Across The Universe All You Need Is Love (Videos)

The other day I had a few extra hours to spare so I decided to rent a movie I had wanted to see in the theaters called “Across The Universe.”  The movie is a kind of hybrid of music video and movie musical describing the counterculture of the 60’s in the midst of the Vietnam War while our young leads find themselves and each other on their own personal journeys across the universe set in New York’s Greenwich Village.

The characters in the film consist of a  Liverpool wanderer named Jude, the American girl-next-door named Lucy, her irreverent and rebellious older brother Max, a lesbian named Prudence, a singer named Sadie alla Janis Joplin and a guitarist named JoJo alla a soft Jimi Hendrix who all make up the bohemian household in Greenwhich.

What I enjoyed about this film is the artistic scope with respect to its use of colors, imagery, choreography, music, lyrics and message. Something I try to do in the majority of my blogs minus the dancing of course. But I do enjoy incorporating music that draws meaning to the message surrounded but what I hope others find less then mundane art that reinforces that message.

 

 In Across The Universe we see a brilliant use of a lyrical stream of consciousness through the use of over 30 Beatles songs that seamlessly weave the personal tragedies and triumphs of the stories of each of these characters as they set out Across The Universe to explore their own personal journeys.  As a tag line for the movies states,



The names of the principal characters - and several of the secondary roles - are derived from names in the titles or lyrics of Beatles compositions.

    * Jude - "Hey Jude"
    * Lucy - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Am The Walrus"
    * Max - "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
    * Sadie - "Sexy Sadie"
    * Jojo - "Get Back"
    * Prudence - "Dear Prudence"
    * Dr. Robert - "Doctor Robert"
    * Mr. Kite - "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"
    * Daniel (Lucy's American boyfriend) - "Rocky Raccoon"
    * Bill (Sadie's Manager) - "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
    * Molly (Jude's English girlfriend) - "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
    * Desmond (Jude's boss in America) - "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
    * Pam (Desmond's coworker) - "Polythene Pam"
    * Martha (Jude's mother) - "Martha My Dear"
    * Julia (Lucy's sister) - "Julia"
    * Rita (The Contortionist) - "Lovely Rita"
    * Teddy (Max's Uncle) - "Teddy Boy"

In Across the Universe, the characters were actually chosen for their talent in singing as they are actually singing these songs not in a studio, but live while filming on the spot. Our main character is played by Jim Sturgess who was in a rock band in England when discovered. In Across The Universe he plays a English bloke from Liverpool named Jude who works as a shipbuilder. 

A son of an American father from WW2 who he has never seen, Jude sets off on his personal journey Across The Universe into to America to find his Father and reach out into the unknown to find his true love. Sounding like a cross between Lennon and McCartney he sings “All My Loving” to the girl he is leaving in Liverpool as we are introduced to his future love Lucy.

Lucy is the all American girl played by Evan Rachel Wood who is in love with her high school sweetheart who is sent off to war. She adds that high school innocence of the all American next door look and feel and can be heard in her softer musical style. As juxtaposed against Jude and his edgy Liverpool  vibe.

 

As seen in this Beatles tune that weaves the lyrics of “It Won’t Be Long” into high school perspective  we feel her yearning, longing and innocence as she awaits the return of her sweetheart only to slam her locker shut as a preview to a coffing shutting on her boyfriend overseas.

There are some quirky parts to the movie that don’t move the story along but seem to be added just for additional Beatles songs to be incorporated which is easily forgivable given the musical value of the songs themselves. Take the random addition of Prudence, a lesbian played by Teresa Victoria Carpio who just appears throughout the movie for added color and depth . Or maybe they just needed an excuse to pull off a brilliant rendition of “I wanna Hold Your Hand.  

In this scene she sings I Wanna hold your Hand at half speed with the base line plays at twice the speed. At first you get the impression that she is singing to the football player, but then as she sings the famous line, “Oh please…say to me…you’ll let me be your man” under a Wildcats sign we see the blonde cheerleader separate from the football player letting us know that she is really in love with the girl. Then in a very cool slow-mo sequence we see her sing without fear as she walks the gauntlet of the male football players as she approaches the open gate of entry for her journey Across The Universe.

The real story begins when Jude meets up with Max, played by Joe Anderson, an English actor. Playing the older brother of Lucy while attending Princeton, he befriends Jude and introduces Jude to Lucy as he tells his parents that he will be dropping out and setting out on his own version of a Jack Kerouac adventure across the universe.

 As he and Jude move to New York to live with the other cast of characters who stepped out across the universe they live the bohemian lifestyle delving into  , life, art, music and relationships when Max finds out he is drafted into the Army in the midst of the Vietnam War. The story arc turns and they experiment with LSD meeting the shaman like bono who sings I Am the Walrus at an acid party and Eddie Izzard performs a circus rendition of the obscure Beatles song “Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite.”

Desperate not to leave the psychedelic atmosphere of love and exploration of their magical mystery tour, Max shows up for his induction into the army intent to be rejected for anything as he tells them  "I’m a cross-dressing homosexual pacifist with a spot on my lung" in what I felt was the best montage alla Pink Floyd’s the Wall.

 A robotic choreographed montage of soldiers, animation and imagery with a genius march of the statue of Liberty of American Imperialism across the universe of the wasteland of Vietnam . well…. see for yourself.

Of course after having already lost her high school sweetheart to the War, Lucy after moving to New York with her brother and falling in love with Jude radicalizes her efforts to stop the war befriending the leader of anti=war protests causing friction between Jude and Lucy that leads to a great rendition of the Beatles “Revolution,” by Jude as he confront what he feels is a would be Don Juan suiter for his love Lucy. The movie then explodes into the violence of the protests, the madness of the Vietnam war and the fear and confusion that Max feels while killing Vietnamese in an effort to” Liberate” them. As the bombs are dropped the guns are shot both there and at home, Jude is forced to return to Liverpool and leave his love Lucy. Distraught over reading a newspaper claiming that Americans were killed in a protest, Max calls to Jude in the famous song to come and get her as he has returned from across the universe in Vietnam empty and broken.

