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Introduction
The 60th era has been an important time in American in terms of cultural, political, social, and economic life. This is the era, which has brought us: the Vietnam War, the Civil rights movement, hippies, the Beatles, the assassination of John Fritz Gerald Kennedy, The Space Shuttle Program, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and much more. A glimpse of this era gives a person an innumerable list of achievements in miscellaneous life spheres as well as different specific social changes, by which this period was marked. When one meditates on this era, he is surely able to remember such things as the hippie movement; psychedelic lifestyles, the black Civil rights movement, and music such as the British “invasion”. Integrate all these factors and you will understand the importance of the decade of the sixties. But it is rather interesting that the producer’s choice dwells on several questions, not mentioning the other ones.
Main body
The main purpose of “Across the Universe” was to allow us to revive this crucial time of our history. Taking ten years of History and compress it into two hours and fifteen minutes was an astonishing job of Hollywood. For those of the US, who was not born, during this era, this film will provide them a true perceptive or a brief flashback of this epoch of time.
The film appeared to be very dramatic first at its starting point; it was obvious how Hollywood was trying to depict the sadness that had been shaking the lives of lots of people. It was the beginning of the Vietnam war and people were being called to serve, abandoning their wives, husbands, and families. The Vietnam War is now claimed to be the longest war in the history of the United States. Moreover, it is the most unpopular one in which Americans ever participated. The war, where there is no reckoning the cost. The results of the suffering of people, of their sorrow, will never be tabulated and it is obvious that no one wants to see his nation so divided one more time. And for so many Americans, who are the veterans of that war, the injuries, they have got, would never heal. To better illustrate this time, The following Beatles songs were injected into the mix, “All My Loving” and “I want to hold your hand”. It was very hard for many families to leave their beloved ones behind particularly for a war that was questionable whether it was moral or immoral for the US to attack Vietnam.
An intuitive peak appears with “Strawberry Fields Forever”, it was very imaginative and psychedelic in a sense. After listening to the war casualty on the television, the song “Strawberry field” was sung right after. The political aspect in that particular scene was a way of Hollywood to sketch the Vietnam War as one of the bloodiest wars in US history. This stunning creation figure, in which several rows of bleeding strawberries are fastened to a white surface showed an illusion of strawberry bombs raining over Vietnam. Suddenly, Jude begins pulverizing strawberries on the walls and floors and tear down his artistic work. That shows extreme compassion for those, who were to struggle in the war and those, who lived in Vietnam. The song is an important token or symbol of warfare.
During The Vietnam war, it does cross my mind that the US Government needed recruiting. When Max Carrigan arrived at the army center, an Uncle Sam poster came to life and the following Beatles song was used: “I Want You (She’s So Heavy). ” Although the latter is fictional, in my opinion, reflects a desperate need by the US Government to increase the recruitment as the Vietnam casualty was becoming heavier. Besides, Max’s sister’s acts impress the audience with the deep sorrow for the war. One might assume that she was the symbol of the war in a film.
I also like in particular, the way the song “Revolution” was introduced. Jude went to see Lucy at her workplace, a militant antiwar organization. He entered her office, incited a fight with the crew members, and got thrown out. At this moment in time, the country was on a brink of civil war. That was very clever by Julie Taymor to have that specific song into the action which symbolizes a new chapter in American life. It is also one of the several moments in which “Across the Universe” seizes a vital touching duality of a society in which anger and euphoric idealism clashed and played into each other at the same instance.
“Across the universe” projects a dreamlike state where real and imaginative elements are blurred together. An example, when Max was recovering at the hospital, he was having a strange dream in which people around him were dying then come back to life to the song: “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” It comes into view that Hollywood was painting the state of mind of our veteran soldiers, who often suffer from psychological trauma, once they are back from wars.
One of the scenes in Across the Universe that caught my mind was when they drove Three thousand miles to see a spiritual leader name, Dr. Geary. These upcoming scenes that I am about to explain is a convention technique that is well explained in the Hollywood Musical: “Bricolage Vs Engineering”. As they went out from the bus, when Dr. Robert said the following: “The home of Dr. Geary, another outlaw, like myself. We are navigators, we are aviators, we are eating taters, master* alligators, bombardiers, we got no fears, will not shed any tears. We are pushing the frontiers of transcendental perception. What’s weird is we have not met yet, on this or any other plane”. Dr. Robert thought of himself as an outlaw and this sentence, when spoken fast makes a nice rhythm as described by The Hollywood musical. In addition to that scene, after the bus left a few of them on the ground, a live band with several blue alien-looking creatures started playing in the background with all kinds of strange equipment.
I believe that “Across the Universe” has brought minor evolution toward the musical genre, the way that Hollywood was able to link all the Beatles songs together to create a story, in which we can learn a few snapshot lessons about the 60th era. Nevertheless, the book by Jane Feuer is impacting the development of events. Taking the following quote into consideration proves that:
“The great struggle for supremacy between words, music and production – which always brings up the question ‘which is the pretext for what. ‘: is the music the pretext for the events on the stage, or are these the pretext for the music. etc. (Feuer, 127) – can simply be by-passed by radically separating the elements. So long as the expression ‘ Gesamtkunstwerk’ (or ‘integrated work of art’) means that the integration is a muddle, so long as the arts are supposed to be ‘fused” The fact remains that “Across the Universe” is not only a musical film, but also a story teller. (Feuer, 127) Thus, the fusion is obvious here. However, in my opinion, I believe too much illusion was injected into the story line. Thinking about the end of the film, it comes to mind that everything end up good. The happy end of the film is abrupt and unexpected.
Inferring, it is necessary to state that The Hollywood musical was an extended stick of the film industry, at least from the commencement of the sound era, and the same continues to reappear from time to time. The given film got negative reviews in recent years as it is considered to be too artificial and even not life like. It is thought to be so, as it is hard to believe people bursting out singing in the middle of their speech and to hear the orchestras play, when there are no orchestras at all. “Across the Universe” has changed that, not only using musical in its core, but also teaching history and bring a special interest toward Musical type genres.
Works Cited
Jane Feuer. The Hollywood Musical. Indiana University Press; 2 Sub edition, England: 1993.
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