With this DVD, we get a look back at John Lennon’s 1971 classic Imagine via two separate video pieces: Imagine and Gimme Some Truth.

The former offers a “video album”, as it presents crude music videos for all 10 of the record’s songs. It also mixes in some of Yoko Ono’s music from the era.

I can’t quibble with the quality of John’s songs, as Imagine is a very good album. Do I think it’s his best? Nope – I’d put it third behind 1970’s Plastic Ono Band and 1974’s Walls and Bridges - but it’s at least a solid “B+” record.

As for Yoko, she shows her strengths and weaknesses via her handful of songs. Some – like the rocking “Midsummer New York” – work well, but others feel like sheer sonic self-indulgence.

Those tunes suit the style of this Imagine video album, as the entire package reeks of self-indulgence. Sure, John and Yoko boast some artistic ambition with these videos, but they rarely actually become interesting.

Most tend to repeat similar imagery again and again, and they never go anywhere. I get that music videos existed in a primitive state circa 1971, but we can find much more interesting reels from the years prior to this – including some from The Beatles themselves.

These videos tend to be boring. We watch John and Yoko play chess! We see them hang out with Andy Warhol and Miles Davis! We view them as they amble around their property!

Yawn. As a major Beatles fan, I find these videos interesting as historical curiosities, but it becomes tough to sit through 67 minutes of this semi-artsy meandering.

For something more substantial, we go to Gimme Some Truth, footage shot at the same time as the music videos. The program follows the sessions for the recording of the record and it provides an excellent look at that period. Truth shows a warts and all view of the work and offers some very interesting material.

Actually, the show mixes fairly raw session shots with short interview snippets and some of the proto-music video montages already seen in Imagine. I’ve already commented on those earlier so won’t repeat my thoughts, though at least some of the Truth segments offer alternate footage – and they’re more tolerable as occasional diversions, not as the whole shebang.

The interview lacks much punch, as the information reveals little of use. However, the rest of the program features generally excellent material.

One of the highlights relates to “How Do You Sleep?”, as we actually get to watch Lennon play the song to George Harrison for the first time. The quiet, barbed glee of the two as they connect their unspoken feelings about the unmentioned subject of the tune is fascinating to watch. (Spoiler alert: the song’s about Paul McCartney.)

But that’s not the best moment of Truth. Those elements come directly within the studio, as we watch John and the band work out the numbers.

I was surprised to see the heavy role Ono played in the proceedings. She contributed many ideas and seemed to be an active participant in the work.

Most of the footage seems fairly innocuous, but some heated moments arise. Lennon gets actively irritated on a few occasions. so we see his ire flare during “Gimme Some Truth”, “Oh My Love” and “Oh Yoko!”

The latter’s the most extended and amusing. Lennon’s growing anger at the engineer’s continued mistakes contrasts with the song’s sunny tone and makes the piece all the more entertaining.

Spookier is a meeting between Lennon and an obsessed fan. Clearly the latter has some mental issues, as we learn during their discussion.

Back in the day, Beatle fans had all sorts of freaky delusions, with or without drug usage. Though this deranged partisan seems harmless, the foreshadowing of December 8, 1980 makes this moment very creepy.

Gimme Some Truth could have used more documentary footage and less frivolity and musical montages, but overall, I still find it to be a fascinating piece of work. It’s an invaluable program for fans.

We rarely see such candid and revealing glimpses of any musical artist, much less such a legendary one. From start to finish - which includes a demo version of “Look At Me”, by the way - Truth is a joy to watch.

Imagine/Gimme Some Truth appear in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD. Given the nature of the source, this was a more than acceptable presentation.

Shot 16mm, the footage lacked great delineation. While sharpness remained adequate to generally good, the elements lacked much real clarity.

Still, definition was decent enough, and I saw only minor instances of shimmering or jagged edges. No edge haloes appeared, and print flaws were a non-factor. Some gate hairs/dirt cropped up around the sides at times, but the programs lacked any other defects.

Colors tended to be mediocre. These shows didn’t offer broad, engaging palettes, so the hues were average at best. They never seemed bad, but they lacked much oomph.

Blacks appeared fairly dark, while shadows came across as adequate. With the limitations of the original photography and SD-DVD, the image was perfectly watchable.

I felt more pleased with the involving audio found here. The DVD provided DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, both of which sounded virtually identical to me. If one fared better than the other, I couldn’t discern it.

Remixed for 5.1, music heavily dominated these tracks, and those elements soared. The songs used all five speakers in an active, broad manner that spread the music around the room. I liked all the localized instrumentation and found the mixes to use the songs well.

If forced to pick a standout track, I’d go with Yoko’s “Don’t Count the Waves”, as it became the most ambitious with lots of surround usage. Other songs broadened around the room, too, and occasionally effects like nature sounds and the ocean brought out solid use of the soundscape.

Audio quality worked nicely. Dialogue played a minor role, as we mainly heard speech during Truth. These elements could be a little reedy but they remained intelligible and reasonably natural.

As noted, effects didn’t play a major part in the proceedings, but those aspects of the track appeared well-rendered. They showed pretty good range and accuracy.

Music dominated the tracks and worked best, with instrumentation that appeared rich and full. Vocals showed nice clarity, and low-end response was deep. I felt very happy with the way the DVD reproduced the music.

The disc includes three Raw Studio Out-takes. These come for “Jealous Guy” (4:57), “How?” (3:59) and “Gimme Some Truth” (3:46).

With the outtakes, we see studio footage via two side-by-side camera angles. They turn into a fine addition.

A David Bailey Photoshoot runs seven minutes, one second and shows what its title implies. We see John and Yoko work with and pose for Bailey. It becomes a moderately interesting look behind the scenes.

Finally, the set includes a 16-page Booklet. It mixes photos with archival and new text information to become a useful complement.

One persistent annoyance about this disc relates to its menus. Any time you change screens, it takes forever to fade dreamily to the next.

This is a cute impression once or twice, but it makes navigation much slower than it should be since the disc won’t let you forward ahead. Simple movements become a chore.

Of the two programs on this John Lennon release, Gimme Some Truth easily fares best, as it provides a fascinating documentary look at Lennon’s life and work. Imagine provides more than an hour of meandering videos, few of which entertain. The DVD comes with acceptable visuals and very good audio plus minor supplements. Though I’m not wild about parts of this release, it’s still a must-have for Lennon fans.