Always compelling, occasionally frustrating and deeply moving. That’s what you get from this gorgeous documentary that pings you into a front row seat at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972. There John Lennon and Yoko Ono, with the backing band Elephant’s Memory, performed two knockout charity gigs, matinee and evening, in aid of children with special needs. It was the ostensible launchpad for a national tour that never materialised and now, revitalised via modern restoration technology, arrives as vivid testament to the unbridled power of Lennon in his only post-Beatles gig.
Then, of course, there’s Ono. The concerts — presented here by the producer Sean Lennon, her son with John — unfold as a dialogue, sometimes an aesthetic battle, between Mr and Mrs Lennon. We begin with a thundering rendition of New York City, with Lennon grabbing the mic and roaring out the opening lyric, “Standin’ on the corner/ Just me and Yoko Ono!” He follows it with the bluesy and smutty It’s So Hard and then introduces Ono’s first solo track with the telling, “This is a song that Yoko wrote to fool us.” Then she utterly murders Move on Fast like a caterwauling banshee or a bag of tortured chipmunks.
On it goes — one for her, one for him. Lennon thankfully joins the chorus of Ono’s Born in a Prison, which dampens down the earache. Then, bang, he delivers Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) and it’s like sunlight and warmth and hugs for the soul.
It almost feels deliberate, like good cop, bad cop. Ono roughs you up with some agonising nonsense such as We’re All Water, with its “provocative” lyrics: “There may not be much difference between Richard Nixon and Hitler” (really?), after which Lennon suddenly sits down at the piano and, in glorious close up, so close you can see the wide pupils of his eyes, aces a pitch-perfect Imagine and the heart swells.
The helmets worn by Lennon and Ono at the concert
The couple at the Statue of LibertyBOB FRIES
He does a roof-raising version of Hound Dog that would have put Elvis to shame, and then the whole thing degenerates into a fabulously chaotic 12-minute version of Give Peace a Chance featuring stage-crashers Stevie Wonder and Allen Ginsberg. And all the way through Lennon is chewing gum, comfortable as can be, with the high-definition restoration picking up a single drip of sweat on the tip of his nose. It’s an exquisite portrait of a musical genius at work. And Yoko Ono.
★★★★☆
12A, 80min
In cinemas
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