plotting of this feature. Action is broad,nfast, moronic. There must be a “hook,”na would-be plot. Unlike a smoker,nEating Raoul doesn’t concentrate onnproviding film footage of skin—^thoughnit’s not inconceivable that an uneditednversion is appearing in select shopsnA Crock of RocknGuy Peellaert and Nik Cohn: RocknDreams; Rogner & Bemhard/Al£rednA. Knopf; New York.nby Stephen MacaulaynWhen John Lennon was shot dead inn1980, that December day took on thenquality of a scene in The Day the EarthnStood Still for many Americans: thenscene in which everything comes to anhalt. Newscasts were full of it; newspapersnran front-page maps showing thenscene at the Dakota and lengthy retrospectives.nFor the youth of the 60’s, thosenwho were then, presumably, holdingndown jobs within the strucmre of thenEstablishment, the day seemed to marknan end—of something. For the children,nthose precocious adults in their earlynteens, of the 80’s, it meant just an additionnto their necropolis (Morrison,nJoplin, Hendrix…). The question then,nas now, should have been: So what? It isnterrible when a human being is killed bynanother for no reason, and in that respectnLennon’s death is a cause for pause: Hownfar has mankind reaUy advanced? ButnLennon, since the day of his death, hasntaken on an aura far beyond anythingnimaginable when he was a member ofnThe Beaties. Then he was just a rhythmguitarnplayer with a mediocre voice. Henliked to think of himself as somethingnmore, but he just didn’t transcend thenimportance of a man who was part of anmusical group that sold plenty of records.nMUSICnthroughout the slums of the U.S. Still,nsex of the callous and perverted varietynis the hook of this oleaginous production.nThis movie is of value only in anclinical sense: it shows the dangers ofnletting camera equipment fall into thenviTong hands. (SM) DnSo he left the group and concentratednhis forces with Yoko Ono, the womannwho had the execrable taste to feamrenon an album cover a photograph of thenbloodied glasses her husband worenwhen murdered. His objective: to makenPolitical/Artistic Statements, writ large.nHis cachet as ex-Beatie automaticallyngained him an audience. Lennon knewnthat, and he took advantage of it. He becamenrock ‘n’ roll activist nonpareil. Andnhe still sold records, though not as manynas before. But that was okay: ex-partnernPaul McCartney sold millions, but henwas merely a tunesmith; Lennon wasnmore. Almost three years after his deathnhe is much more: Lennon’s image hasnbeen cast in a material that seems to takenon an added luster as time passes.nWitness a cover story in The NewnRepublic (May 2, 1983): “John LennonnVersus the F.B.I.” It was written by a historynprofessor at the University of Californianat Irvine who is engaged in a bit ofnhagiography, recapturing those preciousnmoments of the late 60’s and early 70’s,nwhen the answer to the rhetorical questionnwith which he opens his article—n”Is rock ‘n’ roll revolutionary?”—was anresounding jes Now, of course, all rockers,nno matter how bizarre in appearancenor manner, are less concerned withnpolitics and more concerned with capturingntheir performances on videotapenfor presentation on cable television’snMusic Television (MTV) network andnwith getting corporate sponsorshipn(Sony, Schlitz, etc.)for their tours: membersnof the petite bourgeoisie, one andnnnall. The author of the article cites chapternand verse from the documents henwas able to secure from the FBI and thenImmigration and Naturalization Servicenthrough the Freedom of Information Act.nAll signs presented indicate that the governmentndidn’t think too highly of thenactivities of Lennon. There must havenbeen some reason for that. Consider oneninstance described at great length: anrally held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in Decembern1971 in support of John Sinclair,na founder of a self-proclaimed “revolutionary”norganization. The White Panthers,nwho had been incarcerated for sellingnmarijuana. Lennon and Ono joinednup with Chicago-8 notables Jerry Rubin,nDave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, and BobbynScale for the event. Lennon drew 15,000npeople—not the conventional megacrowdncount, but more than enoughnpeople to fill Crisler Arena. The nonsingingnpoliticos rode on Lennon’s coattaUs.nLennon, according to The New Republicnpiece, told the audience: “We came herento show and to say to all of you thatnapathy isn’t it, that we can do something.nOkay, so flower power didn’t work. Sonwhat. We start again.” So the FBI was interestednin Lennon’s activities and sawnthe man as a threat to the national order,nas an undesirable. So what?nThe New Republic article presentsnJohn Lennon as some sort of Hyde Parknorator, a lovingly quirky character,ntransported across the Atlantic. The FBI,nshown to be less than subtle in mattersnof interpretation, is the boorish heavy.nThe tone here is, remarkably, one of outr^e,nnot of amusement over the seemingnincompetence of the “Enemy,” or, in thenparlance of the 60’s, “The Man.” Lennon’snpartiality to drugs was no secret; crypticnanalysis of his “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”n(LSD, remember?) isn’t necessarynto figure that out The FBI, of course,nwas interested in his drug-taking activitiesnsince any bust would give the governmentna lever with which to catapultnLennon out of the country. The article’snauthor is incensed about that; he is morenhot over the fact that the agent whon^2ii39nJuly 1983n