DOCUMENTARY > The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Produced and about to be distributed by Lionsgate, The U.S. vs. John Lennon is a documentary about Lennon that explores "the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist." It was directed by the well-established music-doc team of David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, and the trailer, trawling for viewers prior to the film's mid-September release, just showed up online.

Now, don't get me wrong: The U.S. vs. John Lennon could be a phenomenal film. I'm immediately suspicious, however, of a preview that features an appearance by Geraldo Rivera as a sage-like talking-head in its first few seconds. The next talking head? Oh, that's G. Gordon Liddy, the guy who did the most prison time for Watergate-related offenses, far-right radio host and a certified nut-job to boot. Call me crazy, but these things trouble me a bit (and I honestly get a kick out of Liddy, at least when he's talking about Nixon and being all macho), as does the impression the preview gives that the film is less an exploration of Lennon's politics than a blunt instrument, designed to bludgeon its audience into agreeing with those politics. Like I said, the film could be brilliant, but the impression the trailer gives is a strange one to say the least.