Across the Universe
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DVD details
Actor: Evan Rachel WoodBrand: WOOD,EVAN RACHEL
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); Cantonese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-09-08
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Across the Universe
DVD Review: Is There Anybody Going to Listen to my Story?
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been several movies that have tried to make the music of The Beatles a central focus of their reason d'existence. Some - like The Beatles' own A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine - are perfect, some are not (the dismal "All This and World War Too"). Even the camp classic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was so bad it was worth seeing because of the music. Heck, even the forgettable I Am Sam raked in a killer soundtrack thanks to John, Paul, George and Ringo.
But they've got nothing on "Across The Universe." Taking the turmoil and tumult of the sixties and re-imagining it through the lyrics of Beatle's songs, it is a trippy, hallucinogenic ride that is a visual and sonic feast. Jude (from Liverpool, naturally) comes to the US to find his American soldier dad (Robert Clohessy, a regular from Oz - The HBO prison drama) only to collide with rich kid renegade Max and then to fall for his sister, Lucy. Suddenly, they find themselves in NYC with a Janis Joplinish landlady, Sadie, and her Jimi Hendrixian boyfriend, Jojo.
The sixties then take their turn into the war, and the drama unfolds as Jude falls for Lucy ("I've Just Seen a Face"), Max finds himself drafted ("I Want You") and Lucy falls under the spell of the anti-war movement leader. Each point is often brilliantly illustrated, and director Julie Taymor tosses subtlety out the window for several of the film's best sequences. In particular, when Prudence sings "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as a lament for a love that can't speak out loud, football players fly through the air and collide as she walks through them. When Max gets to his indoctrination and the exaggerated GI Joes march in "stomp dance" style to "I Want You," it's breathtaking. While the narrative occasionally falters, the visuals and set pieces never do.
Of course, there is the music. While there's nothing earth-shattering here, all the actors acquit themselves just fine. The small handful of cameos are great, especially Joe Cocker singing "Come Together" as three different characters, and Bono playing the Ken Keasey Electric Kool-Aid guru Dr Robert on the magic bus, promoting his new book titled (heh heh) "I Am The Walrus." (I could have done without Eddie Izzard's "Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite," even if the sequence is sufficiently madcap.) But this isn't a sloppy kaleidoscope like the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1978 Soundtrack was; other than the three men mentioned prior, there are no stars here. In particular, Sadie (Dana Fuchs) and Jojo (Martin Luther McCoy) give dynamite performances, and other than Evan Rachel Wood, the cast is relatively unknown.
I really can't say enough about the pleasure I got from "Across The Universe, and it may be the first time you walk into a theater humming the songs. I was skeptical at first, because many of the reviews I'd read were not kind. But I have a feeling many of them were written by folks of a more tender age, lacking the comprehension of the times portrayed on screen. One of the most fun things about this movie was catching the goofy Beatles' homages sprinkled in the film's dialog (favorite, when Prudence sneaks into the Sadie's communal apartment and someone asked where she comes from, Jude replies "she came in through the bathroom window").
This is also a recommendable movie for one other reason. It isn't. When I say 'it isn't,' I mean, not a sequel, not a rip-off of a TV series (old or new), not a remake and some lowbrow teen sex-romp. There isn't anything cloying or coy, and while the movie is certainly political, the politics you get from it will be what you read out on your own. "Across The Universe" is as relevant today as it was when when The Beatles sang "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." Grab your popcorn, sit back, relax and float downstream.
Description of Across the Universe
Across the Universe, from director Julie Taymor, is a revolutionary rock musical that re-imagines America in the turbulent late-1960s, a time when battle lines were being drawn at home and abroad. When young dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in America, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), a rich but sheltered American girl who joins the growing anti-war movement in New York's Greenwich Village. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad. With a cameo by Bono, Across the Universe is "the kind of movie you watch again, like listening to a favorite album." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)Set in America during the Vietnam War, Across the Universe is a powerful love story set against a backdrop of political and social unrest: it's a story of soul-searching, self-doubt, and individual powerlessness cleverly conveyed through a multitude of Beatles songs. Like young adults all across America during the 1960's, Jude (Jim Sturgess), Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max (Joe Anderson), Sadie (Dana Fuchs), Prudence (T.V. Carpio), and JoJo (Martin Luther) are in turmoil over the war; questioning their individual roles in the war effort and struggling to find a way to hold true to their beliefs while making a difference in the world. While love proves a powerful uniting force, its limitations become clear as relationships are strained and broken over individual perceptions of responsibility to cause and country. A fairly bizarre juxtaposition of extremely stylized, almost hallucinogenic scenes of swirling colors and reflections, highly choreographed dance segments, seemingly commonplace character interaction, and emotionally packed close-up footage of characters lost in contemplative song, this film imparts a good sense of the confusion and passion of the time and is at once powerful, invigorating, and disturbing. The film runs a bit long at 2-hours 11-minutes and several segments drag noticeably thanks to some incredibly slow song tempos. Warning: this production may change how you think about a favorite Beatles song forever. --Tami Horiuchi
Beyond Across the Universe
 On Blu-ray |  The Deluxe Soundtrack |  Beatles audio CD |
Stills from Across the Universe (click for larger image)
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