Movies

One to One: John & Yoko Dives Into John Lennon’s Post-Beatles Life With Yoko Ono

BBG News

This newly released documentary delves into the love story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, focusing on their joint performance during the early 1970s.

The film “One to One: John & Yoko,” released on April 11, highlights the sole full-length concert that John Lennon performed with Yoko Ono following his departure from the Beatles. During their August 30, 1972 performance, which generated approximately $1.5 million for children with special needs through mental disabilities, the audience waved tambourines and joined the artists on stage for their famous anti-war anthem “Give Peace a Chance.

During the concert, the United States was deeply involved in the Vietnam War, with a rising anti-war sentiment among its citizens. The movie serves as a launching pad to delve into how Lennon leveraged his position to promote peace and make a difference. Director Kevin MacDonald utilized restored footage of iconic performances from that time, and Sean Lennon, Lennon and Yoko Ono’s son, granted him access to numerous phone conversations that Lennon had recorded in the 1970s.

The couple passionately advocated not just extreme political action, but also profound affection. Sean Lennon shared insights about his parents’ love tale with TIME, recollections of his deceased father, who lost his life 45 years ago when Sean was merely five, and the documentary’s valuable message for the year 2025.

The ballad of John and Yoko

During their One-to-One concert, John Lennon had been married to artist Yoko Ono for three years. At that time, they resided in Greenwich Village and slept on a bed constructed from a church pew. Not long before, they had put out an album called “ Some Time In New York City“.

During the late 60’s, Ono significantly contributed to Lennon’s growing awareness of politics. Their joint actions, like the “bed-in” demonstration in 1969 where they spent a week lying in bed as part of a powerful anti-war statement, attracted massive media attention.

 “I started waking up,” Lennon says of Ono’s effect on him in an interview featured in the film. 

The phrase “One to One” is brimming with thought-provoking phrases of insight from the iconic British rocker, such as “It’s simpler to yell ‘revolution’ and ‘power to the people’ than to examine yourself,” which he shared during an interview.

The audio within the movie unveils that John Lennon envisioned a “Free the People” tour in 1972. In this tour, he planned to fund the liberation of prisoners in each city he visited, culminating in Miami at the time of the Republican National Convention.

Despite the tour not materializing, Lennon’s groundbreaking ideas sparked such controversy that President Nixon attempted to expel him, and he became a focus of FBI monitoring. According to Sean Lennon in an interview with TIME, Lennon even went as far as tapping his own phone in anticipation of the FBI levying false charges against him.

On the misogynistic idea that Yoko broke up the Beatles

From the documentary “One to One,” it’s clear that John also attended a feminist rally with Ono. She’s frequently criticized for splitting up The Beatles, but in this film, he’s seen sitting next to her as she discusses the challenges women face, the hostility she encounters due to her marriage to a rock star, and the persistent individuals who urge her to stop creating provocative art.

In simpler terms, Lennon states, “The idea that my mother was the one who split up the Beatles and was some sort of evil figure is outdated – most people won’t believe this story from the movie. I believe people are starting to understand she was much more than just a villain. She was an artist herself who happened to fall in love with a musician.

I firmly believe that there’s a significant amount of disrespect towards women in the notion that my dear mother, now gracefully aging at 92, was solely responsible for splitting up the iconic Beatles band.

He notes that if she were a more subdued, decorative figure, society might have embraced her more readily. However, she’s far from that. She’s an incredibly robust, intelligent, influential, self-reliant creative spirit.

John Lennon’s legacy

John Lennon’s life ended prematurely when he was tragically killed at the age of 40. On December 8, 1980, he was assassinated outside the prestigious Dakota building, located in New York City’s Upper West Side.

At the tender age of five, Sean Lennon witnessed his father’s passing. However, he has fond memories of his dad teaching him to swim, crafting paper airplanes, and providing him with piano and guitar tutelage.

He explains that he chose a career in music as it reminded him of his father. Growing up, music symbolized his dad for him, so playing instruments like the piano and guitar helped him feel close to him. The absence of his father left an empty spot in his life, which he filled with his passion for music.

He anticipates that the documentary will strike a chord with moviegoers who came of age amidst social media, as his parents were essentially pioneers in reality television and social media fame. As he explains, they were constantly filming themselves, coining phrases such as ‘give peace a chance’ and ‘bed peace’ to disseminate politically charged messages. John Lennon and Yoko Ono could be considered among the earliest celebrities to utilize memes, although the term wasn’t used at that time.

Their message is still relevant five decades later.

Lennon expresses his belief that my parents probably didn’t foresee us being involved in so many ongoing conflicts abroad, and he finds it regrettable. He also shares a thought that humanity may never venture into space or colonize another solar system if we can’t overcome our propensity for violence.

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2025-04-11 21:06

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