All of us of a certain age will be able to tell you where we were the day that John Lennon died.  (I was actually with Freddie Mercury that night ….not that he was aware).  Lennon’s life has been the subject of several films …… the best of which is Nowhere Boy which was the breakthrough role for Aaron Taylor-Johnson. (The actor ended up marrying the film’s director Sam Taylor-Wood)

Now there is a new doc that is less about Lennon’s life but more about his death when he was murdered by Mark David Chapman .  Directed by Nick Holt and Rob Coldstream and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland this three-part series on Apple TV, focuses too much on Chapman’s motivations and mental health, including his initial intent to pursue an insanity defense. 

Interestingly we learn that the unconventional Lennon could not count the Establishment as fans, and in fact, they made a great deal about Lennon’s anti-war activities.  Chapman on the hand was incensed by Lennon’s lavish lifestyle and public statements, such as his remark about the band being “more popular than Jesus” 

The fact that someone so mentally challenged as Chapman could be in possession of a gun is one of the worst aspects of American culture, and I guess we are lucky that he didn’t get to kill other public figures on his list: they included David Bowie, Johnny Carson, Paul McCartney, Ronald Reagan, and Elizabeth Taylor. 

 

P.S. Yoko Ono celebrates her 90th Birthfday this year and it is marked by a solo show at London’s Tate Modern Gallery .  MUSIC OF THE MIND opens on Feb 15th, and  Queerguru Contributing Editor Ris Fatah will be there  : watch this space for his review