Eating my Words

I saw Across the Universe about a week ago and afterwards I said that I didn't care for it very much. I thought of it as a stoner flick... and I'm partly right. For those of you that don't know, Across the Universe a rock musical movie based entirely on the Beatles' songs. The writers took about 30 of their songs and strung them together (with some dialogue between them) to give it a plot. The plot therefore, has a lot of holes in it that bugged me to no end. They would often sing a song that seemed to have nothing to do with the movie at all, they just wanted another song in there. And halfway through the movie all the characters get into a bus and tour the country getting high on an assortment of drugs. In the middle of the drug tour there's a weird circus scene that I still don't come anywhere close to understanding.

But it's been a week since I've seen the movie and I can't get it out of my head. The songs stuck with me in a way that I never expected. I find myself singing them in my head when I'm at work, and I spent all of last week reading about the movie trivia on Imdb and then Wikipediaing The Beatles, several individual Beatles songs, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Charles Manson (because of references to them in the movie... okay so not Manson, but I was curious!). Last Thursday, I did what any person who wants to get these songs out of their head would do. I downloaded the entire Across the Universe album. Then I downloaded the original Beatles' versions and listened to all of them for probably a good four hours. I thought if I overdosed on it then maybe I'd finally get over it and they'd go away. But it didn't help. Then I found myself criticizing myself for not liking the movie enough in the first place. Why didn't I get it the first time? So this weekend, I bought the movie. I decided that if I didn't get it the first time I could at least give myself the opportunity to better appreciate it the second and maybe third time I watch it.What changed my mind about this movie? I realized that it wasn't meant to be a movie with a great storyline that is particularly coherent. It's supposed to be a reflection on life in the 60s, and more specifically an homage to the Beatles. What's really cool about it though is that they use classic songs but they twist the meaning into something that is often completely different from the original meaning. Which makes for an interesting mind-fuck because suddenly you're thinking not only about what the song means to the movie, but also what the original song was supposed to mean in the first place.

Across the Universe will never be my favorite movie, but I've learned to appreciate it for what it is. I recommend it to others too, keeping in mind that the plot should be taken with a grain of salt. But beware of the potential risks and side effects, mentioned above.

Favorite character: Max
Favorite song based on the twist of meaning: I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Favorite song based on song: I Want to Hold Your Hand