A biography of the rock music star.A biography of the rock music star.A biography of the rock music star.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first cut of this movie ran 24 hours long.
- Quotes
[a homeless-looking young man is found wandering the grounds of Lennon's Tittenhurst Park estate]
John Lennon: Don't confuse the songs with your own life. I mean, they might have relevance to your own life, you know, but a lot of things do. And so we've met, you know? I'm just a guy, man, who writes songs.
Young Man: Yeah, I figured that if we met, I'd know, you know, just by meeting you.
John Lennon: But know what, man?
Young Man: That it all fits, you know?
John Lennon: Anything fits, you know? If you're tripping off on some trip, anything fits, you know?
Young Man: Like when you said "Boy, you're gonna carry that weight for a long time."
John Lennon: That's Paul saying that. But that belongs to all of us. He's singing about all of us.
Young Man: Remember that one, um, "You can radiate everything, or you can penetrate anywhere you go"?
John Lennon: Yeah, I was just having fun with words. It was literally a nonsense song, you know? I mean, Dylan does that. Anybody does that, you know? They just take words and you stick them together and see if they have any meaning. Some of them do. Some of them don't. See, that last album of mine was me coming out of my dream. You can last your whole life on that dream, you know? And then it's all over.
Young Man: You weren't thinking of anyone in particular when you were singing all that?
John Lennon: How could I be thinking of you?
Young Man: Well, I don't know, I don't care, me. But just all--it's all somebody.
John Lennon: I'm thinking about me, or at best, Yoko, if it's a love song. I'm saying, you know, "I had a good shit today" and "this is what I thought this morning" and, uh, you know?" And--or, "I love you, Yoko," or whatever. I'm singing about me and my life, you know? And if it's relevant for other people's lives, that's all right.
[pause]
John Lennon: Are you hungry? Hmm?
Young Man: [nods] Yeah.
John Lennon: Let's give him something to eat.
[John leads the young man inside]
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Geraldo Rivera Show: Digging the Dirt on the Dead (1988)
- SoundtracksA Day in the Life
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Published by SBK Blackwood Music Inc.
under license from ATV Music (Maclen)
The movie's main focus is on, of course, John Lennon. Not the critics, not the fans, not the Beatles and not the walrus...John Lennon, a human being. The movie is filled with home videos of Lennon and friends working on the Imagine album and videos of Lennon and his family enjoying life away from his hectic life as a musician. There is even a video of Lennon inviting an obsessed fan into his house for breakfast.
Still, even with the videos of a simple Englishman goofing off with friends there are many clips of the music itself. It includes Lennon's Elvis inspired rock genesis in Liverpool and Hamburg with the Beatles that launched their successful career. The movie moves on to Lennon's tour of America that took him away from the wife and kids, and then onto the unbelievable Sgt. Pepper album that is still critically acclaimed as the greatest album of all time.
Yet you can't fit everything about a legend like Lennon into a one hundred minute documentary, so all of the other Beatles albums were cut. Instead there is again more of the man behind the legend, such as him spending time with his newborn son Sean and instead of showing the breakup of the Beatles, it shows him sailing on a boat smoking a cigarette. Workingman's hero.
Now if you want a movie that explores the many dimensions of this rock icon than this isn't it. No this movie doesn't go into his spirituality, his thoughts on music, his influences and the Beatles nor does it even mention the name of the person who killed him. Yet this movie shows what John Lennon truly was: a father, a friend, a man.
Just like Lennon said, "I don't believe in Jesus....I don't believe in Elvis....I don't believe in the Beatles...I just believe in me, Yoko and me, and that's reality."
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,753,977
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,412,213
- Oct 10, 1988
- Gross worldwide
- $3,754,273