Across the Universe (film)
Across the Universe | |
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Directed by | Julie Taymor |
Screenplay by | |
Story by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Bruno Delbonnel |
Edited by | Françoise Bonnot |
Music by | Elliot Goldenthal |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
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Running time | 133 minutes[1] |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $70.8 million[2] |
Box office | $29.6 million[3] |
Across the Universe is a 2007 American
Across the Universe premiered at the
Plot
In the 1960s, Jude Feeney, a shipyard worker in
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Lucy Carrigan worries about her boyfriend Daniel, who is headed for service in the Vietnam War. In Dayton, Ohio, cheerleader Prudence pines for a fellow female cheerleader and then drops out of school in shame.
Jude meets his father Wes, a janitor at Princeton University, but does not particularly bond with him. While on campus, he meets and befriends slacker student Max, who brings him home for Thanksgiving. He introduces Jude to his family, including Lucy, his younger sister.
Max drops out of college; he and Jude move into a bohemian enclave in Greenwich Village run by a singer, Sadie. Jude becomes a freelance artist, and Max is a cab driver. Daniel is killed in Vietnam, and Lucy attends his funeral. In Detroit, a young African-American boy is killed in the 1967 riot. His adult brother Jo-Jo, a guitarist, moves to New York for a change of scenery and auditions for Sadie's band. They are soon joined by Prudence, who had hitchhiked there.
Lucy visits Max in New York before starting college, and she and Jude fall in love. Max, initially displeased upon learning they slept together, finally gives them his blessing. Later, Max is drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam, as he is no longer a college student protected from the draft. Prudence is attracted to Sadie and becomes depressed when Sadie and Jo-Jo begin a relationship.
Lucy becomes increasingly involved in the anti-war movement. Jude remains comparatively apolitical but devoted to her. Sadie is offered a chance to go on a solo tour as a headliner, leading to a bitter breakup between her and Jo-Jo. Jude dislikes the increasing amount of time Lucy spends with the Students for a Democratic Republic, led by activist Paco, as he suspects that Paco is attempting to seduce her.
Jude storms into the SDR office, leading to an argument with Lucy and a fight with Paco, after which Jude is thrown out and she breaks up with him. Some time later, Jude follows her to an
With Jude facing deportation, Lucy contacts his father. Wes visits him in jail but has no legal proof that Jude is his son and thus an American citizen. As a result, Jude is sent back to England. Returning to his job at the Liverpool shipyards, he runs into his former girlfriend Molly and sees that she is heavily pregnant by her current partner. She met him around the time Jude stopped writing her (when he started seeing Lucy).
Jo-Jo continues playing solo guitar in bars, while the highly successful Sadie drowns her sorrow and loneliness in alcohol on tour. Max is wounded in Vietnam and sent home. Lucy visits him in the hospital, but he is traumatized and dependent on morphine. Meanwhile, she continues her activities with the SDR and is involved with Paco, but is uncomfortable with him leading the movement deeper into violence.
Lucy leaves Paco and the organization when she finds him making bombs, and she is surrounded by constant reminders of Jude. One of Paco's homemade bombs explodes, killing him and his confederates. Upon reading this news, Jude fears Lucy is also dead. He learns from Max over the phone that she had left the group beforehand and is alive, and he arranges to return to NYC legally.
Jo-Jo and Sadie, who have reconciled, put on a rooftop concert. Max brings Jude to the rooftop. When the police arrive to break up the concert, Jude manages to remain on the roof and begins to sing. The police allow the band to rejoin him. He notices Lucy on the opposite rooftop, standing and looking at him. Lucy and Jude gaze while smiling at each other as the performance concludes.
Cast
The names of the six main characters (and most minor characters) were inspired by Beatles song titles and lyrics.
- Evan Rachel Wood as Lucy ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")
- Jim Sturgess as Jude ("Hey Jude")
- Joe Anderson as Max ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer")
- Dana Fuchs as Sadie ("Sexy Sadie")
- Martin Luther McCoy as Jo-Jo ("Get Back")
- T.V. Carpio as Prudence ("Dear Prudence")
- Spencer Liff as Daniel, Lucy's high school boyfriend ("Rocky Raccoon")
- Lisa Hogg as Molly, Jude's Liverpool girlfriend ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da")
- Angela Mounsey as Martha Feeny, Jude's mother ("Martha My Dear")
- Robert Clohessy as Wesley "Wes" Hubert, Jude's father
- Dylan Baker and Linda Emond as Lucy's parents (the Carrigans, Jerry Carrigan opened the Beatles' first performance in America)
- Lynn Cohen as Grandmother Carrigan
- Bill Irwin as Uncle Teddy ("Teddy Boy")
- Timothy T. Mitchumas Jo-Jo's younger brother
- Let It Be")
- Joe Cocker as Bum / Pimp / Mad Hippie
- Jacob Pitts as Rat magazine employee
- Staceyann Chin as Rat magazine employee
- Harry Lennix as army sergeant
- Logan Marshall-Green as Paco
- James Urbaniak as Bill, Sadie's manager ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill")
- Bono as Dr. Robert ("Doctor Robert")
- Daniel Ezralow as Mother Superior ("Happiness Is a Warm Gun")
- Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite ("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!")
