bluemechaoxide

I’ve just finished watching Across the Universe for the third time. Still a great movie. I found it great how they managed to make a semi-coherent story out of the words of the Beatles. They placed it against a socio-political backdrop, which serves to highlight this period piece as a story of a generation. At its heart though, it’s still a love story.

Taking place in turbulent 1960s America, the story revolves around a young shipyard worker from Liverpool and a sheltered girl from the suburbs, and all that they encounter as they go through a world that is violently changing. The Vietnam War and the social riots take their quiet peaceful lives and really fucks them up. Whoops spoilers.

Central to the movie is the fact that all of the 33/34 songs in the movie are Beatles songs. Which is great, since the movie immediately has something different to offer from the other love stories Hollywood turns out. Famous songs like I Want to Hold Your Hand, Come Together, Strawberry Fields Forever, the film’s namesake Across the Universe, Blackbird, Hey Jude and many others make their own appearance. Each song’s entrance never feels forced, and is given the right amount of contemporary interpretation.

The movie is a musical, of sorts. Every five minutes or so one or more of the characters busts out in song. At least they managed to get some decent people to do the job - I thought all of the singing was pretty well-done and on-key.

Bottom line is, I’ve you’ve ever loved even one Beatles song (and chances are it falls within this list), you owe it to yourself to watch this film and see what they’ve done with it.

What do you mean this is a late review?