Across the Universe premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 2007, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 12 by Columbia Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising the visuals, cast, and singing performances, though criticized the plot and direction. The film was a major box-office bomb, failing to earn even half of its total production budget at the box office. The film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design. Two members of the supporting cast, Carol Woods and Timothy T. Mitchum, performed as part of a special Beatles tribute at the 50th Grammy Awards.
Plot
In the 1960s, Jude Feeney, a shipyard worker in Liverpool, heads to the US to find his G.I. father who conceived him during World War II, whom he has never met. He promises his girlfriend Molly he will stay in touch while he is away.
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 anti-war demonstration at Columbia University. When the police arrest Lucy, Paco, and the other activists, Jude's attempts to reach her lead to his arrest as well.
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 smilingly 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.
"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)
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".
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 the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) and recorded by the Beatles. Twenty-nine of them are compositions that are officially credited to the songwriting partnership of Lennon–McCartney. Three are credited to George Harrison. One title ("Flying") is a 1967 instrumental composition credited to all four members of the Beatles (Lennon–McCartney–Harrison–Starr).
Thirty of the soundtrack's songs feature vocals. Two of them ("And I Love Her" and "A Day in the Life") are brief instrumental versions of songs that were originally written with lyrics, although "And I Love Her" is sung in a deleted scene. One song ("Flying") was originally written as an instrumental.
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 cameo roles (Bono, Eddie Izzard, Salma Hayek and Joe Cocker). One song ("Let It Be") is sung by supporting members of the cast. Another song ("Blue Jay Way") is sung by indie Texan trio the Secret Machines. In 29 of the vocal tracks, the vocalists are singing on-screen. Two of the vocal tracks ("Blue Jay Way" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds") are sung by off-screen vocalists.
The remaining three of the 33 tracks are instrumentals. "Flying" is performed by the Secret Machines, "And I Love Her" is heard briefly as part of the orchestral score, and "A Day in the Life" is performed on guitar by Jeff Beck in a version recorded for Sir George Martin's 1998 album In My Life.
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.
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 world premiere on Monday, September 10, 2007, at the Toronto International Film Festival.[9] The film was then given a very limited "platform release" on 27 screens in the US on Friday, September 14. The film had the second-highest "per-screen" average on its opening weekend. In the following three weeks, the release was gradually expanded to select regions.[10] After four weeks in limited release, on October 12, the film was elevated to a comparatively broader release on 954 US screens, breaking into the US box office top ten at #8.[10][11][12]
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 DVD, UMD, and Blu-ray formats were released on February 5, 2008. On January 9, 2018, the film was re-released as an Ultra HD Blu-ray.[14]
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]
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]
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