DVD Review: Across the Universe

Writers: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Julie Taymor
Directors: Julie Taymor
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio, Spencer Liff, Lisa Hogg, Nicholas Lumley, Michael Ryan, Angela Mounsey, Martha, Dylan Baker
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Sony Home Entertainment
strong>Release Date: February 5, 2008

Picture yourself in a boat on a river…with tangerine trees and marmalade skies…

What do you get when you take the music of the greatest band of all time and mix it with the obscurely artistic mind of director Julie Taymor (Frida, Titus)? Whatever it is, is more art than film. I’ve come to discover that Across the Universe is an awe-inspiring journey of colossal proportions. I was somewhat looking forward to this movie, but as a fan of the Beatles, perhaps even a Beatles purist, I was not quite sure how I felt about the fact that other people would be singing the songs of the Beatles in this movie musical.

Truthfully, I’m not fond of most Beatles covers. I only tolerated the covers used in the Sean Penn film, I Am Sam, because the music was just used as a soundtrack, not as a plot device. Besides, with the kind of movie I Am Sam is, it is easy to forgive a few crappy covers, when some of them were decent. My biggest problem is that it is hard to reproduce the unique sound of the Fab Four. I used to sing (professionally, at times) and I must admit, except for in 7th grade choir, when I didn’t have a choice but to perform “Eight Days a Week” with the rest of my class, I won’t touch a Beatles song, except maybe in the shower. So sacred are the Beatles to me that a part of me dreaded what could have been of Across the Universe’s Beatles-inspired soundtrack.

What I have discovered is that most of the songs are actually fairly decent. That being said, I felt quite vomitous at the preposterous notion the IMDB troglodytes seemed to have, as they spewed freely about how the remakes actually sound better than the originals. Without the original songs…there would be no remakes. I’m not sure how redundant the point is about this, but I’ve long considered many of the IMDB forum posters to be ignorami.

Release Information:
Across the Universe debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10, 2007. A film such as this deserves a festival run prior to being distributed to the barbarians through a theatrical release. The debut was followed up with a limited, theater release on September 14, 2007. At this point, only 27 theaters ran the movie. Despite that fact, it had the second highest gross average for money made (per screen) in its opening weekend. By October 12, 2007, the film expanded to nearly 1,000 U.S. theaters, though it didn’t truly hit #1 at the Box office, due to a gradual release from the original 27 theaters it premiered in, originally.

Sony Pictures is distributing the DVD in a Two-Disc, Standard DVD Special Edition, Blu-Ray, and as a UMD for PSP. On Amazon, all three versions can be purchased as of the release date, February 5, 2008. The Standard, Two-Disc Special Edition, which is what is used for this review, is $18.99 USD. The UMD for PSP is going to run you $19.99 USD, while the Blu-Ray is $26.95 USD.

The Across the Universe Plot
When watching this film, each member of the audience should feel as though they are a member of an abstruse group; one who has been let in on the esoteric meaning of a film that speaks more in visuality than in words. It’s interesting to discover that Across the Universe actually has a plot beneath all the psychedelically optic delights painting across the screen. The plot is simple. It’s not necessarily anything you haven’t seen before, but it is part of what drives the movie’s music along. The images that accompany the songs and available dialogue are at times, haunting. This isn’t a film you will soon forget.

The storyline for Across the Universe is interwoven amidst Vietnam protests and civil rights drama in an era that people of this generation haven’t the sense to learn from. In our current time of war and prejudice versus other groups, not following down the path that is considered the “norm”, this film offers a retrospective glance into all of the forgotten memories about one of the most senseless wars in American history.

Jude (Jim Sturgess), leaves behind his poor, Liverpool existence, his mother, and his girlfriend, Molly, for greener pastures in America, aboard a work boat. Once he arrives in America, he jumps ship, literally, and heads to the ivy league school, where the father he never knew works, as the janitor. After introducing himself to his father, Jude runs into Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson). Well…Max runs into him.

Max is a privileged slacker, who quickly befriends the young Brit. After taking Jude home with him for Thanksgiving, Jude falls for Max’s younger sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), who is in love with a soldier in Vietnam. After Max announces he is dropping out of college, Max and Jude head to New York City, to live as artists.

They move in with their landlord, Sadie (Dana Fuchs), a singer who thinks she is Janis Joplin. Joining them is JoJo (Martin Luther), a musician from Detroit, who plays backup for Sadie and Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a lesbian escaping an abusive relationship, who crawls through their window one night. After Lucy’s boyfriend dies in Vietnam, she decides to visit the two in New York, and joins them in their commune style apartment. With Lucy on the edge about Vietnam, she will end up joining the protesters, especially when she finds out that happy go lucky, Max has been drafted and there’s nothing he can do to get out of it.

Since Across the Universe is a movie musical, I must comment on the musical aspect of the movie. I might be harsher than most critics in this area, merely because I have the trained ear of a vocalist who has had vocal fundamentals driven into his brain for over 16 years. Still, this is my review so you’re going to get my opinion. The two best singers in Across the Universe are Joe Anderson (Max Carrigan) and Jim Sturgess (Jude), who, at times, I felt was channeling a Liverpool existence with his hauntingly beautiful, British accent tinged voice.

Evan Rachel Wood has what I call the “apple pie” American voice. You know the girls who have them. Sure, they can sing, but they’re nearly a dime a dozen, as they perform in their town’s local theater. Since Wood’s character Lucy is a bit of apple pie herself, her voice fit the role. You can take that for what its worth. Martin Luther (JoJo) has a beautiful voice, when he isn’t trying to emulate Jimi Hendrix (perhaps the greatest injustice of the film, next to Sadie…but we’ll get to her later).

