ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007): movement

Across the Universe (2007), directed by Julie Taymor, is an ambitious project: a musical studded with jaw-dropping effects chronicling a group of young people in New York City during the late 1960s, accompanied by no less than 34 Beatles songs. Amidst the haze of overlaid film footage, clashing musical interjections, and special effects that spin and swirl through the scenes; Across the Universe still has time to enter the individual characters' emotions. Lucy's sadness and hurt over her loved ones being drafted contain perfect examples of action/reaction shots in the storyline. During the "Strawberry Fields" number, shots of the war on television and her brother Max immersed in violence and danger are met

with the movement of tears across Lucy's cheeks. In a scene in which Prudence sings "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as a ballad to a fellow cheerleader before coming to New York, football players scuffle and fly around her in slow motion as she walks forward at full speed. This formalistic approach to the scene creates the dramatic tension that the slow, emotional retelling of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"demands.

Spaced with into these personal, emotive motions in Across the Universe are bold, fast, almost startling visual effects and choreography. In one musical number, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Max checks in with the draft office to determine whether or not he is fit to serve in the US army. In perfect time with the music, Max and other soldiers are pushed and shoved into tightly choreographed lines and moved like puppets by the military officials as well as objects in the room which come to life, sliding Max around the surreal landscape of the transformed office. Posters of Uncle Sam physically reach out from their frames and stretch toward Max and the audience, implying kinetic symbolism as the stretched hands invade his space and march him around as a soldier.

 In contrast to the dark implications of the choreography in "I Want You", in one of the film's opening scenes, a band plays "Hold Me Tight" at a high school dance as Lucy and her boyfriend dance. Here, the choreography is completely different than in the "I Want You" scene, implying carefree times as the camera watches in an areal shot and happy teenagers spin in circles, dizzy and giddy and unaware of the love and tragedy they will face in the coming years.