Throughout the movie there are endless meaning and references to history of the times, both musically, socially and historically. For a list see below. But it’s the message of the movie and fun in which it proclaims it that allows for any forgiveness of the little quirks. A message that simply states , “All You Need Is Love.”

As a reference to the impromptu Beatles rooftop concert, here at the end Sadie (Dana Fuchs, who played Janis Joplin in the Off Broadway show “Love, Janis”) is forced off by the police with her band of the Po Boys leaving Jude all alone on the rooftop trying to find lucy who then calls out to her with the message and the song.

The poster of French actress/model Brigitte Bardot in Max's dorm room is identical to one owned by and displayed in one of the homes of John Lennon.

Seen in Lucy's room, next to the mirror, there is an early photo of George Harrison and John Lennon.

An older woman at the dinner table scene (possibly Lucy's grandmother) comments on the "cranberry sauce" a phrase that is quietly said by John Lennon during the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever". (This was originally believed by Beatle fanatics to have been John saying 'I buried Paul'.

There are several uses of the number "nine" - which is a popular number in Beatles culture because of the avant-garde Beatles recording Revolution 9. The apartment that Paco is using as his headquarters is apartment number 9. When Jude and Lucy go outside for fresh air during Sadie's show at Cafe Huh? (an obvious reference to Cafe Wha?), there is a number 9 behind them in the background. When Prudence locks herself in the closet, the number 9 is fixed to the closet door. At the end of the movie, when Lucy tries to get to Jude on the rooftop, the door that she's standing in front of when she rings the buzzer has a number 9 on it.

When Max and Jude first see their new apartment, Sadie comments that Max seems harmless, but could have murdered his grandmother with a hammer, and in another scene Max is shown holding a hammer, both none-too-subtle references to the song that inspired Max's name, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."

The acoustic guitar that appears onstage when Sadie is performing resembles the Epiphone EJ-160E John Lennon Acoustic-Electric which he used during the early Beatle days.

During Sadie's performance of Why Don't We Do It in the Road?, Jude shouts out the words "Sexy, Sadie" - the title of the song from which her name is taken.

A voice is heard yelling "Get Back!" when Sadie leaves the stage during "Oh! Darling".

When Prudence climbs in through the window into the apartment, Jude says to her, "Hello, hello", a reference to the song “Hello Goodbye". A short time later, Sadie asks where she came from. Jude replies, "She came in through the bathroom window." This is a reference to another Beatles song, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window".

Later in the film, Prudence locks herself in the closet and has to be serenaded out by the other cast members. This is a reference to a real occurrence in 1968 at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India where the Beatles, Mia Farrow, Donovan, and others were studying. Mia Farrow's sister Prudence was reclusive and did not leave her living quarters to join the other students, inspiring John Lennon to write the song "Dear Prudence". The film also uses the song as a subtle reference to the fictional Prudence character's reluctance to 'come out of the closet' in relation to her sexual orientation.

When Jude, Lucy, and Max are at the party for Doctor Robert (played by Bono) they are seen drinking from a bowl of unknown liquid. This is a reference to the lyric, "Take a drink from his special cup, Doctor Robert" from the Beatles song "Doctor Robert."

The bus trip with Dr. Robert appears to reference the 1967 Beatles production Magical Mystery Tour - a project that had itself been inspired by the 1964-1965 bus trips of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters - also referenced in Across The Universe. There is even a brief appearance by the bus driver who resembles the real Pranksters driver, beat icon Neal Cassady. Further evidence that Dr. Robert references Kesey is the style of the party with Kool-Aid spiked with L.S.D. and Dr. Robert holding forth with an Ampex tape delay echo machine is on the signatures of the Merry Pranksters's "Acid Tests".

During the psychedelic bus trip with Doctor Roberts, there is a man seen typing franticly on a type writer. This is a reference to the Beatles song “Paperback Writer”

There is a band dressed in Sgt. Pepper-style costumes before and during the "Mr. Kite" scene.

The "Blue People" in the sequence based on Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite are based on The Blue Meanies (Yellow Submarine) from the animated film Yellow Submarine (film)

When the cast is lying in the field singing “Because”, there are nine people singing. In the Beatles recording of “Because” John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison overlapped their trio three times, making a nine part vocal on the track. When they appear in the water, singing "Because", Jude is seen wrapped around Lucy kissing her. This is reminiscent of a pose that John and Yoko did for Rolling Stone.

Sadie's record company is called "Strawberry Jamz". This is a play on the Beatles company "Apple Corps". Apple Records, the company founded by the Beatles in 1968, is obliquely referenced when Jude is trying to draw a green apple, then slices it in half and tries to draw it again, thus producing the two images used for that company's record labels.

The instrumental for "A Day in the Life" is playing as Jude, in Liverpool, reads the newspaper article about the bomb blast, thus referencing the line, "I read the news today, oh, boy".

The rooftop concert toward the end of the film, during which they sing Don't Let Me Down, references the Beatles' famous impromptu rooftop concert atop their Apple offices in January 1969 - their final live performance in which they also performed that song. The police appearing on the scene to close down the concert is a reference to 1969 event which had a similar police visit. The psychedelic painted Porsche 356 shown on the street is the formerly owned by singer Janis Joplin.

As the movie ends, Lucy's face dissolves into the sky, as the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is heard performed by Bono over the end credit sequence.

DEO