Show Notes
We weren't big fans of this 2023 Apple TV+ documentary series: it's prurient and invasive, and in the parts where it suggests conspiracy theories but then does nothing to back them up, it's pretty irresponsible. We discuss the techniques it uses in the context of the contemporary true crime boom, and ask whether we'd have liked it more if we had no personal investment in John Lennon's murder. Could it have achieved more by doing what it briefly threatens to, and framed itself around how thinking around criminality and mental illness, and gun control in the United States, has moved on since 1980?
Watch it on Apple TV+: https://tv.apple.com/gb/show/john-lennon-murder-without-a-trial RFK Must Die: The Assassination of Bobby Kennedy: https://youtu.be/7H8ZV7QrVZY Netflix film Amanda Knox: https://www.netflix.com/title/80081155 News of the World journalist Paul McMullan defending phone hacking on BBC Newsnight in 2011: https://youtu.be/ZV9Sh_R3wB4 The documentary Ed mentions is Active Shooter: America Under Fire: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/active-shooter-america-under-fire Kenneth Womack's John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life: https://kennethwomack.com/books/beatlesbooks/john-lennon-1980-the-last-days-in-the-life/ John's surgeon Dr David Halloran in the BBC radio series "I Was": https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tfsqb Paul McCartney was interviewed on the March for Our Lives on 24 March 2018: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Our_Lives
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on: Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod X https://x.com/beatlesfilmpod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622 Go to https://www.beatlesfilmspod.com/podcast-episodes for full notes on each episode, with links to watch the films where available. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Beatles Films Podcast
More chasing and more studied pointlessness as we head into the film's final scenes. We look at the Buster Keaton influence on the escalating police chase scenes, and ask whether Ringo is actually back where he belongs when he rejoins the group, given that there's been no narrative resolution of his earlier discontent. We look at the filming and editing techniques of the concert scene, and have a look at John's final words for Grandfather.
(Ringo's Theme.) We get on to Ringo Starr's real introduction to the world as an actor, when everyone thought "Hey, he's not bad at this, is he?" In particular he does a great job with Wilfred Brambell in the canteen, convincing us he's slowly becoming persuaded to leave the group. We spend some time parading with Ringo, looking at his interactions with the boy and in the pub.
Part 4 takes in three of the film's key solo spots: John Lennon's scene with Anna Quayle, George Harrison in the teen TV show office, and Paul McCartney fronting the Beatles' performance of And I Love Her.
From the hotel to the TV studio. We see the Beatles at a press event, which revisits one of the film's themes: that Beatlemania persists with or without the Beatles themselves. We get into more class dynamics between Ringo Starr and the sound engineer ("Aren't you being rather arbitrary?") and John Lennon's delivery of If I Fell gets us into discussing whether he could sing love songs straightforwardly without undercutting them with a joke, something which Paul McCartney didn't struggle with.
Part 2 covers roughly the next 12 minutes of Richard Lester's film. We look at the absurdist downplayed reaction to finding an intruder in your hotel room cupboard, and the generational disconnect in how comfortable the Beatles seem in the nightclub, vs how grandfather can only fit in at the casino by pretending to be someone else. Plus! The class dynamics in Ringo Starr's jump-dancing with a posh fellow clubgoer, and some more magic realism in John Lennon's bathtub scene.