Imagine – John Lennon appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Any program with so much archival footage inevitably will suffer from a mix of problems. That said, this one seemed a bit messier than I expected.
Usually when I review a documentary of this sort, I mainly base my grade on the quality of the new footage. Imagine didn’t present a ton of then-modern interview clips, but it tossed in a smattering of them, and they didn’t look very good. They demonstrated a slightly soft appearance and lacked much precision. Colors were drab and flat, while they suffered from an excess of grain. Some source flaws like specks and marks also marred these snippets.
Most of the rest of Imagine was problematic to some degree, though I accepted those issues more easily given the origins of the material. A few elements looked very good. In particular, much of the Beatles at Shea Stadium footage was lively and concise, and the parts of the “Strawberry Fields Forever” film were nicely rendered too.
Otherwise, the material tended to be flawed. The elements varied in accuracy and messiness; they could be reasonably solid or quite tattered. I thought the clips showed more problems than I might expect given my viewings of them elsewhere, but they weren’t badly below expectations. Ultimately, this added up to a “C-“ picture grade, as Imagine had its concerns but remained watchable.
One note about the framing: while Imagine came in its original theatrical aspect ratio, it nonetheless presented quite a few cropped images. That was because so many of the shots were originally composed for 1.33:1. There was a lot of TV footage and 16mm film here, none of which was meant for the 1.85:1 ratio.
I regarded the Dolby Surround 2.0 soundtrack of Imagine as a bigger disappointment. Take that listing of “Dolby Surround” with a serious grain of salt. If any information came from someplace other than the front center, I certainly didn’t hear it. To my ears, this mix was totally monaural.
And not particularly great monaural, at that. Again, some of this stemmed from the source material, as there was only so much we could expect from older audio stems. Newer interview clips offered natural and concise speech, so I had no problems with that area.
Music was the main issue. If we watch a program about the life of a musician, then we’d certainly like to hear his work reproduced well. Not only did Imagine play the songs in mono, but it also failed to bring much life to them. The tunes were bass-heavy and lacked much gusto. They sounded flat and lifeless much of the time. Lennon’s music deserves better than this weak soundtrack.
A mix of supplements rounds out the DVD. First we get a trivia track. If you activate it, this piece uses the subtitle stream to run text through the movie. It covers basics of John’s life and career along with some history about the eras depicted in the film.
As I watched this text, I thought Grampa Simpson organized it. Although the information occasionally corresponds to the material onscreen, many times it comes out of nowhere and presents no logical connection to what we see. This seems like an odd choice, as the timing of the tidbits confuses us.
The text also truly embraces the concept of a “trivia track”. Don’t expect much of a history lesson here or a lot of insight. I learned some new things from the track, but it mainly presents odd little tidbits without much substance. It also goes for some moderately long stretches without much to say. If you watch this piece, don’t expect much from it.
A few featurettes follow. A Tribute to John Lennon: The Man, The Music, The Memories runs 14 minutes and 45 seconds and includes comments from producer/writer/director Andrew Solt, Yoko Ono, producer David Wolper, writer/co-producer Sam Egan, film editor Bert Lovitt, and supervising film editor Bud Friedgen. Expect a Lennon lovefest here. We learn a little about the construction of Imagine, but mostly the participants tell us how much they adored Lennon’s work. Yawn!
Next comes John & Yoko: Truth Be Told. It fills five minutes and 37 seconds. Already found on the Gimme Some Truth DVD, this was conducted by someone from the BBC Women’s Hour program. The interviewer chats with John and Yoko about Lennon’s influence on kids and sex, and general attitudes in society toward love.
The Truth DVD’s clip is 32 minutes longer, so it’ll be the preferred source of this material. However, I must admit I thought the information was more interesting here. The Truth discussion lasts so long and gets so tedious that I didn’t like it. The small tidbit here works better just because it’s not bogged down in all the other nonsense.
Easily the most valuable extra on this DVD, we get an Acoustic “Imagine” Performance. Taken from a December 1971 Attica State benefit concert at the Apollo Theatre, this take lasts three minutes and 33 seconds. It’s a good rendition and a great historical memento.
For more archival footage, we get the eight-minute and 31-second Island House. This shows John, Yoko and others as they muck about part of their estate back in the early Seventies. There’s nothing fascinating to see, but it presents a nice look at Lennon’s private life; there’s something oddly intriguing about watching him make decisions related to chairs!
In addition to a trailer for the James Dean DVDs, we find a featurette called The Headmaster Looks Back. This runs nine minutes, 52 seconds and includes comments from William Ernest Pobjoy, the headmaster of Lennon’s old high school. He offers some notes about Lennon’s time there, his impressions of Lennon’s activities, and connected topics. This becomes a surprisingly frank discussion, as Pobjoy doesn’t offer the usual happy talk spin. That makes it a rather interesting chat.
Back when it hit screens in 1988, Imagine – John Lennon offered fans a good look at rare material. 17 years later, it no longer seems nearly as interesting or intriguing. Instead, it now stands as a perfunctory overview of Lennon’s life but doesn’t have much to make it special. The DVD offers erratic and flawed picture and sound plus a minor roster of extras. Leave this one for casual fans who want a simple history lesson but don’t want to get into a long discussion of Lennon.
