“All You Need Is Love” Across the Universe: Julie Taymor & The Beatles By Jen Johans |
| Ending the film with Sadie and Jo-Jo’s rooftop concert which was staged like the one The Beatles performed in Let it Be as Taymor’s cast sings “Don’t Let Me Down,” the cops bust the performers but not before Jude can break free and sing “All You Need Is Love” to Lucy who’s standing across the street. While in reality, The Beatles were stopped by police officers, in this vintage promotional clip, we see the success of their rooftop rendition as well, from which no doubt Julie Taymor drew inspiration. However, intriguingly, while there’s an obvious homage to Romeo and Juliet in the staging of “All You Need Is Love,” Taymor told ComingSoon.net that she wasn’t aware of this until a producer friend pointed it out to her and afterwards, she realized she wasn’t conscious of all her allusions. “As artists,” she told the interviewer, “things filter through you and then they come out hopefully in a fresh way.” I think you’ll agree after viewing these sequences that it did and to better show the evolution, I'll cite The Beatles clip first. While purists can argue that one shouldn’t tamper with the greats and that Taymor tainted the own little movies and images we have of the songs in our head, upon further research and as noted throughout, The Beatles themselves were constantly drawing inspiration from the world around them, whether it was with the war, dabbling in spirituality, drugs or simply buying an old poster and listening to Beethoven, etcetera. Plus, in offering a wholly original production, Taymor does much more than fall into trappings of a parody movie and ultimately, with a work of startlingly life-affirming passion, she honored the spirit of The Beatles and what Tomorrow Never Knows author Nick Bromell originally said they were for audiences. Namely, he wrote:
alone in the early ‘60s and wanted desperately ‘to make contact with something more.’ The Beatles created a space into which their audience projected as much meaning as they took away… a dynamic call-and- response between themselves and their audience, a process whereby ‘meaning’ was created by an audience in collaboration with performers.” (32) Paul McCartney once said, “We write songs. We know what we mean by them. But in a week someone else says something about it, says that it means that as well, and you can’t deny it. Things take on millions of meanings,” (Bromell 32). And in offering up one meaning out of millions, Taymor truly created a work that is one in a million. Additionally, it will hopefully inspire another generation to seek new meanings for a society that, unfortunately, with the advent of two wars and an overreliance of headlines over the first half of the year regarding gender and racial prejudice in a presidential race, is making us question even more so each day, the same thing it did for Julie Taymor, namely-- how does that period of the 60’s speak to us now? And I think it’s safe to say, it never hurts to look back to seek lessons, answers and inspiration in the past. Besides, who better to use as guides than those who composed what are arguably the definitive songs of the twentieth century? This is especially true when considering that—no matter how much I read or how many degrees I acquire—Taymor is right in arguing that one has to go through all the darkness to be able to reach that all important conclusion. For as trite as it sounds-- now more than ever-- it seems ever so clear that in order to avoid war and respond to events “across the universe,” in the words of The Beatles, “love is all you need.” Bibliography & Further Links “Across the Universe: Deluxe Edition Soundtrack.” Listen to Samples of Entire Album at Amazon. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.amazon. com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000WCBPOG/ref=pd_krex_dp_a “Across the Universe.” Internet Movie Database (IMDb). (accessed 8/4/2008) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445922/ “Across the Universe.” Official Movie Site. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www. sonypictures.com/homevideo/acrosstheuniverse/ “Across the Universe.” Rotten Tomatoes: Photos. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www. rottentomatoes.com/m/across_the_universe/pictures/ “Across the Universe.” Official Soundtrack on Last.FM: only contains some tracks. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.last.fm/music/Across+The+Universe+Soundtrack Across the Universe. “Two Disc Deluxe Edition.” Dir: Julie Taymor. Revolution Studios, 2007. “The Beatles.” MySpace Page. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.myspace.com/thebeatles “The Beatles.” Official Site (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.thebeatles.com/core/home/ “The Beatles.” Rolling Stone Photo Gallery. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thebeatles/photos/collection/1 “The Beatles.” Photos. Snap Galleries. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.snapgalleries.com/gallery/beatles-gallery/bealtes-gallery.html “The Beatles.” Official YouTube Channel. (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.youtube.com/user/thebeatlesofficial Bromell, Nick. Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the 1960’s. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Buskin, Richard. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to The Beatles. