Across the Universe

I'm going to start out with a movie I've actually already seen a few times, just to figure out how I want to do this. I'll start off with a little back story. The director of the film is Julie Taymor, and if you've seen her stuff you can easily recognize her style. I've seen her other movie Frida and thought it was really well done. She definitely tries some unique things stylistically, and swings for the fences dramatically. 

I'll start off by saying that I really enjoyed this movie when I saw it in theatres. The music didn't seem out of place, and the story seemed to use it when it needed it. But I did notice some things that bugged me then, and now having the chance to go back and pick it apart I've found more. I'll start off at the beginning, with the introduction of the two main characters, Jude and Lucy. Jude is a blue collar worker in Liverpool who has what seems to be a steady girlfriend. We find out very early on that he's leaving for America very soon, but are not told why. They departure and his feelings of leaving both his mother (no father) and his girlfriend are played up to make it seem like a big decision for Jude, so you figure he must have a legit reason to leave, other than to simply "see the world." The impact of this is gone about ten minutes later when it seems like Jude has simply forgot his past and is trying to start over in America. For the two most important women in his life, he forgot them pretty quickly. But the actor playing him is very talented, and in my opinion is perhaps the main reason why the film works. He's basically a fun guy to root for. His reason for leaving home is to find his father, who knocked up his mom while doing a tour during the war. He explains to him that he's not looking to form any kind of relationship with him, but just wanted to know that he existed, and vice versa. To me, it might make his case stronger for leaving his mother all alone and ending a seemingly deep romantic relationship if he actually cared what his dad thought of him, and had aspirations of forming a traditional father son relationship, and maybe his dad rejects him (so we can get on with the story). 

Lucy on the other hand is a priviledged high schooler who seems to be in love with a boy who is drafted, as I should have mentioned, the Vietnam war is currently underway. We are definitely given the impression early on that this girl defines herself by this guy. She has dozens of pictures and notes from him all over her room, and dumps her friend the second she sees she got a letter from him after he leaves. And what's the best way to force this character to change? Kill him!! The dude gets killed in the war and she looks like its the lowest low she'll ever hit. Enter charming Brit! Within hours of meeting, the two are blatantly flirting. It does kind of bother me that two characters with seemingly deep relationships can forget and get together as fast as these two do, but I guess you can buy it because they're young. I do have issue with this actress, Evan Rachel Wood, who in my opinion is the weak link in the cast. There's not a lot of believablility in her attitude as she's pretty constant, even with these big changes in her life, and when she does stray and go for strong emotion, she can't often pull it off. But I guess they liked her because she's hot and can kind of sing.

After these two there are a slew of secondary characters, too many in my opinion. Not that the characters aren't good, but they can't possibly fit them all in and make them seem important. First one we meet is Prudence. We see her at a cheerleading practice, and then singing the song "I want to hold your hand." I don't know if its just me, but the first time I saw it, I did not pick up on her being lesbian until far later in the film. But now that I rewatch this sequence, they did it pretty subtly, showing her gazing at what I think is the head cheerleader, who is chatting with one of the football players. Maybe its just me, but I just figured they were trying to say that she was envious of this girl who is a tall leggy blonde, and she's the oddball cheerleader as the short asian chick. Not sure how I feel about how this was done. On the one hand, I like the subtly, and perhaps doing it blatantly would have been over the top and cheesy, but on the other hand, I think it would have really helped describe a character who doesn't get a lot of screen time.

Next is Max, who is probably the most entertaining character in the movie. Which is why I'm not sure why they abandoned his character for a pretty long stretch. As Lucy's brother, he's also very priviledged, as he goes to Princeton, but he's clearly the black sheep. As a rowdy party guy, he's the ideal one to team up with Jude. After he drops out of college, he gets drafted, and soon after is sent off to 'Nam. We see glimpses of him during his time there, but for one, its hard to recognize him, and two, he has no lines, just war footage overlayed with music. When he gets back, he's pretty messed up, but we're not sure why. His head is bandaged, but we never saw him get injured, and its not expalined if hes simply been changed by the violence. But soon after hes back to his old self. So although I enjoy watching the character in every scene he's in, I can't figure out his arc. We're never shown what he learned or how he was changed by his war experience. 

