Although Across the universe seemed incredibly stupid to me at first it actually turned out pretty well. What seemed like a movie that was only about young adults who continuously get high, it actually does have an underlining theme.
The movie is set during the Vietnam war. It first starts out with the story of Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Max(Joe Anderson) (brother and sister). Lucy’s boyfriend, Daniel gives up his life to go and fight in the war while she waits for him back in their home. Max is another misunderstood rich kid, who really doesn’t want to achieve anything in life. But ironically enough is going to school at Princeton.
Then it continues with the story of Jude (Jim Strugess) who lives in Liverpool with his mother. Then one day he leaves everything (including a girlfriend) to go and find his father, who works at Princeton. While he thinks he’s going to find his father to be a scholar or professor, he turns out to be a janitor.
After, disappointingly meeting his father he runs into Max who is a bit of trouble as he runs from campus security, and then bond. Later on Max takes Jude off with him to his family for Thanksgiving. There he meets Lucy, who’s boyfriend was killed in the Vietnam war a few days after she receives a letter informing her that he was going to come home.
Soon after Max informs his family that he was going to drop out of college and move to New York (which later almost becomes his demise since he is drafted), where Jude accompanies him. There they move into an apartment with Sadie (who is supposed to be a resemblance of Janis Joplin), who sings in a band that is later formed called Sadie and the Po Boys. Also in the band is Jojo (A representation of Jimi Hendrix), who comes to New York when his little brother is killed in the 12th Street Riot.
The last character is Prudence, a young woman confused by her sexual identity. She is first introduced by going to a school where she has a crush on a follow cheerleader. Later she comes back by crawling through Jude, Max, and Sadie’s window after having been abused by her ex-boyfriend.
The whole movie is a musical that includes over thirty songs all by the Beatles, but song by the cast characters. All the characters (including supporting roles) are cleverly named after a song by the Beatles, for example: Jude as in “Hey Jude”, Lucy as in “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and Prudence as in “Dear Prudence”. All songs are also in the movie. Almost every song that a character is named after is either wittily mentioned in the movie or is in the movie.
After having seen this movie after my cousin forced me I found it was actually really cool and worth the two hours of the movie. Trust me almost everyone can find something enjoyable about this movie. Whether for girls it’s Jim Strugess and his looks, The Beatles songs and references for boys, or the historical references or finding that the underlying meanings of almost everything in the movie has to do with the Beatles. Or maybe even some of your relatives who may have lived through the Vietnam war and find it intriguing about how people now interpret that time. For whatever reason, trust me when I saw WATCH IT. Across the Universe is an amazing movie.