ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

US, 2007, 127 minutes, Colour.

Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dayna Fuchs, Martin Luther, TV Carpio, Angela Mounsey, Robert Clohessy, Dylan Baker, Linda Emond, Bill Irwin.

Directed by Julie Taymor.

An intriguing question is to ask who is the target audience for this film. The poster is rather psychedelic, taking us back forty years. But, who under 30 to 40 is automatically going to want to go back to those times of forty years ago? Clearly, those who have a hankering after the 1960s will be keen to see the film – and perhaps those for whom the 60s were a mystery or a time of change, war and protest that has had a traumatic effect.

Whatever the case, this is all highlighted and underlined in Across the Universe. The title is from a Beatles’ song which features towards the end but, surrounding it, are more than 30 other Beatles songs, some very well known, others much less well known, but all picked to offer lyrics which explain the characters and the plot.

The screenplay was written by the long-standing British team of Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais who were writing for film and television in those times. Their angle is quite nostalgic. The director is the American, Julie Taymor, who made Titus and Frida and is famous for directing the stage version of The Lion King. She has a musical and lavish theatrical background which is strongly to the fore here. One can easily imagine a stage version of Across the Universe. The costume design is already done (a creative use of masks and other devices used on stage in The Lion King). Some very stylised sets and action pieces are ready and are inserted here into the realism of the rather straightforward plot:

Liverpool lad (whose name is, hey, Jude) goes to America meets a young girl, Lucy (and, yes, it sung during the cosmic final credits) with a brother, Max, who is drafted (in what looks like a good parody of Hair) and serves in Vietnam. They all live in New York with a singer and her guitar-playing boyfriend. Lucy gets involved with the peace movement. Jude is deported, but… ‘All you need is love’.

Beatles’ fans may relish the opportunity to find the characters frequently bursting into song – though the principals sing well, there are some interpretations which may raise eyebrows from Joe Cocker and Bono (especially eccentric and aping the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, Transcendental Meditation phase).

But, what the film does do is take us back to an overview of the 1960s in the US, Vietnam, protest, drugs, the hippy experience, the beginnings of New Age, perhaps a more vigorously radical period than our own (though the references to Iraq are unavoidable).

Wikipedia List of 33 Beatles compositions on the soundtrack in order, including three compositions heard twice, totalling 34 individual music cues:

1. "Girl" — Jude
2. "Helter Skelter" — Sadie
3. "Hold Me Tight" — Lucy, Molly, and Prom Night singers
4. "All My Loving" — Jude
5. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" — Prudence
6. "With a Little Help from My Friends" — Max, Jude, and Dorm buddies
7. "It Won't Be Long" — Lucy and Students
8. "I've Just Seen a Face" — Jude
9. "Let It Be" — Gospel singer, Jojo's brother, and Church choir
10. "Come Together" — Pimp, Bum, Mad Hippie, Jojo, and Prostitutes
11. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" — Sadie
12. "If I Fell" — Lucy
13. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" — Max, Sadie, Prudence, Uncle Sam, and Soldiers
14. "Dear Prudence" — Sadie, Jude, Lucy, and Max
15. "Flying" (instrumental) — The Secret Machines
16. "Blue Jay Way" — The Secret Machines
17. "I Am the Walrus" — Dr. Robert
18. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" — Mr. Kite
19. "Because" — Lucy, Jude, Max, Sadie, Prudence, and Jojo
20. "Something" — Jude
21. "Oh! Darling" — Sadie and Jojo
22. "Strawberry Fields Forever" — Jude and Max
23. "Revolution" — Jude
24. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" — Jojo and Jude
25. "Across the Universe" — Jude (interwoven with "Helter Skelter")
26. "Helter Skelter (Reprise)" — Sadie (interwoven with "Across the Universe")
27. "And I Love Her" (brief extract incorporated into the orchestral score during the "Across the Universe"/"Helter Skelter (Reprise)" sequence, also sung by McCoy in a deleted scene)
28. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" — Max, Bang Bang Shoot Shoot nurses, and Soldiers
29. "A Day in the Life (Instrumental)" — Jeff Beck
30. "Blackbird" — Lucy
31. "Hey Jude" — Max, Jude's mother, Children and Immigrants
32. "Don't Let Me Down" — Sadie and Jojo
33. "All You Need Is Love" — Jude, Sadie, Prudence, Max, and Jojo

1. An ambitious musical? The use of the Beatles songs? The characters, situations? For Beatles fans?
2. Some critical acclaim yet severe failure at the box office initially?
3. The work of the director, stage background, stylised costumes and masks, theatrical tone?
4. The introduction to Jude, work on the wharf, relationship with his mother, his girlfriend, the farewell, going to the US, the quest to find his father, tracking his father down, discovering he was a janitor, the discussions, the invitation to Thanksgiving, his father coming to get him out of jail? His encounter with Max, bonding, going home to the family, the discussions at the table, politics, ambitions, Max dropping out, the discussions with Lucy?
5. The bond with Max, Max and his wealthy background, able to pay for drinks, parties? About to be called up? His attitude towards the Vietnam war? Decision to leave for New York, Jude going, finding the apartment, Sadie as the landlady, the various borders? Life there, Sadie and her singing, the clubs? Jojo, his story, guitar, arriving in New York, at the apartment, accompanying Sadie?
6. Lucy, leaving home, her mother and conventional Ohio life? Finding Max and Jude, the attraction between Jude and herself, the relationship? Her getting jobs waitressing? Becoming involved with protests against the Vietnam war?
7. Max, the advice so that he would not be called up, its not working, the musical background for the medical investigation, uniforms, the posters for call up coming alive, parallels with Hair? The scenes in Vietnam, Max, the swamps, under fire, deaths? His being wounded, returning home, recuperation?
8. The use of the songs for Jude and his character, Jim Sturgess singing, tone, the background from Liverpool, the Beatles lyrics and melodies? Lucy, Evan Rachel Wood and her singing, character? Moving from character into the social concerns, the visualising of the protests, Lucy in danger, Jude being beaten, in jail, everybody freed, his father coming?
9. Lucy, her greater involvement in the protests, the group, Jude and his being upset, her not coming to Sadie’s concert, Lucy mystified, the break between the two, Jude and his being deported to England? The group making bombs, the explosion, Lucy absent?
10. Sadie, her story, personality, singing, the relationship with Jojo, the agent and her getting a recording contract, at the clubs, Jojo spoiling her performance and her walking out? The reconciliation and performance? On the roof, the police coming and moving them on, Jude and his return to America, his girlfriend having the other boyfriend, his mother seeing him off? His going onto the roof, hiding from the police, singing, Lucy hearing him, the reconciliation? All you need is love…?
11. The visual style of the film, the colour palette, the stylised sequences, the swimming in the underwater sequences, the war sequences, and the psychedelic final credit sequences?
12. The status of the film later, its appeal in later years?