- Arabella Holzbog as Prankster
- Ekaterina Sknarina as Rita, Prudence's girlfriend, a contortionist for Mr. Kite's circus. ("Lovely Rita")
- Salma Hayek as Bang Bang Shoot Shoot Nurses ("Happiness Is a Warm Gun")
Music
Musical numbers
List of 33 Beatles compositions on the soundtrack in order, including three compositions heard twice, totalling 34 individual music cues:
- "Girl" — Jude
- "Helter Skelter" — Sadie
- "Hold Me Tight" — Lucy, Molly, and Prom Night singers
- "All My Loving" — Jude
- "I Want to Hold Your Hand" — Prudence
- "With a Little Help from My Friends" — Max, Jude, and Dorm buddies
- "It Won't Be Long" — Lucy and Students
- "I've Just Seen a Face" — Jude
- "Let It Be" — Gospel singer, Jojo's brother, and Church choir
- "Come Together" — Pimp, Bum, Mad Hippie, Jojo, and Prostitutes
- "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" — Sadie
- "If I Fell" — Lucy
- "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" — Max, Sadie, Prudence, Uncle Sam, and Soldiers
- "Dear Prudence" — Sadie, Jude, Lucy, and Max
- "The Secret Machines
- "Blue Jay Way" — The Secret Machines
- "I Am the Walrus" — Dr. Robert
- "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" — Mr. Kite
- "Because" — Lucy, Jude, Max, Sadie, Prudence, and Jojo
- "Something" — Jude
- "Oh! Darling" — Sadie and Jojo
- "Strawberry Fields Forever" — Jude and Max
- "Revolution" — Jude
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" — Jojo and Jude
- "Across the Universe" — Jude (interwoven with "Helter Skelter")
- "Helter Skelter (Reprise)" — Sadie (interwoven with "Across the Universe")
- "And I Love Her" (brief extract incorporated into the orchestral score during the "Across the Universe"/"Helter Skelter (Reprise)" sequence, also sung by McCoy in a deleted scene)
- "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" — Max, Bang Bang Shoot Shoot nurses, and Soldiers
- "A Day in the Life (Instrumental)" — Jeff Beck
- "Blackbird" — Lucy
- "Hey Jude" — Max, Jude's mother, Children and Immigrants
- "Don't Let Me Down" — Sadie and Jojo
- "All You Need Is Love" — Jude, Sadie, Prudence, Max, and Jojo
- "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" — Bono and The Edge (end credits)
Extended musical numbers
There is extra music, such as in "Hold Me Tight", to have more opportunity for things such as dance sequences. In "Come Together" on the special features, there is extra music for a dance solo and a well-planned "Six Degrees of Separation" which connects the main characters as they enter New York lifestyle. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is also extended to add time for Max's medical check-up that is shown and for the dialogue about Max eating cotton balls and other theories to get out of the draft. The extended music is used as underscoring for dialogue after "Dear Prudence", "Something", and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Some songs are not extended, but also have dialogue, such as "Revolution" and "All My Loving." Other extended songs include "I Am the Walrus", "Oh! Darling", "Across the Universe", and "Helter Skelter".
Soundtrack
The film's end credits identify 33 Beatles compositions featured in the film, either in their entirety or in part. All of these songs were written from 1962 to 1969 by the members of
Thirty of the soundtrack's songs feature vocals. Two of them ("
Twenty-five of the vocal tracks are performed by one or more of the six lead cast members. Four of the songs are sung by stars with
The remaining three of the 33 tracks are instrumentals. "Flying" is performed by the Secret Machines, "
In addition to the Beatles compositions, the soundtrack features an original score composed by Elliot Goldenthal. Goldenthal worked on Taymor's previous films Titus and Frida. (Goldenthal and director Taymor have been romantic partners since 1982.)
Interscope Records has released three variations of the soundtrack from the film—a standard edition and two deluxe editions. The standard edition contains 16 tracks from the film soundtrack, although "Let It Be" is shortened, missing the third verse. The first version of the deluxe edition features 31 tracks—all of the vocal performances and one of the three instrumental tracks.[4] In the US, this 31-track version is available solely at Best Buy stores and in a digital version from iTunes, while in Europe it is available at other retail outlets. A second version of the deluxe edition is available at other retail outlets and digital download suppliers. The second version differs from the 31-track version in that it omits two tracks ("Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)").
The song "It Won't Be Long" was released as a single on iTunes on September 11, 2007. From October 15 to 17, 2007, and again from October 22 to 23, 2007, the 31-track deluxe edition was the #1 downloaded album on iTunes.
