Bed Peace

Just watched a film called Bed Peace, about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's week-long stay at a hotel room in Montreal in order to sell the notion of peace to the public during the time of turbulence during the late '60s. Among one of the first visitors was cartoonist Al Capp, creator of "Li'l Abner", who condescendingly discusses their recent album cover (of which John and Yoko appeared stark naked) and mentions a certain passage of "The Ballad of John and Yoko". Despite his less-than-welcome manners, he's quite funny with his comments. We also see comedian Tom Smothers discussing how the establishment seems out to get him. All right, most of what is depicted here seems a bit too pretentious in trying to get the message out, particularly from Yoko but it's obvious their hearts are in the right place. And what a treat to see the performance of "Give Peace a Chance", having previously seen it out of context years ago, finally in the right sequence of events as chronologically depicted. I also liked some of the scenes with Yoko's then-toddler daughter. Hope she's doing well. This short was only available for free viewing on YouTube as linked from the Imagine Peace site (which is pulling it after midnight) which I found out about from the Mark Evanier one. Like I said, not always easy to watch all the way through during some of the more monotonous stretches but fascinating nonetheless.

Bed Peace (1969)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

In 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono wanted to bring attention to their peace message so they staged a couple bed ins where they'd stay in bed and invite journalist in to speak with them. This 71-minute documentary captures their Montreal protest.

Looking at BED PEACE technically, there's really nothing overly impressive here. Both Lennon and Ono are credited as the directors but it seems like there were just a bunch of cameras in the room capturing everything and then later the highlights were edited together. The main highlight to the film is a Boston reporter who isn't overly thrilled with the idea of what the two are doing. This back and forth debate has been seen in several documentaries but it's fascinating to watch it get played out here.

Is BED PEACE a good movie? Not really but if you're a fan of Lennon or Ono then it's certainly worth watching. If you're interested in the type of protest that Lennon was doing during this era then obviously this is all the more entertaining. There's no question that the 71-minute running time goes by pretty fast and there's just something about Lennon that makes it impossible to take your eyes and ears away from him even if you don't necessarily agree with what he's saying or doing.