I believe this documentary is the best portrait of Lennon and The Beatles on film.
It revolves around the recording of song "Imagine" as well as the album of the same name in 1971. It is narrated by Lennon from tons of interviews he gave. After the scene is set, it goes back to the beginning of The Beatles and and see many familiar clips of performances of "Twist And Shout", "From Me To You" and "Help". The most fascinating part of this doc are rare home movies of John at home and of some news segments probably not seen since there were aired. A striking scene shows where an obsessed fan found his way to John's England estate. The young man is confused and may be on drugs but believes John's songs are speaking directly to him, asking him the meaning behind his "I Dig A Pony" song, John tells him it was just playing around with words, literally a nonsense song. John gently tells him the songs should not be mixed up with his own life and offers the guy something to eat. After we see the psychedelic Beatle years of "Strawberry Field Forever" and "Sgt Pepper", it goes into John's years of peace protests and marriage to Yoko Ono where the press and some fans turned on him. One news reporter refers to him as the most "way out" of The Beatles. The most memorable scene for me was when John and Yoko were doing their "bed-in" for peace in 1969, conservative cartoonist Al Capp (creator of "Lil Abner") came to heckle them. Capp sarcastically puts down the album "Two Virgins" in which John and Yoko appeared full frontal naked on the cover. He also complains about the lyrics to "Ballad Of John and Yoko" where John sings about "they're gonna crucify me", John tells Capp he is taking it too literally. Capp also tells him "I'm sure the other 3 guys are Englishmen!" This is a very well rounded portrait of Lennon as we see the witty, peaceful side most associate with him but we also see the anger and impatience most did not get to see. There is a scene where he angrily curses out a recording engineer for not setting up the correct version of a song he wanted. He loses his temper when NY Times reporter Gloria Emerson accuses him of self aggrandizing behavior with his peace protests. She says she used to admire him, but he tells her "Well I'm glad you liked the old mop tops, love, but I've grown up, but you obviously haven't!" We also get some rare home movies during the years he quit the music business to raise his son. Best scene is when he and Yoko meet a fan in Central Park, of course the first question he asks is "When are The Beatles gettin' back together?" John's funny answer was "Oh tomorrow, tomorrow!"
It revolves around the recording of song "Imagine" as well as the album of the same name in 1971. It is narrated by Lennon from tons of interviews he gave. After the scene is set, it goes back to the beginning of The Beatles and and see many familiar clips of performances of "Twist And Shout", "From Me To You" and "Help". The most fascinating part of this doc are rare home movies of John at home and of some news segments probably not seen since there were aired. A striking scene shows where an obsessed fan found his way to John's England estate. The young man is confused and may be on drugs but believes John's songs are speaking directly to him, asking him the meaning behind his "I Dig A Pony" song, John tells him it was just playing around with words, literally a nonsense song. John gently tells him the songs should not be mixed up with his own life and offers the guy something to eat. After we see the psychedelic Beatle years of "Strawberry Field Forever" and "Sgt Pepper", it goes into John's years of peace protests and marriage to Yoko Ono where the press and some fans turned on him. One news reporter refers to him as the most "way out" of The Beatles. The most memorable scene for me was when John and Yoko were doing their "bed-in" for peace in 1969, conservative cartoonist Al Capp (creator of "Lil Abner") came to heckle them. Capp sarcastically puts down the album "Two Virgins" in which John and Yoko appeared full frontal naked on the cover. He also complains about the lyrics to "Ballad Of John and Yoko" where John sings about "they're gonna crucify me", John tells Capp he is taking it too literally. Capp also tells him "I'm sure the other 3 guys are Englishmen!" This is a very well rounded portrait of Lennon as we see the witty, peaceful side most associate with him but we also see the anger and impatience most did not get to see. There is a scene where he angrily curses out a recording engineer for not setting up the correct version of a song he wanted. He loses his temper when NY Times reporter Gloria Emerson accuses him of self aggrandizing behavior with his peace protests. She says she used to admire him, but he tells her "Well I'm glad you liked the old mop tops, love, but I've grown up, but you obviously haven't!" We also get some rare home movies during the years he quit the music business to raise his son. Best scene is when he and Yoko meet a fan in Central Park, of course the first question he asks is "When are The Beatles gettin' back together?" John's funny answer was "Oh tomorrow, tomorrow!"