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Across the universe6/11/2023 This invests meaning into the music videos, whether it be Prudence’s tortured lesbian crush in the innocent “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the somber gospel rendering of “Let It Be” as it depicts the death of a child in the 1967 Detroit riot, or the Eddie Izzard green screen circus show of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. This is all visualized in Across the Universe through a combination of handcrafted art, as one would see at a rally or art installation, and a plethora of visual effects matched to symbolically stylized choreography to create the sort of transcendental haze born of the era’s drug culture. Existing form 1963 to 1970, The Beatles was a group that perfectly captured the evolving culture of the United States and the United Kingdom during that decade, from the innocent excesses of lingering 1950s culture to the radicalized anti-war sentiment that defined the protest culture of the later decade. However, to address that surface level, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the production design of Across the Universe is superb, evolving to meet the needs of the music as it transitions from the hometown pop sensibilities of the Fab Four’s early career to the experimental and psychedelic iterations of the band’s later years. Is that because people just want to watch two hours of trippy music videos, plot be damned? Well, that’s likely part of it, but I’d say there’s a bit more to Across the Universe than what’s on the surface. And yet the film endures as a cult classic, warts and all. The film’s narrative, on the other hand, is a tangent-riddled, near-nonsensical mess, held together with gumption and reverence to the letter of The Beatles’ lyrics. In terms of visual ambition, very few musicals can claim to occupy the same realm of creativity and carefully crafted execution. When Across the Universe premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival ten years ago today, audiences didn’t quite know what to make of director Julie Taymor‘s Beatles-inspired jukebox musical.
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