Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 129

D13 kTELE VISION I A IN THE (THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN) The VH1 movie OF ponders a 1976 Lennon-McCartney reunion At left Aidan Quinn as Paul McCartney and Jarad Harris as John Lannon in Lannon's Dakota apartment and at right at Lannon's white piano in of Us" VHl Photos Grossman ex-Beatles but with its portrait of both artists as vulnerable human beings To that end he takes the title of the film very seriously It refers not only to the Beatles song of from the It soundtrack to the fact that they are just two of us two ordinary people who have been through these things together two very different people trying to find some commonality and a way to work it Stanfield laughed when he realized he had alluded to yet another Beatles song title to make his point SO HOW DID of wind up on VHl home of Up the and They Were Rock Lindsay-Hogg who has made acclaimed small-budget films including The Object of starring John Malk-ovich and Andie MacDowell admits that he and producer Bob Aaronson initially envisioned the film as an independent film to be released by Fox Searchlight when Bob left Fox he took tiie picture with With more than four decades of rock-related movies and videos behind him Lindsay-Hogg was philosophical about his ending up on a 24-hour music channel dedicated to playing rock videos rock movies and rehashing rock trivia and tragedy seven days a week He seemed both bemused and amazed that rock had become such a self-perpetuating industry we were producing promotional films and videos for the Beatles and Stones fin: the BBC music showcase Steady you had no sense that rock and roll as we know it would last It was seen as a thing If I was doing a video for the Stones I would be paid in cash on a handshake There was no perceived value to the video in the future it was just about promoting Jack or something Nothing was codified in terms of financial structure ancillary markets nothing We never thought it would go on that Kevin McDonough is a freelance writer 1 -i I I he not keep up with the lore of the he recalled hearing some rapprochement was made between John and Paul and even of the two Beaties socializing with their wives having macrobiotic pizza Both Lindsay-Hogg and Stanfield went into the reject well aware of the risks involved With the exception of the 1993 drama virtually every attempt to dramatize the Beaties story on screen has been dreadful Stanfield even dredged up a memory of watching a late Dick Clark-produced TV movie called of the that made him wince For his part Lindsay-Hogg admits to having turned down of Beatles projects all of which were basically no good They were either sensational or prurient I was also no longer into doing rock and roll According to Lindsay-Hogg Stanfield was the first writer to get the way Lennon and McCartney spoke to each other especially how they joked when they were the most serious But the aspects of story that most compelled him to make of had only a little to do with its being a Beatles movie it Lindsay-Hogg said a story about friendship a story about what happens when we grow up about how we figure out when we are no longer 25 or 30 anymore just what is important These things speak to the relationships we have with all of the key people in our fives As such it transcends merely being a movie about famous Stanfield said he hopes viewers will come away from the experience not so much impressed with the ability to re-creat a day in the life of two twri 4 taking a brief walk in Central Park and stopping at a coffee shop As the film closes we seeboth men drifting into sleep in front of the TV as Lome Michaels comes on Night to offer the Beatles a whopping $3000 to perform together on hi show Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg is the first to admit that of is a small personal film hardly your typical made-for-TV-movie of tiie film consists of two men and four walls you cant get more intimate than he said in a telephone interview' But is of true? VH1 is calling it a but screenwriter Mark Stanfield has some quibbles with that distinction fiction an Oliver Stone kind of Although admitting that he took dramatic liberties while concocting a daylong encounter between the two men he said that rooted in actual events Paul has admitted in interviews that he did show up on doorstep in 1976 and that he and John were watching TV in the Dakota when Lome Michaels came on with the reunion Lindsay-Hogg who directed It (1970) the Fab final film as well as music videos for both Lennon and McCartney throughout the 1970s seemed both unsure of and indifferent to the veracity of their Bt Kevin McDonough I HAT IF? Sometimes the most provocative sentences begin with those two words Particu-' larly when they concern the Beatles What if John Lennon and Paul McCartney had reunited in the What if they sang together again if just for a brief moment? What if VH1 aired a movie about the experience? The results might look very much like of (Tuesday at 9 pm on VH1) the speculative Beatles drama starring Aidan Quinn as McCartney and Jared Harris Shot Andy as Lennon The action in the film takes place on April 24 1976 when Paul was in Manhattan on a promotional tour for his No 11 album at the Speed of Hearing that his old songwriting partner has stopped performing and writing music and has secluded himself in his Dakota apartment in Manhattan McCartney decides on a whim to drop in for a visit The bulk of the film consists of the two Liverpool lads arguing reminiscing and jamming on famous white piano bfp NEWS0AY SUNDAY encounter Though he admitted that! -t'w A A.