“When you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”: The erotic film that bored the life out of John Lennon
Though his legacy confined him to the world of music, John Lennon always wanted to expand his artistic horizons. “I feel I want to be them all – painter, writer, actor, singer, player, musician,” he said during A Hard Day’s Night, musing over the possibilities and probabilities of him one day venturing into something as creatively distinctive as acting. All of which stemmed from a deep-seated love of art in all its forms.
While Lennon’s acting abilities were far less celebrated than his musical abilities, his love and appreciation for the film world demonstrated his affinity for authentic art with multiple meanings, even if his specific favourites differ. For instance, one of his favourites is Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, which he felt deeply inspired by, and he would repeatedly watch it with Yoko Ono.
While he would always hold significant space for Welles’ opus, he also enjoyed the groundbreaking trip that was El Topo, which came during a time when Lennon and Ono were falling deep into their spiritual journey. It also captivated several counterculture figures, likely appealing to those with an appreciation for pushing art to its limits and venturing outside of what was expected. “We thought El Topo was a great work of art, and we thought it should get exposure,” Lennon later said.
However, the musician was also particularly endeared to the works of Federico Fellini, like Satyricon, which he once compared to the Beatles tours. However, many of his favourites seem to reframe classic ideas in a newfound psychedelic light, questioning the psychology of the mind before arriving at less overt revelations and conclusions. In other words, it drew Lennon like a moth to a flame.
Still, amid the classics and the ones that stuck with him, one struggled to capture his attention, one that wasn’t like his other action-filled or dramatised narratives at all. The one that bored him was the 1971 pornographic film Behind the Green Door, which was so impactful and erotic that it helped to spark the “Golden Age of Porn” from the early 1970s onwards. Lennon, however, wasn’t so enthused.
Discussing how much he got recognised during an interview with NME in 1974, the musician let the topic segway into going to the movies before naming Behind the Green Door as the last film he went to see. “I can generally go to the movies,” he said, adding, “The last film I saw was Behind The Green Door. The first 45 minutes were interesting, then it got a bit boring. When you’ve seen one cock you’ve seen them all.”
As amusing as his review was, it’s clear he feels more connected to music and films that give a little more substance and challenge his intellect, like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “LSD without LSD” El Topo, or even his inclusion of sex and violence to coast the line between real and surreal throughout the Western classic. Whatever the other reasons for his dislike for Green Door, it’s likely his mind needed something a little less shallow to busy itself with.