The soundtrack includes seven songs from
Production
In March 2007, the media reported a dispute over the final cut of the film. Concerned with the length of director Julie Taymor's cut of the film, Revolution Studios chairman Joe Roth tested a sneak preview of a shortened version without first informing Taymor. The incident sparked some heat between the two, later involving Sony Pictures' Amy Pascal urging Taymor to agree to the shorter version.[5][6][7] After several months of dispute, Taymor's version was eventually reinstated as the theatrically released version.[8] While the production budget was originally reported as $45 million, documents from Roth's sale of Revolution Studios revealed the actual cost of the film to be $70.8 million.[2]
Release and reception
The film's release date and release pattern became the subject of some media and public discussion. The film had been originally scheduled for release in 2006. The release was postponed as the editing process became extended and internal disputes arose. The film was subsequently scheduled for a wide release on approximately 1000 US screens on September 28, 2007. In early September 2007, Sony announced that the release would be brought forward to September 14, 2007, with a "platform release" pattern starting on a small number of screens—with additional screens to be added in subsequent weeks.
The film received its
Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Olivia Harrison praised the film after seeing it. Julie Taymor, the director of the film was interviewed about her screening with McCartney: "At the end of the screening I did the classic thing. I asked him, 'Was there anything you didn't like?' He said, 'What's not to like?'"[13]
The
Critical reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 53% based on 179 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Psychedelic musical numbers can't mask Across the Universe's clichéd love story and thinly written characters."[15] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[16]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was extremely positive towards the film, giving it four out of four stars, calling it "an audacious marriage of cutting-edge visual techniques, heart-warming performances, 1960s history and the Beatles songbook" and calling Julie Taymor an "inventive choreographer".[17]
The film appeared on a few notable critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007, including 34 from American film critics:[18][19]
- 1st – Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- 7th – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times[20]
- 9th – Stephen Holden, The New York Times[21]
Awards
- 65th Golden Globe Awards[22]
- Nominee for Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
- Nominee for
- 80th Academy Awards
- Nominee for Best Costume Design[23]
- 19th GLAAD Media Awards[24]
- Nominee for Best Film – Wide Release
Sequel
In October 2020, Julie Taymor announced that developments were underway for a sequel. Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood have had discussions with the filmmaker to reprise their roles, while the story would take place during the 1970s and feature additional songs by the Beatles.[25][26]
See also
- List of cover versions of Beatles songs
- The Beatles' influence on popular culture
References
- ^ "ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. September 12, 2007. Archived from the original on May 27, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
- ^ a b "Inside the Revolution Library: Where Joe Roth Went Wrong". The Wrap. September 2011. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
- ^ Across the Universe at Box Office Mojo
- ^ "Across the Universe Soundtrack : News : Across The Universe Soundtrack available 9/14!". Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
- ^ "A Revolt at Revolution?". IMDb. March 20, 2007. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
- ^ "More Details of Taymor-Roth Feud". IMDb. March 21, 2007. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
- ^ Waxman, Sharon (March 20, 2007). "Film Has Two Versions; Only One Is Julie Taymor's". The New York Times.
- ^ Douglas, Edward (September 18, 2007). "Julie Taymor Soars Across the Universe". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ Broadway World September 13, 2007: Photo Coverage: 'Across The Universe' Premieres in Toronto Archived February 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Linked October 17, 2012
- ^ a b Mason, Steve (September 22, 2007). "Friday Box Office: Resident Evil $22M 3-day; Eastern Promises strong; Into The Wild huge". Slashfilm.com. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2007.
- ^ Goodman, Dean (September 30, 2007). "Game Plan conquers Kingdom at box office". Reuters.com. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
- ^ "Across the Universe (2007) - Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
- ^ Gold, Sylviane (September 12, 2007). "'Across the Universe': Turning Beatles songs upside down - the New York Times". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "Across the Universe - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Review | High Def Digest". Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
- ^ "Across the Universe". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on October 8, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ "Across the Universe (2007) Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (September 13, 2007). "Nothing's gonna change my world". rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. CBS. Archived from the original on January 2, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
- ^ "Best Movies of 2007". Critics' Top10. CriticsTop10. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (December 20, 2007). "The year's ten best films and other shenanigans". rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (December 23, 2007). "Films That Look Death in the Eye". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
- ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards For The Year Ended December 31, 2007". goldenglobes.org. December 13, 2007. Archived from the original on December 15, 2007. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- ^ "OSCAR.com - 80th Annual Academy Awards - Nomination". Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
- ^ "19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Nominees". Archived from the original on June 14, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
- ^ Wang, Tiffany (October 2, 2020). "Across The Universe 2 Director Julie Taymor Reveals Her Plans For The Sequel". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- ^ Reyes, Mike (October 1, 2020). "What An Across The Universe Sequel Should Be About, According To Director Julie Taymor". CinemaBlend. Retrieved October 2, 2020.