Product Description
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Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who, Heroes) stars as one of the
most enduring and enigmatic figures of the 20th Century, John
Lennon, in this riveting drama. One quarter of “The Fab Four,”
peace activist, visual artist, and author, John Lennon was a man
whose personal life was never short on drama, intrigue and
eventually, conspiracy. Thirty years after his death, Lennon
Naked presents an inside look at the hugely popular musician as
he moved from a Beatle to an icon. It covers a period of wildly
fluctuating fortunes from 1964 to 1971, a time of worldwide
adulation at one extreme but a combination of frustration and
despair at the other. From the death of her-figure and manager
Brian Epstein, his break-up with first wife Cynthia and his
fascinating love affair with Yoko Ono, through to his spiraling
drug use and decision to leave England for New York, this is the
story of an artist destroying everything to find himself.
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Director Edmund Coulthard and writer Robert Jones teamed up to
tackle this entertaining yet sensational account of John Lennon's
life, Lennon Naked, which aired on the BBC and in Japan before
making its way to America. This fictionalized biography takes up
subject matter surrounding Lennon's thorny relationship with his
alcoholic her, Freddie Lennon (Christopher Fairbank), and
attempts to psychoanalyze Lennon's life decisions, up to his
leaving the Beatles and teaming up with Yoko Ono (Naoko Mori),
based on his childhood dramas. The feature is all about
Christopher Eccleston taking on the incredible difficulty of
acting the part of such a recognizable icon. He does this in
stride, exuding a confidence, indeed a stubbornness that this
film's John Lennon succeeds and suffers with. In any biographical
story, it's a danger to assume that the viewer comes away knowing
a celebrity any better than before, and Lennon Naked offers such
a presumably take on Lennon's personal life that it
frequently oversteps the bounds of respectability. For example,
after Lennon, in the film, dabbles with drugs and glimpses Yoko,
it ties his abandonment of his steadfast but dull, suburban wife,
Cynthia Lennon (Claudie Blakley), to his abandonment by his
her. Every time, in the film, Lennon leaves someone or is
left, flashbacks to his childhood in which his dad bids him adieu
on some British pier with balloons wafting into the sky
heavy-handedly drive the connection points home. If one can
ignore sentimentality like this, one can enjoy the uncanny
capabilities of the actors playing the other Beatles, Paul
McCartney (Andrew Scott), Ringo Starr (Craig Cheetham), and
George Harrison (Jack Morgan), and early on, Brian Epstein (Rory
Kinnear), during press meetings or warding off girls in the grips
of Beatlemania. Sequenced chronologically, Lennon Naked begins
right before Epstein's death and takes one through Lennon's
leaving London for New York. As years flash by, actual vintage
footage of the Beatles and of Lennon commingle with the fictional
biopic, adding greatly to its credibility. However, be warned:
Lennon Naked is sheer entertainment, not documentary. It's odd to
think of an actual person's life providing fodder for fictional
narrative, but when it's done well, it can make for some
satisfactory viewing to quench die-hard fans who miss this
beloved and very talented man who lived in the public eye.
--Trinie Dalton