Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Across the Universe from director Julie Taymor is a revolutionary rock musical that re-imagines America in the turbulent late-1960s a time when battle lines were being drawn at home and abroad. When young dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in America he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) a rich but sheltered American girl who joins the growing anti-war movement in New York s Greenwich Village. As the body count in Vietnam rises political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad. With a cameo by Bono Across the Universe is the kind of movie you watch again like listening to a favorite album. (Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES)System Requirements:Run Time: 133 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396194625 Manufacturer No: 19462

Amazon.com:
Set in America during the Vietnam War, Across the Universe is a powerful love story set against a backdrop of political and social unrest: it's a story of soul-searching, self-doubt, and individual powerlessness cleverly conveyed through a multitude of Beatles songs. Like young adults all across America during the 1960's, Jude (Jim Sturgess), Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max (Joe Anderson), Sadie (Dana Fuchs), Prudence (T.V. Carpio), and JoJo (Martin Luther) are in turmoil over the war; questioning their individual roles in the war effort and struggling to find a way to hold true to their beliefs while making a difference in the world. While love proves a powerful uniting force, its limitations become clear as relationships are strained and broken over individual perceptions of responsibility to cause and country. A fairly bizarre juxtaposition of extremely stylized, almost hallucinogenic scenes of swirling colors and reflections, highly choreographed dance segments, seemingly commonplace character interaction, and emotionally packed close-up footage of characters lost in contemplative song, this film imparts a good sense of the confusion and passion of the time and is at once powerful, invigorating, and disturbing. The film runs a bit long at 2-hours 11-minutes and several segments drag noticeably thanks to some incredibly slow song tempos. Warning: this production may change how you think about a favorite Beatles song forever. --Tami Horiuchi

Beyond Across the Universe

On Blu-ray

The Deluxe Soundtrack

Beatles audio CD

Stills from Across the Universe (click for larger image)

Rating : - Very Good
The music is great even though it's sung by unknowns except for Bono and Joe Cocker. The focus of the story is slow to reveal itself, but over all OTU is a visual and auditory pleasure.