Across the Universe - 6

Using Beatles songs as a starting point, this film tells a love story set in the tumultuous decade of the 60's. Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves Britain behind to go to America for an adventure. He becomes friends with Max (Joe Anderson) and Jude soon starts falling for Max's sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Max drops out of Princeton to live in NYC, here the three of them live in a community apartment with an eclectic group of artists. The film weaves the songs of the Beatles and the events of the times- the war in Vietnam, drugs, the sexual revolution, civil rights movement, and the questioning of authority.


Director Julie Taymor using stunning visuals, including animation, psychedelic coloring (with a trippy cameo by Bono), and imaginative and artistic props and sets to try to portray the feeling and experience of this radical turning point in a culture. The plot is relatively simple but the use of songs and historical footage shows the complexity of the times and the individual and social struggles.