The young boy who sings “Let It Be” (Timmy Mitchum) is also quite an accomplished vocalist. His rendition of the song, set against photos of police brutality during the civil rights movement is breathtaking. Then there is Bono, who plays Dr. Robert. It’s hard to argue against the fact that Bono is an excellent performer. Adding all of these elements together makes the musical aspect of Across the Universe a much easier pill to swallow, especially for people like me, who just happen to consider themselves Beatles purists.

All things considered, Across the Universe is not without faults. Sure, it has music, it has imagery, and it has the acid trip of a lifetime, which takes our characters to see the ultimate circus master, in a cameo appearance by Eddie Izzard, who plays Mr. Kite. Still, Taymor tries too hard to immerse the audience in that 60s vibe. Truth be told, if the Broadway musical, “Hair”, and the epic mini-series, “The 60s” had a love child, Across the Universe would be the result. But Taymor goes too far in her quest to nail down the era, by adding in two singers who just didn’t need to be there…JoJo and Sadie.

As Janice and Jimi…they’re vile. What could have been a perfect exploration into the era of the Beatles turns into a joke, whenever they take the stage. Sadie is, by far, the worst singer in the bunch, next to Prudence, who can be forgiven due to the fact that she really isn’t on screen that much. Dana Fuchs tries to hard to “be” Joplin and it just doesn’t fly any more than I believe Amanda Overmeyer (the Janis Joplin wannabe, biker nurse on American Idol) has talent. When it comes to this movie, the addition of Sadie is superfluous.

At times, both “Janis wannabes” screech in a way that reminds me of a cat getting its head caught in the spokes of a bike and as someone rides that bike the cat whines pitifully. Taymor’s need to solidify the 60s by bringing back two of its greatest icons is what makes this movie stray from it’s near-perfect message. If the problems weren’t wrapped around such marshmallow-y goodness, the entire film would have flopped.

What is there, is more about thinking and feeling then enjoying and listening. The entire story is more Van Gogh than Scorsese. It’s more art than a movie and what is taken from this, will depend on how much you like or understand art. Taymor allows you to feel, see, and almost taste the experience as you’re rocketed through this powerful story. The imagery and audio perceptions are what make Across the Universe, so effective. As long as you aren’t listening to the butchering of the Beatles by Sadie, you should find the experience to be enjoyable, uncomfortable, and ultimately…surreal.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
Transferred and displayed at an aspect ratio of 2.40;1, the anamorphic enhancements on this two-disc, widescreen release of Across the Universe paint a near perfect picture. With a film so dependent on visual imagery to tell the story, it’s only natural for Taymor to make the film as near perfect as is possible. The colors are beyond vibrant. The images are sharp and easy to view. This is about as good as it will ever get for standard DVD quality. There isn’t one visual error that I could find. Now, if only all DVDs had this type of visual quality, I’d be quite a happy reviewer.

The audio for Across the Universe had to be strong to carry the weight of the movie, in relation to those 30+ Beatles songs that happen to be sung or played during the movie. Luckily, Sony offers a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix worthy of what audio is available. The combination of excellent audio and fantastic visual quality are what make Across the Universe. Without them, this film would have sunk. Sounds are rich, soothing, and beautiful to listen to, throughout the entire DVD watching experience.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
Chocked full of goodies, the two-disc special edition of Across the Universe lives up to its name. To start things off, there is an audio commentary that runs the full length of the movie. The commentary features Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal, the music producer and composer for the film. This is one of the best commentaries I’ve heard this year. Taymor is insightful and offers plenty of information that makes you reflect upon what she was trying to portray by making Across the Universe.

Other extras include some deleted performances and a manual photo gallery. There’s “And I Love Her” by Martin Luther, and a few different versions of Eddie Izzard performing,”Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”. The photo gallery features everything from shots while on the set to pictures of Jude’s art work. I didn’t mention the visual interpretation of “Strawberry Field’s Forever” in the movie, so now I probably should. As an artist, Jude’s work perfectly reflects the era and the emotions felt during Viatnam. The brilliance behind “Strawberry Fields” is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. The final bonus on the first disc in this set is a plethora of previews for other Sony flicks.

There are five featurettes on disc two. “Creating the Universe” is your typical making-of featurette. This one is pretty in depth and very interesting. The featurette “Stars of Tomorrow” takes a look at the lead characters, most of whom are relatively unknown actors. “All About the Music” looks at the music in the film and how it was used. “Moving Across the Universe” looks at the dancing that is used in the movie and the choreography that was used to make the dancing more realistic. Finally, there is “FX on the Universe”, which briefly looks into the visual effects used. The final bonus is actually, quite extensive. There are eight extended performances, totaling over a half-hour worth of musical delights.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
Across the Universe is orgasmic, eye candy with swells of brilliant musical composition and a stronger statement and message than films of today seem to carry. While some won’t get it because art just isn’t their thing, the majority can at least enjoy the reproduction of some of the Beatles’ greatest hits. Across the Universe comes highly recommended.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: Across the Universe, Sony Pictures, DVD Review, Rachel Evan Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Julie Taymor

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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Dominick Evans is in his late 20's. He spends his days working as a full time writer/editor and a part time musician/composer. His passions in life include music, directing films, watching movies, reading books, watching sports, wheelchair football, politics and spending time with his family (fiancée Ashtyn, son Robert, and shih-tzu Oliver). Other interests include being an advocate for the disability and GLBT communities.