TV WEEKEND; John Lennon, a Lad; Paul McCartney, a Grown-Up (original) (raw)
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TV WEEKEND
- Dec. 1, 2000
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December 1, 2000
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Section E, Page
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On the NBC Web site for ''In His Life: The John Lennon Story,'' it is possible to enter an auction bid for a brick from Lennon's boyhood home, where some of the film was shot. Each brick, the site promises, will come with a certificate of authenticity, and a portion of the income will go to the Strawberry Field Children's Home in Liverpool, an orphanage whose name existed long before the song.
What the Web site does not say is that part of the profits will also go to NBC and part to the current owner of the house. And why are those bricks available? A wall in the house was torn down during filming to make room for the cameras. Apparently the producers of this tacky movie thought the best way to honor the 20th anniversary of Lennon's death was to tear apart his house and sell the rubble in the name of helping orphans.
It's hard to know what's more pathetic: believers in the sacred cult of the Beatles, forever lost in the nostalgic past, or people who exploit those innocents by selling them bricks.
It is a coincidence that this bogus Lennon movie and a cheery, genuine McCartney performance are both coming this weekend. PBS is offering a pledge-month special, ''Paul McCartney: Live at the Cavern,'' a concert from Liverpool carried on the Internet last year. While both shows cross paths with the Internet and look back to the roots of the Beatles' music, they could not be more different in the way they deal with the past, displaying the best and the worst of Beatles nostalgia.
The presumptuous and heavy-handed ''In His Life'' traces Lennon from adolescence (with flashbacks to childhood) through the earliest days of Beatles fame. It is the kind of unauthorized hagiography that manages to be hero-worshiping and creepy at the same time.
The writing is laughable. ''John, you'll be late for school,'' his Aunt Mimi trills in the first scene to the adolescent who is soon begging her for a guitar and annoying her by wearing tight, Elvis-inspired blue jeans to a church fair. Phillip McQuillan has the Lennon voice and sneering attitude down, but there is no inner life allowed.
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