In His Life: The John Lennon Story

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source: In His Life: The John Lennon Story

I came across "In His Life: The John Lennon Story" on TV a few nights ago. While not quite attaining the quality of "Backbeat", it certainly gives one a feeling of growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s. One can understand the teenage John Lennon's attitude towards society, especially since his love of rock 'n' roll fueled his political views. I'll probably never be able to understand how terrible it must have been for him to lose his mother so young (Paul also lost his mother young, and Ringo knew only his mother; George was the only Beatle who spent his whole childhood with both parents). I think that I might have heard about Brian Epstein's homosexuality, but I never knew that he was basically smitten with John. All in all, this is certainly worth seeing, if you can find it. Not a masterpiece, but it sure made me wish that I could have been in Liverpool in the '50s. There will just never be anything else like the Beatles in our lifetimes.

Interesting to watch this US TV movie on the early life of John Lennon and compare it with Sam Taylor-Wood's recent, acclaimed "Nowhere Boy" which covers almost the same time-frame in the nascent Beatle's life. The latter is a more imaginative, if less judgemental work, but as a big Lennon fan myself, while accepting the inevitable duplication in both, I enjoyed this bio-pic too. For one thing, the actors playing their famous counterparts did quite resemble them physically, while their acting too was largely competent. Blair Brown is probably the best known actor in the cast, as John's fusty, smothering but ultimately loving Aunt Mimi, who raises him as a child to manhood, to help her hapless but adored sister Julia, the boy's mother. I'm fairly well versed, like most Beatlemaniacs I'm sure, in the chronology of events portrayed, including the early death of his mother, his key meetings with Stu Sutcliffe, Paul McCartney and future-wife Cynthia Powell as well as the fledgling group's struggles to get to the "toppermost of the poppermost" from it would appear the bottom of the bottomest. I didn't identify too many inconsistencies in the narrative from memory, and appreciated the depiction of the young Lennon as a temperamental, confused teenager, certainly no angel in his attitudes to women, gays and even those closest to him. There were one or two over-obvious premonitions of future events, the group crossing Abbey Road, for example, or when John and a school-friend stumble on the gravestone of one long-deceased Eleanor Rigby (wasn't that a Paul song?) and later again, almost half-expected him to say, when sitting in the grounds of the local children's home that he wished he could stay in Strawberry Foelds, forever, but with un-flashy TV-movie direction, (although there was a lazy highlights recap at the end) convincing rendering of late 50's / early 60's Liverpool, good acting and fine musical reproduction of the group's early hits, I'd definitely award this film two out of three "yeahs".

Watched In his Life-John Lennon last night and i thought it was excellent. What i really liked were the real life film locations, such as Lennon's home on Menlove Ave, Strawberry Field, etc. Very well done. The actor who played John did a very good job with it.I hear that a new Lennon film is in the works with Brad Pitt(?)as Lennon. Wonder how he will do with it. The Paul character was well done too. George and Ringo could have had been better. Actors didn't really convey their personalities. Knowing a lot about Lennon's early life already, the film is fairly accurate in its content. After watching this though i can say one thing, now i know why John wrote a song called 'Julia' and never a song called something like 'Me Aunt Mimi'!

This film came out in 2000 and I have just watched it all through for the first time. I had attempted to watch it once before but got bored with it. It is no doubt that The Beatles were the best band ever, well in my opinion they were. There are some great documentaries that chronicle the lives of the fab four much better than this low budget TV movie. I am not going to slate the film to bits because it is based on some facts and it will give some an insight to Lennon and McCartney's coming together. Unfortunately, it strays away from the facts when the real story is far more worthy than this not very good attempt. It will take one of the great directors to make a proper film about Lennon. Someone like Scorcese, Eastwood, Parker to name a few. I will look forward to it.

While I was on Thanksgiving Vacation visiting my relatives in America. I saw the film "In his Life" The John Lennon Story. Being a big Beatle fan I enjoyed it alot. I was impressed with the Dramatic performances from Irish Actor Phillip McQuillan. I thought he represented Lennons esscence quite well in this movie. What I would like to know is when is he making a Sequel?

I thought this movie was very well done. I am not a Lennon historian so I can not comment on the accuracy, but based on other comments it was pretty good. Speaking of other comments, I realize that there is no way to verify what users post here, and maybe I am REALLY out of touch, but did anyone else think the person who billed themselves as a "15 year old Beatle fan" was WAY too articulate. I am not sure why someone would pose as a 15 year old, or maybe they had someone else write the review for them, but I can not picture someone that old expressing themselves so well. Being a huge Beatle fan rapidly approaching 50 years old, I am not questioning the fact that someone 15 can be a fan of the Beatles. Their music is timeless and I expect there will be Beatles fans for decades to come. Hopefully this person is that intelligent and can express themselves that well! I would be very happy to see that. I don't think any harm was done if there is something fishy here, but I just felt it was worth pointing out.

I caught this movie on a Saturday afternoon on the True Movies channel here in the UK. It was perfect for a gray Saturday afternoon- just right for forgetting the weather. I've seen several Beatles movies, including "Backbeat", "The Birth of the Beatles", and "The Hours and the Times". I didn't feel that "The John Lennon Story" contributed anything new to the genre of films about the Beatles' early years, but for a movie made for TV and obviously produced on a low budget, it's fairly well done. The events depicted are roughly accurate, and the cast does their best with the roles they're given. It's a shame that the film couldn't have been produced as a mini series: the script tries to cover all the important moments in Lennon's life up to the Beatles' debut on the Ed Sullivan show, and with only 90 minutes to work with, the pace resembles the Reader's Digest condensed version of John Lennon's life. One minute the boys go to Hamburg, next they're on stage, the German audiences love them, the next minute they're deported, the next minute Stu Sutcliffe says he wants to stay behind with his girlfriend Astrid... Stu's death scene was so rushed it was almost comic. I had fun shouting out at the TV what the characters were going to say -- Cythnia's telling John how happy she is that the band is gaining popularity, oops she looks miserable, yes, the thing she says next is "I'm pregnant" and John immediately responds "Let's get married". The funniest moment is Cythnia saying of her newborn baby Julian, "He's going to be a big rock and roll star like his dad." However, the film doesn't shy from depicting John's dark side. Overall, it's entertaining for veteran Beatles fans and a worthy introduction to the band's history for new ones.

Great directing, editing, photography and acting! It's difficult to make a movie about someone as well known as John Lennon and tell us something new, but the writer and his collaborators do just that. Phillip McQuillan is really exceptional, capturing the heady mix of hurt, anger and brilliance that John Lennon possessed. He has moments that are so right they're eerie. Christine Kavanagh, Blair Brown and Jamie Glover also shine. The mood of the early Beatles performances are captured perfectly by the hand-held camerawork and stylish, edgy cutting.