Then there are Jojo and Sadie, two musicians, and who are pretty blatant omages to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Which I don't mind, and I think sometimes they were too subtle about it. Sadie's story is all about acheiving a level of fame as a musician, and then havin it turn on her when her managers ruin things. Really its not very important to the story, and she could easily be cut out. But cutting her out means cutting Jojo out, as he comes to join the gang by becoming Sadie's new guitarist. His character bugged me the most. His story is that he's running away from a violent environment, which is the riots of 12th street in Detroit. Personally I was not aware of this event, and seeing the images first of bombed out buildings, tanks and soldiers made me think it was in Vietnam, but then all the people the soldiers were killing were black, so that didn't make sense. After that theres a shot with a Detroit police sign, which confused me even more. Why were soldiers killing civilians in the street, mainly those who weren't posing a threat? Now that I read about it and put some historical context to it, it makes a little more sense, but still I think it could have been handled better in the film. The sequence is very well done though, scored by "Let it Be" by a young boy who we see afterwards at his funeral, where Jojo and a woman are standing over him crying. The natural thing is to think this was their son. Apparently not. In the synopsis, he's listed as Jojo's brother. Would've helped to know that. But what really bugged me about this, is that Jojo simply abandons what seems to be a large family/community, to go to New York to be a guitarist. And everything turns around for him. For the rest of the film, everything continually gets better for him. The theme in this film seems to be, when someone intimately close to you is taken away violently, things only get better. You find love, fulfill your dreams and discover your talents. Of course this isn't played up in the movie, but when you study it closer, it's definitely there. 

Okay, enough nit picking. There are some very good things about this movie. Watchign it again, I've noticed that the lighting is phenomenal. Any still shots are set up and composed very well, with the focus clear and well designed. Here's some shots that I think show this particularly well.

The next area I think this film really succeeds in is matching the music to the scene. They cam up with some really orginal ideas to match the tone of the songs, which were very different. Two of the more experimental ones feature cameos, with Bono singing "I Am the Walrus" (that almost puts the rest of the performances to shame) and Eddie Izzard in a truly psychadelic acid trip in Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. If you haven't seen Frida, and the dream like sequence after the bus crash, this scene may look absolutely nutty. 

I really give Taymor credit for going for something this surreal. This scene has no impact whatsoever on the plot, but it helps pace the action, and sets the tone. 

Now for just some individual scenes that I had issues with. 

Early on, just after Prudence's intro, we see this shot.

We can't really tell who it is. We can't see their face, and their clothing is not recognizable (Prudence was last seen in her cheerleader outfit. Next, we have this shot.

It's Jude. The last we saw of him he was on a ship. But here he is. Given the previous shot, a character with a bag in dark clothing on the side of the road hitchhiking, immediately we assume that was Jude. But it's not. If you look close enough, it's Prudence. We're not sure why she's hitchhiking, or in new clothes, but it is her. Maybe a tighter shot where we see its her might help? Or just save this shot for later, when she is shown being picked up. And the location being the same colour, yet one is a cornfield and the other a forest can easily confuse as to what we are looking at. Are they supposed to be on the same road at different points?

Next is this shot. Is her locker really in the back of her classroom? Because from the previous shots of her classroom, and where the students went after the bell rang, it wouldn't seem so.

Next, a couple of the only digital shots in the film, used for inexplicable reasons. A shot that exits the car and zooms in on a "new york city" sign, and a swirling vortex going downwards to see Jude and Max entering an apartment building. Why go for such epic shots when the exposition on the screen is so simple? What producer okayed the money for these shots? Really unnecessary in my opinion.

Next, maybe its more of a personal thing, but Jude is an artist. That is his job, and how he spends his days. Couldn't they at least have done a good drawing of the girl he's in love with?

And I'll end on two of my favourite scenes in the film, where the music fits the style perfectly, and there's some really orginal, well composed stuff here.

Here the colour is at its most intense as the imagery is at its most intense. There's some really good compositing done here, and you can really see the progression of violence just in these images. In the final one there, Jude looks like a changed man, like a murderer covered in blood. It's really powerfull stuff and it fit the music really well.

And finally, my favourite scene, for "I Want You." Max has reported to the army to see if he's fit for duty. The way this plays out is the most interesting and entertaining sequence in the film, and it is absolutely original brilliance. I hate the very last sequence when they are carrying the Statue of Liberty, because its simply over the top "unsubtlety" at its worst. But the rest is great stuff. Again, look at how the lighting is handled as the sequence builds.

(eating cotton balls to affect his x-rays)

That's all I got for now, my sketches will be up next.