Yoko Ono approves of new Lennon doc

Nixon vs. Lennon
The documentary presents Nixon and his administration as wildly out of touch with the peace movement and fixated on Lennon, with his anthem “Give Peace a Chance,” as a ringleader who needed to be silenced.

The filmmakers interview Nixon critics and allies to show how fearful the White House was over Lennon’s influence and how contemptuous the administration was toward anti-war activists.

“‘Give Peace a Chance.’ Who can be opposed to that? The administration was,” says George McGovern, the Democrat who lost the 1972 presidential race to Nixon.

“That is a frightening voice for people who want to hear ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ over and over again,” says author Gore Vidal.

Former Nixon henchman G. Gordon Liddy recalls an encounter he had during a candlelight vigil held by peace demonstrators. Liddy walked up to a protester, took his candle, lit his cigar and told the activist, “There, you’re useful for some purpose.”

The film goes on to examine Lennon’s happy last years in New York before he was gunned down in 1980. Lennon won his immigration case in 1975, on his birthday, and also the day son Sean was born.

Ono said she sees signs that today’s artists are following Lennon’s lead and speaking out against what they see as government injustice, such as the Dixie Chicks’ profession of shame that President Bush comes from their home state of Texas. The fallout faced by the country trio is chronicled in another Toronto festival documentary, “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.”

What would Lennon think about the state of the world today, with the United States in another unpopular war?

“It’s a very tense time now,” Ono told the AP, “but I think he would have said, ‘I told you so.”’

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