“Across The Universe” Review

Evan Rachel Wood (Left) and Jim Sturgess star in “Across The Universe” as Lucy and Jude, whose love marks the central point of the story.

Julie Taymor as a director is one of the weirdest and most visually stunning directors of the modern era with her work on “Frida” and Broadway’s “The Lion King” being distinctive from any other director. But Taymor’s 2007 film “Across The Universe,” despite not being an instant success, has deservedly become a cult classic due to streaming services showcasing this visual marvel of a film.

Set in the late 1960s, the film is a jukebox musical which tells the story of six youths who become enamoured in the underground rock scene, Vietnam War protests and the overall counterculture. Relationships bloom, drugs are involved and all to the sounds of Beatles’ music, with references to the Fab Four sprinkled throughout. 

Surprisingly, a jukebox musical with music by The Beatles is a good choice because it’s not only some of the finest music ever recorded, but their songs are essentially a time capsule of the decade with the group being active from the early 60s to 1970. At the start of the film, the music starts out optimistic and peppy, with songs like “All My Loving” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” much like the early catalogue of The Beatles before descending into more harsh subject matter with tracks like “Helter Skelter” and “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.” 

The songs are all covers sung by the incredible, diverse cast who embody different elements of the counterculture and, of course, are all named after Beatles’ songs. Jude (Jim Sturgess) is an immigrant from Liverpool and quickly befriends the underachieving Max (Joe Anderson) while falling in love with Max’s sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), who lost her boyfriend in Vietnam. They move to New York City and become roommates with a blues singer named Sadie (Dana Fuchs), her guitarist boyfriend Jojo (Martin Luther McCoy) and a closted lesbian named Prudence (T.V. Carpio). While some characters have more screen time, Lucy and Jude’s relationship is the main focus of the film, all of these characters are exceptionally charming and they all are fantastic singers.

Taymor made the right call casting unknowns, showing people that the most important thing that a movie musical must have are actors who can actually sing instead of casting Russell Crowe in “Les Miserables” or Emma Watson in “Beauty and the Beast.” In fact, the only famous people in the film are small cameos in musical sequences like Salma Hayek (“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”), Eddie Izzard (“Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite”), Joe Cocker (“Come Together”) and Bono (“I Am The Walrus”). 

With a large ensemble of mostly unknowns, Julie Taymor created a phenomenal cast of young people who embodied the rebellion of the 1960s.

Unlike a jukebox musical like “Mamma Mia,” which sometimes ropes in ABBA songs for no particular reason, the songs of “Across The Universe” actually help tell the story instead of being nice setpieces. Some songs are taken at face value while songs like “I Want You” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” are interpreted to relate to The Vietnam War. “I Want You” in particular is very haunting as Max is drafted and has to undergo training by the Army as he is sent to Vietnam.

Other songs are interpreted based on the artist's interpretation. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was comentting on the world’s disharmony during the 60s, particularly in 1968 when it was written, so the song is played following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 

The musical sequences are visually stunning, filled with trippy imagery and often make you feel like you are under the influence of LSD, which The Beatles used while making the album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Julie Taymor’s direction is vibrant, superb and artistic to the point where it teters on insanity and the entire film has brilliant choreography with the editing keepin the mood lively. Besides the names of characters reflecting the songs of the Beatles, the Beatles references sprinkled throughout the film are subtle, you’d have to be an enormous fan to notice them all, like me. 

With its dark moments, this is a musical for people who don’t like musicals. But if you don’t like The Beatles, not only will this probably not appeal to you, but I highly recommend you listen to the entirety of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and wonder why you could have ever uttered “I don’t like The Beatles.”

As is the case with most extreme filmmakers, Taymor’s production simply won’t appeal to everyone and sometimes her style can both entice and alienate. The film essentially has 20 minutes dedicated to the characters tripping out on drugs which may cause boredom among some audiences, but I found the scenes to be visually stunning. I loved the songs and the experimentation of the 60s is perfectly displayed during a montage composed of songs like “I Am The Walrus” and “Because.”

“Across The Universe” perfectly encapsulates the 60s, both the good and the bad, while also being one of the most original mainstream movies of the 21st century. Not since “Hair” or “The Big Chill” has a film perfectly understood the generation that fought for freedom of speech and an end to war. In that sense, these films are also full of melancholy as someone born in 2000 both rejoices in the successes of the 60s generation and laments at their failures as they inevitably sold out and became part of the uncontroversial middle class American culture. 

A generation of peace and love became the generation of “just say no,” Reaganomics and self-righteous oppression of the next generation. But they also had strong victories for social justice and that should also be celebrated. Overall, seeing the film not only brought to life a decade many of us never experienced, but also made me feel like I was there protesting the war and experiencing the trials of the decade.

The film was a complete flop at the box office, but has since gained a massive cult following on streaming services with the film being a hit on Netflix years later. As of now, the film is currently on Hulu and still attracting new fans of Taymor. How this film could have been easily dismissed is beyond me, especially when an inferior (but still enjoyable) jukebox musical film like “Mamma Mia” could be such a box office hit the following year. but hopefully its newfound popularity will result in “Across The Universe” being widely recognized as the masterpiece that it is.