A New Movie Review: "Across the Universe"

I grew up in the time of the LP. LP means long playing record, and I feel that I must describe it as such for all of my classmates born in the 1980s (yikes!). My parents had their collection of LPs (Andy Williams, Wayne Newton, Glen Campbell, and various movie musical scores), and as my brother and I were growing up, we started to look for LPs of our own. At the home of one of our parents’ friends, we noted some really COOL LPs (Village People, Doobie Brothers, the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack (hey, it was the 1970s!), but the coolest of the LPs was a double LP with a red border that had, as the photo on the cover, a group shot of some young men. The album was “The Beatles: 1962-1966”-the eponymous “red album.” It served as my introduction to the Beatles. From “Love Me Do” to “Yellow Submarine,” the Beatles red album was instrumental in introducing me to the world of classic rock music by the #1 band of all time. I was able to make my own cassette recording of the red album, and my brother and I listened to it until we wore the tape out. When the tape wore out, my brother requested a copy of the red album for his very own. Now, to this day, I do not know if my parents knew what they were doing when they “messed up” and bought the “wrong album,” but that mistake was going to introduce me to the Beatles during their most imaginative and inventive years. They decided to buy “The Beatles: 1967-1970”-the “blue album”.

All these many years later, I can still remember my brother putting the album into the huge console stereo, and the sounds of “Strawberry Fields” emanating from the mono speakers. As a youngster I preferred the more upbeat or hi energy tunes, but I recognize now that I did not understand many of the songs’ lyrics. I loved “Penny Lane,” “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “Revolution,” “Something” (a little slow, but I LOVED the bridge), “Let it Be,” “Across the Universe,” and “Hey, Jude.” I still remember being confused by some of the lyrics of “I Am the Walrus” (Sitting on a cornflake? What is an eggman anyway?). I remember that each LP was packed in a sleeve that had the lyrics for each song printed in order. While I was confused by the lyrics, the MUSIC really moved me. The Beatles were constant during my adolescent years even though my formative years were marked by Madonna and Michael Jackson in the beginning, U2 in the middle, and Pearl Jam and Nirvana near the end). As I grew older, I read more about the Beatles and I came to understand some of the lyrical choices that they made. I was also amazed with the quantum leaps the Beatles seemed to make from their earliest albums through their later ones. I can only imagine the excitement with which the release of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band” was greeted. I remember thinking it poignant when I found out that McCartney had written “Hey Jude” for Julian Lennon (originally called “Hey, Jules”).

Life went on, and my musical tastes varied, but the songs that I had listened to so many times had become ingrained in my mind. In retrospect, I suppose I did listen to the blue album many many (many) times during my formative years. The reason for this was that my brother’s and my LP collection at the time consisted entirely of 3 albums: the blue album, Kiss: Alive II, and Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies. I am not kidding. So my childhood was marked by constant listens to THOSE…THREE….ALBUMS. Thank God for the Beatles.

Since my childhood, there has not been a day where I just kicked back and listened to the Beatles. After my experience last Friday night, I am happy to report a change in my listening habits-a change that will now include daily doses of the Fab Four. In honor of her birthday, my dear friend and fellow blogger Jess and I went to see the new Julie Taymor musical film, “Across the Universe.” Jess is a HUGE music fan. As a matter of fact, she is to music as I am to movies (for all of you SAT fans who are missing the now defunct analogy section). I suppose the best way to describe the film is an amalgamation of “Moulin Rouge” (love story) with “Forrest Gump” (following characters during one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history-the 60s). How could such a creation possibly be held together? The common glue turned out to be the music of the Beatles. However, this was not just a matter of the Beatles lending their songs to the production-this was a film where the characters sang the classic tunes, and the songs were woven into the tapestry of the story itself. I was into the film from the opening shot of the main character, a Liverpudlian named Jude, sitting on a beach singing. From the names of the characters (Jude, Lucy, Jojo, Prudence), I could kind of tell which songs were going to be used, but I did not know exactly when. Equally as fun was trying to guess WHICH of the songs from the Beatles rich musical catalog would be used. I heard many of my favorites as well as some songs that I had never heard before. One of the highlights of the film (for me) was a psychedelic rendition of “I Am the Walrus” by a character played by a famous pop star of today. No, I will not tell-for that would be spoiling, but wow..what a performance.

I am struggling with the review, because the Beatles songs were what made the movie, but part of the fun of a first viewing is not knowing WHICH songs will play and WHEN the songs will play. I can highlight the major plot as a love story between a wandering Liverpudlian shipworker and the daughter of a privileged American family during the 60s. The film, however, is much, much more. To be sure, there are weaknesses. Julie Taymor intersperses strange moments of “alternate reality” throughout the film, much like Baz Luhrmann did in Moulin Rouge with his “Green Fairy” sequence. Thankfully, these strange sequences are few and far between as they proved to detract from the central story. Taymor also succeeds by having the principle actors actually sing the songs in the actual scenes without any looping. I also appreciated the fact that the cast was not populated with well known actors who might have otherwise distracted from the story in an “Oh, look, Nicole Kidman is singing a Beatles song” kind of way.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I cannot wait to see it again. Of course, this is coming from a casual Beatles fan. If you are not a Beatles fan, I would still encourage you to check this movie out. You might change your mind by the end.