Member review

Before my review I have a little monologue~ The great thing about film club is not watching the same genre of film over and over again. I was very much persuaded by me friends to vote for this film to be watched, because it was very good. The night before we were due to watch it, I searched for the film on the ever faithful IMDb, and what was the first thing I noticed? 'A chronicle of John Lennon's childhood'. I resisted the urge to bang my head against my wall. It had completely slipped my mind that my friends are avid Beatles fans, and therefore would back anything and everything containing a reference to them to the nines. I myself, am not a fan of the Beatles. I have nothing against them, but they don't light my fire, as the saying goes. So I went into the screening with a slight apprehension, but trusting my friends enought that despite the Beatles influence, this was a good film overall. [and now onto the review!] The film was a lot different to what I had imagined in my head (no surprises there). The drab photography of a time still in post-war blues, to the vibrancy of the young people who just want to make music. We are introduced to a Lennon as a 15 year old looker and trouble maker, living with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George. But when George suddenly dies, his grief compells him to search for his long lost mother, a lively soul who left when Lennon was just five years old. Predictably, she was living a few miles away for many years, 'settled' with a partner and two daughters. Putting aside the confusion and questions, the pair soon form a close bond. She shares John's new found passoin for rock'n'roll, and its her who introduces him to the banjo: his first instrument. Issues of abandonment, reconciliation and tragic loss forgotton, the rest turned to history. After forming his first band - school outfit The Quarrymen - John is introduced to a superior musical talent, name of McCartney. Petty jealousies surface early. Yet there's no doubt that John's dedication and sheer stubbornness will take him a long way. And they do; through heartbreak and regained memories, theres no doubt in our minds as we see the young Lennon grow through one hour and thirty two minutes, that he will become every inch of the man that is worshipped today.