For a modern rock doc, there is a conspicuous absence of the latest bells and whistles. The great animation used for the titles and to bring to life the 1981 stage visuals wraps up quickly in the first several minutes and never appears again. The audience is left in a forest whose tree trunks are close-ups of older gentlemen reminiscing with interview clips of Lennon in the branches, making up the canopy. It is not split up into different sections or categories, it just begins at the end, goes back to the beginning of that end and eventually ends.
Parker gives us the plain potato chips method of putting together a study of a rocker and the end result is unbelievably brilliant. Parker came up during the rise of punk in England and he puts the same three chord ethos to work here. This downright primal rock doc cuts it to the bones, which then get up and dance. It is like driving in the 90s on the elevated highways in Michigan that had no guardrails, just edge.
“Parker gives us the plain potato chips method… and the end result is unbelievably brilliant…”
Gone are all the attention getting somersaults, instead the director gets down to the core of knowing a bloke by talking with blokes who knew him. Parker knows how to get good stories out of even better storytellers. Hats off to editor Ian Farr not only wrangling together all the best tales but along being able to piece together an easy path to follow.
Farr and Parker deserve credit for letting the really good stories roll out whole in an organic manner that overflows with warmth and depth for their subject. Many of the speakers were in very unique positions in their Lennon stories, with the viewer learning a lot more about the human who had to wear the mantle of the legend. We find out how Julian Lennon turned his dad onto the Clash; it’s so awesome. There are also some of the most chilling “Where Were You” stories told about the day Lennon was gunned down that you could ever imagine. Even though you know it is coming, Parker arranges everything so that the assassination springs upon the audience as quickly as it did upon the planet. Also, kudos to Parker for going out of his way and not including the name of the loser who did it. There is a lot of on-target hindsight as to how the name of the shooter would have never been released, as it just gave him the fame he was craving from murdering a Beatle. Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade is the ultimate gift to your inner hippie with a very punk rock way of delivery.
"…overflows with warmth and depth for its subject."
