By Bob Grimm
In 1972, John Lennon performed his One to One charity concert, one of his first big performances after the breakup of the Beatles.
New documentary One to One: John & Yoko, while using footage from that show as a connective thread, also uses clips of John, Yoko and notable news events of the era to paint a picture of what that time was like for Lennon and Ono.
The atmosphere around them was, to put it mildly, oppressive. He was living in New York City and getting threatened with deportation as he intensified his activism and got busted for drugs. The vibe created by the pastiche of news and interview clips feels very much like the vibe in America today.
The One to One concert was eight years before Lennon’s death at the hands of an assassin. It was a transitional time for Lennon; he had recently left the Beatles, and was embarking on a solo career.
Lennon reportedly watched TV a lot in the early ’70s, so the setup for the doc (complete with a re-creation of his Greenwich apartment) suggests we are seeing a lot of what Lennon was seeing when he turned on the tube during those times. Crazy times then; crazy times now.
It’s a highly effective format, transporting the viewer to Lennon’s cramped apartment, the one he had before moving to the Dakota. While watching, I couldn’t help but root for Nixon’s attempts to deport Lennon to succeed. Yes, that would have been an ugly victory for the Nixon administration, but if he’d been sent back to England, perhaps Lennon wouldn’t have died on that fateful night in New York City.
These are the kinds of thoughts that will strike you while watching One to One: John & Yoko, a truly immersive experience that will please both fans and the uninitiated alike.
One to One: John & Yoko is now available on various streaming services.
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