A documentary about a Nixon-era peacenick has strong political resonance in a time when America is once again losing a pointless war in a foreign country and the crime of being 'unpatriotic' is punished by the full weight of the US government.

Co-written and directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld and produced by VH1, 'The US vs John Lennon' is a documentary about a largely post-Beatles John Lennon. It traces his development as a musician and anti-war activist during the period from 1966 until his assassination in 1980.

Not a complete biography of his life, the documentary focuses on his relationship with Yoko Ono, their avant garde use of the mass media to make political statements and their conflict with the Nixon administration which sees them as a political threat and attempts to have them deported.

Clearly sanctioned by Ono, who provides retrospective commentary on various incidents, the film provides an enlightening glimpse into the relationship between the two, with additional footage from the family's archive.

Although a lot of the Lennon footage has been seen before, the documentary uses a variety of sources — footage of concerts and peace rallies, the Amsterdam bed-in, interviews, talk shows and court appearances — to paint a portrait of a witty, artistic genius who (although largely misunderstood) understood how to manipulate the media and followed the peaceful political ideals of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

A range of talking-heads add weight to the project. Leaf and Scheinfeld interviewed prominent journalists and intellectuals of the time such as Walter Cronkite and Noam Chomsky as well as political activists (Angela Davis, Bobby Seale and Ron Kovic) and politicians from both sides of the political divide (former anti-war presidential candidate George McGoven and Nixon-aligned G. Gordon Liddy).

Somewhat surprisingly, there is no commentary from any of the other former Beatles, although this may be attributed to the fact that the film is essentially about a politically conscious post-Fab Four Lennon.

Set to a soundtrack of the working class hero's protest songs — 'Give Peace a Chance', 'Power to the People', 'Imagine' — this gripping and entertaining documentary is a must for any Lennon fan or anyone with an interest in political activism and repression, and how it has (and hasn't) evolved.