ACROSS THE UNIVERSE review
Well stocked with inside nods to everyone’s favorite rock quartet from Liverpool. One would think that Julie Taymor’s Beatles-musical “Across the Universe” stands poised to appeal to the masses in their cross-generational, long-standing fandom for the group. Then why is it that Beatles fans are more skeptical and cautious than excitingly anticipating the unprecedented pairing of staunch visual artist Julie Taymor (“Titus”, “Frida”, “The Lion King” stage musical) and the fab four’s diverse musical catalog? It could have to do with having been burned by past attempts to forge some sort of narrative structure by stringing the classic tunes together. Anyone who’s seen the 1978 movie “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band”, a film as bad as its namesake album is good, still recoils at its very mention.
Yes, the Beatles songs are the pinnacle of sacred pop culture artifacts, and one should tread very carefully when appropriating them for any outside, newfangled use. But none of that should bind the hands of competent artists out to explore the songs in a fresh, creative way. After all, the Beatles themselves did their fair share of groundbreaking cover tunes from the early days of rock n’ roll. And it should be agreed that Julie Taymor, whatever one may think of her previous work, is most certainly not out to make, say, a shoe commercial. She is out to explore no less than the current American social and political climate through a filter of a Beatles-fused 1960s anti-Vietnam War rock musical. The question is, does she pull it off?
Based on its lackluster trailer, this film has already suffered labels such as “Hair” with Beatles music, and a “Moulin Rouge wannabe”. But early judgment aside, what is “Across the Universe”, really? Spanning the whole of the turbulent 1960s (despite the fact that no one ages on screen), it’s the story of love struck teens Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Rachel Evan Wood). He’s an illegal immigrant from Liverpool who only wants to make art; she’s an all-American girl swept up in the many facets of 1960s activism. They run with a free-spirited group of artists and musicians, most notably the Janis Joplin-esque Sadie (Dana Fuchs) and Jimi Hendrix-esque JoJo (Martin Luther). In their mod/hippie journeys, they meet several self-proclaimed counter-culture gurus, most notably including Bono’s Dr. Robert (delivering a solid rendition of “I Am The Walrus”) and Eddie Izzard’s Mr. Kite (performing the kookiest, loosest rendition of any one song in the film, “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”). But Taymor has little patience for these pseudo-transcendental pitchmen, reducing them at best to comic relief, and at worst false prophets.
This flat-out rejection of these types of characters signifies the film as more of a levelheaded critique of the turbulent era than a rosy-eyed love letter to it. Unfortunately, this much-needed footing doesn’t settle until roughly the halfway point. Until then, the viewer coasts along to the many toe-tapping Beatles tunes and painstakingly recreated 1960s art direction, soaking up the love vibes, but not much else. Which is fine for most movie musicals, but when Julie Taymor (toying with the Beatles, no less) is involved, one expects more. Eventually, the film finds itself sufficiently grounded in the apt worldview of not simply “war is bad”, or even “isn’t organized public protest just the coolest?”, but rather, frustration with the sheer inability to make a difference in a world getting increasing carried away by war-mongering governing forces. While clearly anti-war, and perhaps even anti-military, it is to Taymor’s credit that the increasingly violent protestors aren’t let off the hook, either. In one late scene, as a protest march becomes a full-on riot, the addled Lucy can only cower in a nearby phone booth repeating the familiar refrain from “Revolution”, “you know it’s gonna be… alright…” (Marking a rare, more accurate read of the message of the song.) For what it’s worth, it is this point of view and realization that gives “Across the Universe” any lasting power it may have.
Much has been made of the ugly creative-differences dispute Taymor has had with Joe Roth, and how his Revolution Studios supposedly cut the film. According the various media sources, this version of the film is the result of a compromise between the battling parties, implying that Taymor’s preferred cut will have to wait until home video, if that. Knowledge of this inside information makes it slightly difficult to comment on the quality of the director’s overall vision. But it can be safely said that Taymor’s trademark trippy visuals are surprisingly toned down, reduced to the occasional interjected sequence, on par with the structure of Taymor’s more earthbound “Frida” than her ultra-lucid “Titus”. The most notable “Taymor” sequence in the film is one in which new military recruits are put through the army sausage mill of pre-boot camp inspections and injections. Set to “Abbey Road’s” “I Want You”, and featuring an Uncle Sam poster coming to life and singing the song to match its iconic recruitment phrase, the sequence teeters precariously in that dangerous space between embarrassingly obvious and brilliant obviousness. Individual verdicts of this sequence and others like it will determine for each viewer their own opinions of the film.
“Across the Universe”, while competent and artistically valid, is nonetheless bogged down in the very reality is chooses to depict, the United States in the 1960s. Considering that Taymor’s greatest triumphs are stories set in fantastical settings (“Titus”, “The Lion King”), one wonders if this concept would’ve been better suited to a loose metaphorical other-worldly1960s. In a completely fabricated world, Taymor could’ve pushed all the same highly recognizable issues, but also have cut loose with wardrobe and settings. As it stands, the film depicts what is clearly intended to be our actual past, with the glaring exception of the physical presence of the Beatles as an actual band – a detail so glaringly absent that this might as well be an acknowledged fabricated world after all.
In the end, “Across the Universe” is not at all a Beatles movie, but a Julie Taymor movie. Beatles movies are fun; this is many things, but never is it that kind of pure fun. In that sense, the essential spirit of the Beatles – the very thing that one would argue has kept them so incredibly popular over the years – is absent from the film. That reduces the presence of the songs to mere appropriation. All this means that “Across the Universe” isn’t the film is could’ve been. It’s absolutely worth a look, but for any number of reasons, it can’t quite generate full must-see status. To swipe a quip from “The Simpsons” Al Jean, in terms of quality, it’s somewhere in between “Sgt. Pepper’s” the album and “Sgt. Peppers” the movie. That’s a range so vast, it may in fact span across the universe.
- Jim Tudor
