Product Description

The year: 1969. Headlines blare war and civil unrest while John Lennon and Yoko Ono are in love. The eccentic rock 'n' roll couple has just gotten married, and more than happy to be together, they want to change the world. Lying in a hotel bed surrounded by journalists, they announce their mission for peace and invite the rest of the world to symbolically climb into bed with them and share their dream. People call them silly, naive, even ridiculous, yet one famous couple's bed-in spread new hope that there really could be an end to war, hate and violence. Here is rare footage from that amazing time, including footage from John and Yoko's wedding, the infamous bedside confrontation between John and conservative cartoonist Al Capp, Lennon debating media expert Marshall McLuhan, and meeting Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Now twenty years after Lennon's murder, Yoko and others involved in the peace mission reflect on the events of that magical, mystical year.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89175 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.com
Amazing that a nearly hour-long film about a Beatle that contains almost no music could still be worthwhile, but that's the case with John & Yoko's Year of Peace. The year in question is 1969, when the newly married couple staged the notorious "bed-in" at a Toronto hotel to promote their somewhat naive but sincere campaign for world peace; they then moved on to Montreal, where "Give Peace a Chance" was recorded in another hotel room, before returning to Toronto, where Lennon (accompanied by Eric Clapton and others) became the first Beatle to perform in concert without his mates. There's no film of that event here, but there is a great deal of other Lennon footage, revealing him to be utterly honest, unpretentious, gentle, and approachable. Ono and others who were there recall the events in interesting interviews conducted around the time of this 2000 documentary, but it's the scenes from '69 that make this an invaluable document. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Great documentary
This documentary gives the viewer the chance to see firsthand what went on during John and Yoko's honeymoon bed-in for peace (the type of nontraditional honeymoon I'd love to have myself!) and their pro-peace activities during the rest of 1969. We see a lot of the people they met with (such as Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau and Rabbi Abraham Feinberg), people who became allies of theirs as well as people who deliberately tried to provoke them. I was also delighted to see the footage of Yoko's daughter Kyoko. Overall it really serves to recreate the hopeful mood of the late Sixties, when people believed anything was possible and believed their voices could make a difference. John and Yoko didn't care if people thought they were freaks or naïve, since they had a powerful message to get across, and the public exposure they were guaranteed as celebrities would make a much larger audience of people tune in to their message and get inspired to work for change themselves. And as we see, during that sadly brief time, it did seem as though the world were listening, people were actively campaigning for world peace and an end to the Vietnam War (and all other wars), and world peace really seemed like it would happen very soon. Till the very end of his life, John believed that love and peace were eternal instead of some cliché from the Sixties. As he says in footage near the end of the documentary, world peace isn't impossible or unobtainable. It's as simple as people the world over deciding they want peace. As soon as enough people want it, it can happen. The late Sixties might seem like a dated joke to some people today, but even though clothing styles and other fashions have changed, the basic premise has not. This is a powerful message that's chillingly just as relevant today as it was back in 1969.

John Lennon & Yoko Ono Peace DVD
For anyone that is a Beatles fan, a John Lennon fan, this is an essential DVD to have and watch from time to time. John's wit & his creativity shines brightly.

Rigorous Naivete, Fearless Pacifism
I ordered this DVD on a whim: I doubted I would be able to take it seriously, but I have. I've watched it several times and probably will be watching it again.

One of the things I find interesting and instructive is the good account John Lennon always gives for what he's doing and why he is doing it. He's fearlessly honest and to the point -- he doesn't lie or beat around the bush or unable to articulate the reasons why he has chosen one course of action over another. It's not the way I expected someone whose protests took the form of a "bed-in" to think. He's extremely sober and shrewd and with-it...There's no hazy hippy, here.

This really comes over in Lennon's encounter with Al Capp, documentary footage of which is included on the DVD. Capp wishes to think of himself as the hardheaded and clear-thinking pragmatist, and to regard Lennon as the freaked-out even if well-meaning flake. But as I view this footage, Capp comes off as a blustering,ill-spirited cupcake, while Lennon is tough and practical and even I would say, disciplined. Capp tries to accuse Lennon of being hypocritical in taking a position of condoning some kinds of violence on the part of protesters; Lennon had condoned no forms of violence-- he lets Capp know this. Capp tries to pooh-pooh Lennon's disclaimer, but the poop lands all over Capp's face.

At the very end of the film, someone asks Lennon if he thinks what he's doing can be effective, if he can make a difference. He says he doesn't know. He remarks that back at the Cavern if someone had asked him if he was going to make it, he wouldn't have known either. He didn't know if the Beatles were going to make it-- he only knew that the Beatles had something. Lennon's peace activities had something....It won't harm us at this time and in our current context to remember he did.