Acorss the Universe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWM2LhVOKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwB8QiKWodk

Located above are two links to two different clips from the movie Across the Universe directed by Julie Taymor and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Across the Universe is primarily about a group of youth in the 60’s spanning from England, America, and Vietnam battling the trails and tribulations of the war and social endeavour to succeed in their time. The main gimmick of this movie is that it is an onscreen musical with the music and lyrics only being written by the Beatles. This runs along a theme we talked about in class which is adaptation, and I believe remediation even comes into play here.

Now you are probably wondering what the point of watching these two clips are. Well I was in a screenwriting class I am taking here at school and the other day one of my peers did a presentation about this movie. The class afterwards when we were probed to have an open debate about what we saw was spilt into two different opinions about the movie. The first opinion was that the movie was awful and long and very over done, while the other opinion was the completely opposite. I sat quietly and listened, which is normally not in my nature.

Watch them now, if you haven’t already. If these two clips inspire you in some way, or move you in any direction then continue reading because I am going to provide my opinion and what I think these clips were really trying to convey.

Revolution.

Now right away being a woman I am intrigued by the character of Jude, the male in the scene. Obviously the dreamy factor needs to be put aside. Most of the girls in my class claimed how much they enjoyed this scene because it showed the quality most girls love in a guy “the bad boy”. Yet if they had seen the movie they would have known that the reason this scene has such prevalent content is because it is completely out of his character to be violent and irrational.
A little background information which will help explain the irony of this clip. Lucy, the girl in the clip works for a group who is trying to promote peace and end the war. Here comes the ironic part, eventually she finds out that little did she know that in secret they were really becoming a terrorist group who is planning of doing some bombing of their own. So Lucy and Jude get into a raging argument about the war. Yes, all the characters are named after Beatles songs. And as you see from the clip she storms out of the laundry mat.

Because Jude is an artist who came from England he will not be drafted into the Army. Since Lucy’s brother Max has been drafted (which you will see in the next scene) she tends to handle it as a very sensitive matter.

The clip:

Jude storms in singing about revolution. He is attempting to stand his ground on the position of war, and more importantly the position of his girlfriend. He clearly feels that there is something wrong with her boss. He tends to portray a good judgement of character mostly throughout the movie.

The key thing about Julie Taymor’s directing is it is far some subtle. The only moment Jude isn’t being pushed around or throwing things is when he looks into Lucy’s eyes and sings “But when you talk about destruction, Don'tcha know that you can count me out”.

When Jude approached Lucy’s boss and sings the lyrics “But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao. you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow” I really enjoyed how they actually incorporated a picture of Mao Zedong into the office of Lucy’s boss. This to me also implies some sort of power struggle with this “revolution.” I find this a powerful clip and it defiantly brings out emotion for me.

I Want You.

This clip is even more intense. Max is being drafted to the army. He has dropped out of school and therefore has no choice but to fight the war. When I mentioned earlier that Julie Taymor’s directing was anything but subtle this clip is a prefect example. There is no doubt in anyone mind what she was trying to get at. Regardless of flaws and will they drafted young men into the army, put them through numerous tests and training sessions, made them look like each other, branded them and then literally sent them into war. They were all treated the same, and were all treated like cattle going into be butchered.

This whole scene was choreographed by Danny Ezralow. He did a very good job at making it look effortless. Right at the beginning when Max is being stripped down I thought was a very enjoyable entrance to the scene and worked very well. In your mind you could almost see it happening exactly like this.

Another point I think Julia was trying to make was when the officer asks Max if there is any reason he shouldn’t be in the army and he says everything he can think of, the officer replies with “Well, as long as you don’t have flat feet.” I almost can’t even believe that they would take anyone just for the shake of having a larger army, but we also don’t live like that here in Canada.
The last thing I wanted to point out about this clip wasn’t actually even about the music. Right at the end when Max is telling his friends he has no choice he claims it’s either jail or Canada. The writing is unique at times because it almost sounds very unwritten. “Learn French…Learn French or Die.” To me this line is so seamless and fits in so well with the scene. It almost sounds like it wasn’t even writing into the script at all.

Thanks for watching the clips, I hope you enjoyed them!