I was at Landmark at Infinity Mall last night to buy some music when I saw this DVD - "Across the universe".As a Beatles fan, the first thing that came to my mind was that it would be one of the numerous films dedicated to the fab four.
I picked up the Deluxe Collectors Edition costing 995 Rs and headed home.I opened the case and was pleasantly surprised to find inside a 300 page Beatles guide and the DVD.It is a fabulous movie just like the song. The song incidently is also the anthem for the World Wildlife Fund.
The movie has everything--Love , Music, Revolution and Surrealism. I loved it so much that saw it again - immediately.
It is a 2007 musical film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The script is based on an original story that incorporates 33 compositions written by The Beatles, but not the originals.
The film plot relates the interweaving stories of several characters set against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s. The arc of the storyline spans from the early innocent part of the decade to the politically-charged later years of the decade.
My suggestion- Grab a DVD and relive the Peace movement propogated by the Beatles and John Lennon.Thanks John for taking us ..Across the Universe.
Isar Qureshi
Read more from wikipedia--
The film plot relates the interweaving stories of several characters set against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s. The arc of the storyline spans from the early innocent part of the decade to the politically-charged later years of the decade.
The story starts in the mid 1960s with a young shipyard worker in Liverpool named Jude (Jim Sturgess). Against the wishes of his girlfriend, he enlists in the merchant marine and travels by ship to the United States, jumping ship in New York in search of his American G.I. father, Wes (Robert Clohessy), whom he has never met and who does not know his son exists. He learns that his father works at Princeton, and he befriends a Princeton student, Max (Joe Anderson), a rebellious young man from a privileged background, and then meets Max’s sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Max drops out of college and moves to New York City, accompanied by Jude. Max works as a taxi driver, while Jude pursues work as a freelance artist. They become roommates in a bohemian enclave where they share an apartment with other people, most notably Sadie (Dana Fuchs), their landlady, who is an aspiring singer and a representation of Janis Joplin. Other residents include Jojo (Martin Luther McCoy), a guitarist who represents Jimi Hendrix, arrives from Detroit after the death of his younger brother during the 12th Street riot; and Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a young bisexual woman who had hitchhiked to New York City from Dayton, Ohio. After Lucy’s boyfriend, Daniel (Spencer Liff), goes to the Army in the draft, and is then killed in the Vietnam War, she goes to New York to visit Max before she starts college, despite the fact that her parents aren’t very pleased with the idea.
Romantic relationships develop between Lucy and Jude, and between Sadie and Jojo. One night, Prudence (who seemingly holds a crush on Sadie) becomes depressed, and hides in the closet the entire night. Realizing where she is, the rest of the cast coax her out of the closet, showing that they completely accept her lesbianism. She then leaves the enclave and joins Mr. Kite’s Circus, where she finally decides she belongs. When Max is drafted and sent to Vietnam, Lucy becomes involved in a anti-war movement, while Jude remains comparatively apolitical. Jude becomes unhappy with the amount of time she spends with the political group, suspecting that its leader Paco is a lothario. Jude’s art and his relationship with Lucy both start to falter. Meanwhile, Sadie has formed a band, Sadie and the Po Boys (reference to a line in Down on the Corner), with Jojo as her lead guitarist. She gains the attention of a manager who signs her to a record label, but wants her to drop her backing band. She agrees, and this leads to a bitter break up between Sadie and Jojo, both musically and romantically. Sadie leaves to go on tour, while Jojo plays guitar in a local bar.
Meanwhile, the differences and tensions between Jude and Lucy escalate. One day, Jude storms into the offices of the political group where Lucy works, and after pointing out the hypocrisy and potential violence that they are heading toward, is kicked out. This leads to a argument between the couple, which results in Lucy leaving Jude. Jude finds her at an anti-war demonstration at Columbia University during which many protesters, including Lucy, are arrested. Pushing through the crowd to help her, Jude is also beaten and arrested. Though Wes convinces the police not to press charges for actions at the protest, he cannot prove that Jude is his son (and thus an American citizen), and Jude is deported back to England. Going back to work at the Liverpool shipyards, Jude encounters his old girlfriend, Molly, pregnant by an apparent old friend of his who smugly kisses Molly on the cheek (which does not upset the apathetic Jude).
Max is wounded in Vietnam and is repatriated, emotionally and mentally shattered by his experiences, while Lucy remains involved in her anti-war faction that is becoming more and more violent. She finally leaves the group when she returns to their old headquarters and discovers Paco and some of his followers making bombs. One of their bombs explodes, killing Paco and his confederates and destroying the building. Jude reads about the explosion in a Liverpool newspaper and believes that Lucy has also died. However, he subsequently hears from Max that she is alive, and he arranges to legally return to the United States. He meets Max, who drives him to Sadie’s music headquarters where a (Beatles-style) rooftop concert is being held by Jojo and Sadie (who have reunited) and their band (which now includes Prudence) singing "Don’t Let Me Down". Lucy is supposed to be there, but she arrives late. After seeing Sadie’s recording company logo (an abstract strawberry Jude had created), Lucy sadly walks away, overwhelmed with grief. Meanwhile, as the police begin to force the group to leave, Jude manages to stay behind on the roof. Sheepishly, he begins to sing "All You Need Is Love." The rest of the band hears him and comes back on to the roof and they join him with their voices and instruments; down in the street Lucy hears him as well and tries to enter the building but is turned away by the police. Max suddenly looks out across the street as everybody else sings, sees Lucy, and begins to sing "She loves you yeah" and Jude turns to see Lucy, wearing a diamond necklace, standing on an adjacent roof. They smile at one another with tears in their eyes, and the screen fades out to white clouds and blue sky. This also refers to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."