3/5 Dry, clinical, biased and incomplete
  by Nowhere Man
Compared to all that "Beatles rare and unseen" crap hastily issued during the last 20 years, this documentary is really excellent: coherent, articulated, well-documented and illustrated. Nevertheless, after having watched it to the last bonus, beyond the sadness, I remained with a taste of sand, of dryness and of incompleteness, despite the richness of sounds, images and footage. No comparison with the generosity and equanimity of the Beatles Anthology.

Major shortcomings:

1. The complete absence of the other Beatles "testimonies and points or view" is at least weird in a material where you find even Aunt Mimi. If they declined to participate, it would have been honest to let us know.

2. In spite of the somewhat spicy and controversial details--Al Capp's visit during the bed-in, John's argument with a journalist, John's anger when recording with Phil, John's calling Paul in an abusing-insulting way in his 'How Do You Sleep?' recording session, John's frustration that the papers said Yoko was ugly--meant to give the impression (illusion?) of objectivity, the "orientation" of the documentary it's obvious, therefore needless to be explicated. Yes, the producers said they weren't influenced by anybody (sic!). At best, they made a clear effort of, let's say, diplomacy. But no, it IS tedentious, subjective and ultimately unfair.

3. Lots of essential details, crucial for a fair understanding of Lennon's personality and life were omitted, passed under silence, leaving the watcher (buyer/customer) with a poor, unilateral, cartoon-like view of John Lennon. Something like one of his caricatures.

But, as John would say in 1980, music is the most important of all...


5/5 Lesson in Peace and Understanding. Like living with Lennon.
  by J. Powell (New York, NY United States)
This DVD is simply great, if you are even slightly interested in John Lennon.
It contains so much "behind the scenes" footage, that I was very surprised that he was as accessible as he appears in this documentary.
One scene shows a lost young man, who trespasses on Lennon's property in London. Mr. Lennon was kind and empathetic enough to go out and talk with the fan, and then subsequently invite him in to eat at their table.
It's kind of freaky, in a way that might portend his final chapter.
I was never overly impressed with Lennon's singing voice, and I can deal with the politics, since he seemed genuine in his efforts. What I always admired about Mr. Lennon and the older version of the Beatles, is that he could really JAM. This DVD intertwines so much of his best music (and much Beatles music too) to chronical his life. The Ballad of John & Yoko, intertwined with their "love in / sleep in" is really cool and puts the "era" into perspective. This film clearly reveals a loving and caring person, who struggled to find his own answers in spite of his huge celebrity status. Some of the other video of the NYC years, are like watching your own home movies. It's simply very well done, and will provide deeper insight into a very important musical and historical figure.

5/5 All You Need Is...
  by DD (Chicago, IL)
...more people like John Lennon! When I became aware this film was available on DVD here on Amazon, I went whoopie...now I have a place where I can express my emotions for John. He was far more than my favorite Beatle. I looked at him as a kindred brother. Even though I never met the man in person, I felt I met him through his music. It's as if his words became my own. Perhaps not everything, but nearly everything I ever said or did was directly because of his influence. When Chapman shot him down all those years ago now, part of me died too...and I can honestly say I have not been the same since. But Chapman did nothing but immortalize John. I'm sure John himself would allow Chapman to go free today knowing John's love for people. But this documentary doesn't only shed light on John, but John's life with the Beatles. And what better man to shed light on the Beatles but the group's founder? I do feel this is the best documentary ever done about the Beatles. It's loaded with rare insights. I love when John says "When I was with the Beatles, I thought we were the best group in the whole world. Believing that we were is what made us what we were..." I also love the bed-in scenes and John's defense when he returned his MBE. He truly lived up to his words when he wrote "Imagine no possessions..." Who else but John would do something like giving up medals as a testament for peace??? I especially love the later scenes with John & his family. He could finally be John the man and not John the ex-Beatle, even though that tag has regretfully stuck with all of them. My favorite scene is the slow motion shot of John's glasses flying off his head and shattering on the ground. That really symbolized the end of it all...the dream really was over...no more Beatles, no more John. If you really want to experience it all in a unique way, see this film. It's the next best thing to having John there with you....in the end, all you really need is Imagine.

4/5 A worthy documentary
  by Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States)
John is my favorite Beatle, so I really enjoyed watching this documentary about his incredible life. Although by now some of the film footage has been issued in other films (this was after all made in 1988), not everyone has seen all of the films and documentaries made about John or The Beatles, and it's always a treat regardless to see interviews and film footage you haven't seen before. Among the great moments are the confrontation with cartoonist Al Capp during John and Yoko's bed-in, John's heated argument with a female journalist who thought turning in his MBE was some empty protest, interview footage with John's aunt Mimi, and the bonus feature of an interview with John's former schoolmaster. The film is also loaded with great songs, many of them accompanied by videos, like "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Mother," "Imagine" of course, "Jealous Guy," and "God" (a song that always gives me chills).

As great as the documentary is, though, and as priceless as the film footage is, I kind of wish there had been more balance given to the different parts of John's life. I know that the original first cut was massive (20 hours), and that obviously it had to be edited down a lot to be shown in theatres, but another hour or so wouldn't have hurt. It seemed like most of the focus was on John's life in the Seventies, which in itself could be the subject of several films. It would have been nice to have given equal time to his childhood, early adulthood, and Beatle years in addition to mostly his solo years. While most fans already know his pre-1970 life backwards and forwards, particularly the Sixties, it still could have been expanded a bit more. When you're getting just John's perspective on the Beatle years, it's a slightly different experience than learning about them as a collective group. Other than that, I thought the film was fantastic, and with a number of nice extras.

5/5 You'll fall in love with John Lennon
  by J. I. Cole (Schaumburg, IL)
I was in 7th or 8th grade when this movie came out and I saw it in the theater 3 times. It's truly a fantastic look at the life and times of John Lennon. From birth through death, it chronicles many of the highlights from his life. The music is fantastic, combining both Beatles and solo stuff. The interviews are top notch and I truly recommend this film for anyone who's ever been curious about John Lennon and who he was.

It's been a long time coming for this film to show up on DVD and it was worth the wait.