Across the Universe

This week, I watched the movie Across The Universe. It is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and animation, the film is paired with many songs by The Beatles that defined the time.

This movie uses the film technique of sound all throughout to describe the scene commencing before us. In one particular scene, Max, an ivy-league drop out, is recruited into the army.  No sooner has Max arrived than an Uncle Sam recruiting poster stirs to life, and the eagle-eyed glare of the white-haired man in his top hat and parade outfit fixes on him. Growling the opening phrases of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” Uncle Sam reaches out a giant animated hand and grabs Max by the shoulder. During their exam, the movie cuts to a scene in the jungle and the men drafted are carrying the statue of liberty on their shoulders. At this part the boys sing “She’s so heavy.” This symbolized the weight of our country’s freedom and liberty being put on the weight of their shoulders.