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1998. Douglas, Edward. “Julie Taymor Soars Across the Universe.” ComingSoon.Net (accessed 8/6/2008) http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=37341 Ebert, Roger. “Across the Universe.” The Chicago Sun-Times: Roger Ebert Online. (accessed 8/4/2008) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070913/REVIEWS/709130301 Giuliano, Geoffrey and Brenda. The Lost Beatles Interviews: “The Beatles Changed American Consciousness.” New York: Dutton Books, 1994. Harry, Bill. The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia. New York: Hyperion, 1992. Holden, Stephen. “Across the Universe: Lovers in the ‘60s Take a Magical Mystery Tour.” The New York Times (accessed 8/10/2008) http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/movies/14univ.html Johans, Jen. “Across the Universe.” Film Intuition: Review Database. (accessed 8/4/2008) http://reviews.filmintuition.com/2007/10/across-universe.html “Julie Taymor.” Internet Movie Database (IMDb). (accessed 8/9/2008) http://www. imdb.com/name/nm0853380/ Waxman, Sharon. “Film Has Two Versions; Only One is Julie Taymor’s.” The New York Times (accessed 8/10/2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/movies/20roth.html? ex=1332043200&en=db2b4d48b6a1ef10&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
(All from YouTube.Com) “Across the Universe”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h7SZTU2Q54 “All You Need is Love”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GkgDZ28T00 “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amAx4UnjJtk “Come Together”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v-T15IDYNE “Dear Prudence”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMk8GIOQHvY “Don't Let Me Down”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9pJbHSUKE “Girl:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igvCSuUoBU “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EDm3vkfRzo “Hey Jude”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBgC0ytvTMs “Hold Me Tight:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JBA6mkrq9g&feature=related “I Am the Walrus”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqcpmbuE7Q “I Want to Hold Your Hand” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfRdn8wqi4 “I Want You/She’s So Heavy”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwB8QiKWodk “It Won't Be Long”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSYwae0Ecc “I've Just Seen a Face”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdwxWeKCo9Q “Let It Be”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQNpEET9WqQ “Oh! Darlin’”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGro_0h868M “Revolution”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XWM2LhVOKc “Strawberry Fields Forever”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziToC3371NE “With a Little Help From My Friends”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opqKNZJY6qc The Beatles Clips Beatles: “Don't Let Me Down”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riOnVUJAo3k Beatles: “I Am The Walrus”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqOKvonLrH8&feature=related Beatles: “Strawberry Fields Forever”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywg-PdeGVL0
Across the Universe Fan Galleries: http://redwithwaves.blogspot.com/2007/09/across-universe.html http://thecia.com.au/reviews/a/across-the-universe.shtml http://www.screenrush.co. uk/film/galerievignette_gen_cfilm=42806&cmediafichier=18846555.html http://www.flixster.com/movie/across-the-universe/photos?p=9883523 An American in Paris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlvzGT1Ta2w Jackson Pollack: "Blue Poles" Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BluePolesBigPicture.JPG Daisies: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/184327158_4b33d676fb.jpg?v=0 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/172831733_cb4f37484d.jpg?v=0 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/107693872_000de21b83.jpg?v=0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_moor/154337657/ The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test: http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Kool-Aid-Acid-Test/dp/0553380648/ref=sr_1_2? ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218432474&sr=1-2 Flowers: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/268739940_2c2b711ab5.jpg?v=0 Hair: http://www.amazon.com/Hair-John-Savage/dp/0792841638/ref=sr_1_1? ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218432268&sr=1-1 Janis Joplin at Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/janisjoplin/photos/collection/photo/20 Jimi Hendrix Photo Gallery at VH1: http://www.vh1.com/photos/gallery/?fid=9119&pid=1533696&dyn=artist Ken Kesey Statue in Eugene, Oregon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KenKeseyStatue1.jpg Magical Mystery Tour: http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Mystery-Tour- Beatles/dp/B00005AG7K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218432322&sr=1-4 Sunflowers: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/143/331360806_709bdb6425.jpg?v=0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianguish/52302877/ Wildflowers: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1342/949880477_c4abddae84.jpg?v=0 Yellow Submarine: http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Submarine-George-Dunning- II/dp/B00000JRUQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218432433&sr=1-5 |
| Text Only (c) Jen Johans. filmintuition.com |
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| Note: When originally posted in 2008, the embedded videos we found online were all in working order. However, due to Sony Pictures copyright violation, a majority of the clips have now been removed from YouTube. We've chosen to leave all of the original videos throughout the piece to give you a reference point of where to follow along when you watch the film on your own to best appreciate the essay. |
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