ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Director: Julie Taymor Stars: Rachel Evan Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
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 La 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).
Reviewed by WENDY RAWADY
For someone whose teen years spanned the early years of the Beatles, this musical preaches to the converted. The opening montage of dancers (Americans clad in pastel prom frocks, English clad in Mod gear) also sneaks in a snippet of the Beatles performing in The Cavern and it’s clear from the start that this is no ordinary musical.
I kept waiting for Baz Lurhman’s red curtain to swish in at the end as it is such a Baz-ish production, actors belting out Beatles songs at the drop of a hat. But that didn’t happen, although there WERE Taymoresque puppets performing in a grotesquely hypnotic scene.
All your favourite Beatles songs are here. 33 of them. A pity there wasn’t a bouncing ball and the lyrics on screen for the audience to join in as they are all so darn singable, those tunes!
Thus it is a tribute to Beatlemania and the cloudy innocence of the 1960s, tainted by war and protest and the belief that revolution is better than evolution no matter the cost or method. Blood is spilt and the story of the Vietnam war is woven around a handful of somewhat predictable love stories. Somewhere in amongst the celebrity cameos (Bono, Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard) there’s the blooding of the young Max, one of the heroes of the film.
Note that the screenplay is from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and didn’t they bring us Ronnie Barker in Porridge? It all does seem a little tired and I got the feeling that perhaps Ian and Dick may be pulled this script out of the bottom drawer of a 1970s wardrobe they are cleaning out before bunging on Antiques Roadshow.
Rachel Evan Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson are the stars and the entire cast has an engaging enough presence on screen. Dance numbers are terrific. There’s the obligatory rooftop performance scene.
It is entertaining, but I must say I came away thinking that I’d need to work hard to move many of the scenes from transient to memorable. Extravagant production, well shot and well produced though.
But if you are a Beatles fan – you’ll enjoy it! Parents – if you take your kids, be ready with the answers to what you did in that era - and what WAS all that tie-dyeing about anyway!