One to One: John & Yoko

Perfect scope and angles. Drawn almost exclusively from archive footage some of which I think hasn't been seen before or at least hasn't been linked up in this fashion.

Most documentaries put their subjects under microscopes but this is more like looking at John and Yoko through a telescope, capturing the context of the time, the people, places and often opposing cultures.

Lennon has to be one of the most over exposed individuals - if not THE most over exposed - and as a result a lot of the productions on him are 99% recycled, templatized and redundant.

But not this one. This is an exceptional piece of documentary filmmaking. In particular to say the format and the edit are award winning is a total understatement. From very early on it's obvious you're experiencing the work of master crafters.

So often these Lennon docos are just pulp crap that get switched off after five minutes so watching this really put a rare level of viewing excitement back to the subject.

This is quite an eye-opening documentary that uses the 1972 "One to One" concert that John and Yoko did to raise funds for the infamous Willowbrook hospital - where the appalling treatment of kids with learning difficulties turned heads and stomachs in equal measure, to shine a light on Nixon's United States. Using an astonishing collection of archive of not just this couple, but of newsreels and television content, Kevin Macdonald presents a pretty galling indictment of a society riddled with racism, homophobia and ignorance against a backdrop of a flower power movement determined to stop the war in Vietnam. I suppose Jerry Rubin would have been called an agitator by the authorities, with his vocal and vociferous criticism of all things government, and his relationship with the Lennon's is also under a spotlight of scrutiny that led to their threatened deportation. By the end of this, and after Nixon's landslide victory in the election, it isn't hard to see why the administration wanted shot of the pair - though that might have had more to do with her terrible singing than with his determination to turns weapons into plant pots and release all prisoners. It is still quite a resonating position even now when the naïveté of their grand design appeals on a superficial level but never delivers adequate enough solutions for the general population who still tend to believe what they are told by the folks they vote for, and obviously the timeframe of this feature is well before the full impact of "Watergate" kicks in rather torpedoes that faith. I could have done with more music, and perhaps a little more from the pair about his leaving the "Beatles" and of her own subsequent vilification from just about everyone, but this is still an illuminating look at a society struggling to emerge from the 1960s, showing the simultaneous power and the impotence of protest, and is worth a watch.

Greetings again from the darkness. So why did John and Yoko leave England to live in New York? This film provides the answer. Where did they choose to live? The film provides the answer. Why did John perform his only full post-Beatles concert in 1972? This film provides the answer. Why did they become so politically and socially active during those first 18 months in the States? This film provides the answer. And if you ever wondered how John felt about American television, well you guessed it ... this film provides the answer.

Where did all of these answers come from? Well, Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, 1999; THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, 2006; MARLEY, 2012) co-directs with Editor/co-director Sam Rice-Edwards and they focus on a very brief timeline, so that we might better understand John Lennon and Yoko Ono. You might think you know all you need to know about this famous couple, but the filmmakers, along with Producer Sean Ono Lennon, ensure that you see and hear clips you haven't seen or heard before.

Much of this is centered around John's only full post-Beatles concert in 1972, entitled "One to One". Its purpose was to raise funds for kids through Willowbrook State School. And that's not the only storyline about a kid - it turns out, one of the reasons John and Yoko moved to the states was her hope in reuniting with a long-lost daughter named Kyoto. It's just one of the elements of the film that makes this much more of a personal story than simply a recap of celebrities.

The film also works as a snapshot of the era. President Richard Nixon (one clip shows him sporting a maroon blazer), extremist Jerry Rubin, "The Mike Douglas Show", Dick Cavett, Attica, Andy Warhol, and Billy Graham all have their moments. The attempted assassination of George Wallace is shown, as are numerous TV ads, TV series clips, and some news reports. The Vietnam War and Watergate are featured, yet somehow Allen Ginsburg reciting an ode to wiping one's rear-end nearly steals the show.

We've all seen clips from Lennon's One to One concert, and here they are remastered and sound terrific. "Instant Karma", "Hound Dog", "Cold Turkey", "Imagine", "Give Peace a Chance" are all shown, but it's the scorching version of "Come Together" that really stands out. Of course, we are subjected to Yoko's onstage banshee screeching ... though thankfully near the end of the film, she gets a more heartfelt chance to actually sing.

During the film, the contrast with Nixon is obvious. John and Yoko are sincerely committed to peace, love, and justice, while Nixon's politics for power stands opposed. The recreation of John and Yoko's small apartment in the Village is quite something to behold - and remarkable when compared to the photographs and archival footage. When John describes his early obsession with TV as 'a window into the world' and a replacement for the fireplace of his youth, we gain even more insight into the man known mostly for his music and quips. In 1973, John and Yoko moved from the small apartment in the Village to the swanky Dakota building. His wish for the couple to be remembered as "two lovers" comes closer to reality with this film. Some of their home movies (with Sean) are played as the runtime ends.

In IMAX theaters on April 11, 2025.

I regret watching this film. I was hoping to see mostly concert footage of John and along with it however there was a generous helping of the most annoying blasts from the silly adolescent political past. All the unsavory arse clowns were well represented in this movie and that is a real shame. John's naivete regarding politics is nothing new to those who lived through those turbulent times. But still, I believe in later years he might have regretted some of his affiliations with the lefty trouble makers and he certainly did not do himself any favors by sticking his neck out on the chopping block. Anyway, this film has only about 25 minutes of John playing music and the rest is just annoying filler material that tends to cloud the fact that John was so very talented and yet flawed like many of us are. 4 stars for the music and thumbs down for making this film more annoying than it should have been. Beating a dead horse on the politics side.

This is an excellent rock n roll documentary. The subjects of the film are John Lennon and Yoko Ono during the height of the Vietnam War and Nixon Administration. The film contains excellent film clips, news footage, and phone conversations. There is a lot I learned here. It is a great look at America at the time. The musical sequences are priceless and fantastic, but integrated into the documentary it is high, high level of entertainment.