go to stay for a while with Ronnie Hawkins, who at the time lives at the top part of Mississauga Road. Yay, I was near the bottom part of Mississauga Road at the time, but as an infant. Rompin' Ronnie notes that when they met for the first time, John knew all of the words for The Hawks' "Forty Days". Great documentary, great days.

After a while, Trudeau stirs, and he take the note John wrote him seriously; eight months after it was written, he comes aboard and agrees to meet John and Yoko; this seems to make him, after the word of John, a leader who is "this side of the Stone Age." It was the first time a Beatle had met a pop star. Trudeau was more perceptive, he was sympathetic to their cause. Their scheduled 15-minute interview was more like 45-50 minutes. Trudeau had apparently told Lennon that he had read his book, prompting Lennon to say that "If all politicians were like Mr Trudeau, there would be world peace." Or, as Ono later observed, "At the time it was important that there were people like John Lennon and Pierre Trudeau." The tour they had talked about setting up was to be a big global festival that would touch 16 countries, but in the end had to be cancelled.

The message dips into future events, with a short, memorable part about the 1980 assassination of John Lennon, then the 2000 memorial where Ono once again took out an ad in Time Square, this time saying "Over 676,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8th, 1980."

For anyone that is a Beatles fan, a John Lennon fan, this is an essential DVD to have and watch from time to time. John's wit & his creativity shines brightly.

"John & Yoko's Year of Peace" is a film that looks at the couple's peace activities with a strong emphasis on their time in Canada. "Year of Peace" first looks at the bed-ins. Those who've always wondered what they were about will finally get an explanation. Next, the audience sees the story behind Toronto's Rock 'N' Roll Revival Festival. Nowadays, this is considered the last nail in the Beatles' coffin. The film makers also tell the story of John Lennon's meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. Perhaps the largest story told is that of the doomed Peace Festival. The hope was to have this event dwarf Woodstock. "Year of Peace" looks at the reasons for the project's failure. Showing images of Strawberry Fields, a balanced reflection looks back at the life of Lennon. At an hour long, "Year of Peace" is a very well done film. In addition to having excellent archival footage, the interviews are top-notch. In addition to Yoko Ono, the film is peppered with interviews of producers, journalists, DJs, promoters and other people who were active participants in the story told. While thinking of John Lennon, places like London and New York so easily come to mind. This film will help viewers appreciate John and Yoko's Canadian connection. Some consider the peace efforts of John and Yoko to be naïve and short-sighted. It's more likely that when looking at today's conflict ridden world, we need to re-discover their vision of world harmony.

John & Yoko are great people they both are saints in heavan. God Loves you both. This dvd of John&Yoko's Song is an inspiration to everyone. God Bless you Both. Love You....xoxoxox Your Friend Gary