Chris Flackett
Fans of John Lennon and cinema have certainly had a lot to celebrate in 2025, with not just one but two new documentaries. While One To One: John & Yoko decided to narrow its focus to a two year period so as to intensify its analysis, Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade takes a broader sweep across time to examine Lennon’s 1970s, a decade that sadly would become Lennon’s last.
With so many films and documentaries about Lennon, on his own or with The Beatles, the major problem facing any director working in this area is one of finding a way of presenting Lennon’s story that differs and stands out against other films on the same subject, while at the same time being substantial and worthwhile in the information it contains, hopefully new information if at all possible.
Director Alan G. Parker has met the problem here half-way, but ultimately in a manner that satisfies. Compared to One To One: John & Yoko, which used a channel-hopping presentation to express itself in a unique way that tied in thematically to Lennon’s love of television, Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade relies on the tried and tested talking heads model of documentary, with period video clips distributed liberally throughout to illustrate their points.
What Parker has done well, though, is get in the right talking heads. Talking on camera are people who either knew Lennon or have researched and written well-received books on Lennon (or both), meaning they have talked to the people worth talking to and are well-informed on their subject. The likes of Philip Norman, Steve Turner, Roy Connolly, Kenneth Womack, Tariq Ali, Barry Miles, Tony Bramwell and Gerry Cagle are all engaging speakers because they know their subject extremely well. As such, the combination of shrewd analysis and personal reminiscence they express has added weight and depth and adds an endearingly intimate feel to their stories and comments.
What is interesting, in comparison to One To One: John & Yoko and other Yoko Ono-approved Lennon documentaries, is that Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade is freer to critique the myths and the less pleasant aspects of Lennon’s behaviour. While completely understandable why Yoko would want to promote the best possible picture of the man she loved, Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, while emotional, does not feel the same compunction to present the best possible picture of its subject, striving instead to present a fuller, more rounded version of Lennon. To be sure, this is no hatchet job—the speakers clearly have love and respect for Lennon, and the film celebrates his work, his generosity of spirit and his warmth—but the film understands that Lennon was a complex man and refreshingly takes an uncritical approach to discussing him.
Interesting stories and ideas abound: Ray Connolly, journalist and friend of Lennon, recalls a phone call with Yoko Ono where she told him John and May Pang had run off together while she was away at a feminist event, debunking the story Yoko has told often that it was she who encouraged John and May to get together. Much respect is given to Lennon’s political activism, but the reasonable charge is made that he could be naive in terms of which people he listened to and supported, with the example of controversial figure Michael X being given as a fair example. There is speculation about Lennon’s house husband period, with journalist Chris Salewicz suggesting, perhaps salaciously, that Lennon was actually struggling with heroin addiction during this time instead, while Ray Connolly, more reasonably, doubts the veracity of the story of Lennon spending his time baking bread, and comments that Lennon and Ono had several nannies working for them, so that the image of the ‘retired’ Lennon at home with Sean doesn’t quite match the reality.
Perhaps the story that is most demonstrative of the complexity of Lennon the man and the attitudes of people towards him comes when the film discusses his battle with the U.S. Government to avoid deportation and to gain a Green Card. While the commentators here quite rightly point out how unfair and paranoid the Nixon administration was being in the matter, Salewicz makes the intriguing point that, if you genuinely wanted to stay in the country, isn’t it naive then to publicly and loudly attack the country’s failings, such as the Attica State Riot? Even if you believed these things to be wrong, which Lennon did, wouldn’t you keep quiet about these things until you had your Green Card and therefore had a level of security before you started to attack? It’s a logical point of view, but as famous DJ and TV presenter ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris states, Lennon never compromised, especially when he believed in something, so of course he wasn’t going to compromise with the American Government, especially an administration as dangerous and destructive as Nixon’s.
This is where Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade succeeds; by presenting Lennon as an artist, yes, but also as a human being, with all the fallibility and vulnerability that comes with the territory of being flesh and blood. Longtime Beatle heads and Lennon obsessives may not find much new here, but all I am saying is give Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade a chance and you’ll be rewarded by its warmth and its candour.
Instant Karma indeed.
