Musical movie heard Across the Universe

Across the Universe

By mixing psychedelic effects with 33 of the most popular Beatles songs, Across the Universe makes this love story as interesting as it is enjoyable.

The movie takes place in the 1960's Vietnam War era, the days of hippies, drugs, love and the beginning of a revolution. The story follows Jude (Jim Sturgess) as he departs from England to the United States to find his father, a janitor at Princeton University. He immediately befriends a student named Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson). At a very confrontational Thanksgiving dinner with Max's family, Jude is introduced to Max's innocent and naive sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Max, being the confused and rebellious student that he is, decides to drop out of Princeton, and acting on a spontaneous impulse, the two move to New York City overnight. Once there, they move in with Sadie (Dana Fuchs), the lead singer of a band, who has a voice much like Janis Joplin's.


Lucy, soon there after, decides to visit the boys in the Big Apple. Jude and Lucy quickly fall into a passionate relationship seemingly doomed to fail. While Jude is driven by his lackadaisical artistic ways, showing his feelings through his art, Lucy gets caught up in the inspiring words of a group of revolutionaries and joins up to help in the “war against the war.“ The couple is torn apart when Lucy puts all of her energy towards the revolution and her frustration with Jude's unwillingness to stand up and participate.

Meanwhile, Max gets drafted into the army and is sent abroad. He comes back an injured and changed man. The movie also highlights Sadie and Ben (Martin Luther McCoy), a guitar player in Sadie's band, as they fall in and out of love, connected by music and separated by fame. As well, there is Prudence (T.V Carpio), a runaway who falls in love with Sadie.

I loved this movie! It was so well put together. It had a good plot, great music and awesome effects. They really played up the drug use during that time by creating interesting and wacky scenes, keeping you guessing whether it was real or not. There was one scene that takes place at an old fashioned circus, with trapeze acts and tamed animals, which was so out there I didn't know what was going on. While enjoyable, I thought to myself, “So this is what doing drugs must be like.”

Another scene that really stood out to me, although not drug related, was when Max was being examined before being shipped off to Vietnam. It shows him and a group of other inductees struggling with Officers, but it was kind of a dance, and the Officers all had prosthesis on their faces. There were so many fantastic scenes, visually and musically.

Every main character had a least one song to sing and surprisingly they all had good voices. Especially Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Martin Luther McCoy and Dana Fuchs, whose voices were amazing, and having them really added to the depth of the movie. It was also nice to hear updated versions of some of the classic Beatles songs. In fact, the soundtrack for the movie is so popular, that it is sold out everywhere right now.

I am usually not a big fan of musicals, but this movie was so original, and combined with everything else, I left the theatre in awe. I recommend this movie to strangers of The Beatles music and fans alike, and anyone who likes things a little out of the ordinary.

Final Words: Saw it. Loved it. Want to buy the movie and the soundtrack.