Across the Universe on DVD
Bonus Features Explain Story Based on Beatles Music
DVD bonus features give clarity to this exciting psychedelic rock musical featuring a young cast of little-known actors.
Using people, places, images, and situations from songs of The Beatles, Across the Universe creates an imaginative story set in the late 1960s about a young British man who travels to America to find his estranged father. When Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves his mother, girlfriend, and dockworker job behind in Liverpool, he discovers a whole new world in New York’s Greenwich Village.
An Astounding Rock Musical
Jude meets Max (Joe Anderson) and his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and starts a new adventure as an artist during a time when those around him are concerned with the war and political activism. A love story, a social statement, a period piece, and a rock musical, Across the Universe is full of special effects surprises, soulful renditions of Beatles music, and special appearances including Bono, Salma Hayek, Eddie Izzard, and Joe Cocker.
Director Julie Taymor and screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais developed a story built around 32 individual Beatles songs, out of about 200 from which to choose. Sometimes the song transitions are seamless as in “Strawberry Fields Forever,” which blends strawberries on a painter’s canvas, dripping red paint, and bloody war scenes. Others, such as when a woman named Prudence (T.V. Carpio) locks herself in a closet and the trio has to sing to coax her out of it, seem more contrived. Additional songs include “Girl,” “Helter Skelter,” “Hold Me Tight,” “All My Loving,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “Let It Be,” and “Come Together.”
DVD Bonus Features
Across the Universe is a film with layers of images and meanings, many of which are highlighted in the bonus features. This two-disc deluxe edition contains enthralling extras that make the movie even more enjoyable and will entice you to watch it again afterward. There’s fascinating commentary by Taymor and music director/composer Elliot Goldenthal, a deleted scene, and extended musical performances.
Especially intriguing are five featurettes: Creating the Universe (behind the scenes information); Stars of Tomorrow (background information about the talented young actors and where/how Taymor found them); All About the Music (how the original Beatles music was adapted, interpreted, and performed for the movie); Moving Across the Universe (a fun segment on the choreography); and FX on the Universe (a revealing look at how the eye-popping hallucinogenic effects were created).
- Across the Universe
- Director: Julie Taymor
- Run Time: 133 minutes
- Rating: PG-13 (drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language)
- DVD Bonus Features: Deleted Scene, Extended Musical Performances, Featurettes, Commentary, Photo Gallery, and Subtitles.
For more reviews of romantic movies, read License to Wed, Braff and Bateman in The Ex, and Movie Review of Waitress.
