Night 7 of the 14 Nights of Valentine's Day Giveaway

Welcome to night 7 of the 5th annual 14 Nights of Valentine's Day Giveaway. Stop by the main Giveaway Post and enter to win a $200 Prize Pack full of decadent treats from 8 fabulous shops! Tonight we have the next movie in the Valentine Movie Marathon. Follow along daily for extra entries and the chance for a bonus 20 entries at the end of the giveaway. Test your movie knowledge and play the Guess the Movie game for even more entries. Enjoy and have fun!

Art Deco Pink Pendant ~ Style H

Shop Laughing Vixen Lounge and receive 10% off your order through February 28th. Use code FEBRUARY10 at checkout.

14 Nights of Valentine's Day Movie Marathon
Follow along with us for 2 weeks full of classic and modern love story movies. Each day there will be a review of the next movie in the marathon. Leave a comment on the post, with your opinion of the movie, and you can receive 1 entry in the giveaway. Each day you comment you can receive 1 entry. You will find the daily entries on the Rafflecopter on the main Giveaway Post.
*You may start following the marathon at any time and comment on past posts to catch up.

Comment on all 14 movies and you can receive a bonus 20 entries. On the last day of the giveaway you will find the magic phrase to unlock the bonus entries on the Rafflecopter.
*You must comment on each movie to qualify for the bonus 20 entries.

Guess the Movie Game
Each day there will be a clue to the next night's movie. Leave your guess on the Rafflecopter widget, on the main Giveaway Post, for 1 entry in the giveaway.
*Guesses must be posted the same day as their clue to receive the 1 entry.
*The Rafflecopter widget will reset to a new day 24 hours after you left your last guess.
*Please do not post guesses anywhere else on the blog or they will be deleted and not count.

Tonight's Clue ~ The end might be near but that doesn't mean you can't find love.


Night 7 ~ Across the Universe
 

Tagline - All you need is love.


Directed by Julie Taymor (Titus and Frida) and released on October 12, 2007 by Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios (rated PG-13). The music of the Beatles is used to tell the story of Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachael Wood) as their love story spans the turbulent Sixties.

Jude, a dock worker from Liverpool, travels to the US where he meets Lucy, the daughter of a privileged family. Their story is told against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Anti-War Protests and the Civil Rights Movement with the power and emotion of 30 Beatles songs as it's driving force.

Across the Universe is a musical that uses Beatles songs to tell the story. It starts in the seemingly more innocent Sixties and quickly slides into the turbulent reality of the decade. Yes, the characters do sing and yes, it is all Beatles songs. I found it quite interesting how the songs really did further the story instead of just being filler. While it may not always be what the songwriters were originally thinking when they wrote the songs, they are creatively used to effectively capture the emotions of the film. Or maybe the songs are what gave the film so much emotion? Maybe a bit of both.

People seem to either like this film or hate it. Personally, I am a Beatles fan and I think the power of the songs really did enhance this movie. I love it. My sister saw it with me. She is not a Beatles fan nor a fan of that era of music. She is also not a fan of musicals. So I think it says something about the movie when she is telling people afterwards how well done she thought it was.

Across the Universe should be available to rent or stream from most DVD services.


Take a look at the original trailer.



Some trivia about the movie.
1. Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and Olivia Harrison praised the film after seeing it.
2. Daily Variety reported that the filmmakers had to pay the owners of the rights to the songs of The Beatles, publisher ATV/Sony Music and Michael Jackson, about $10,000,000 for the 30 songs used in the film (roughly $330,000 for each song). As a condition of the songs' use, the advertising posters for the film could not mention The Beatles nor the songwriters' names. However, the owners of the rights to the songs of The Beatles were unable to ban the names of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the film credits.
3. Jude's life progression is similar to John Lennon's. As John Lennon did, Jude first lived in Liverpool then soon after that moved to New York City to work as an artist like Lennon. Jude then encounters trouble with the law and is deported (Lennon was arrested as well, but an attempt to deport him failed).
4. A scene when Prudence locks herself in the closet and has to be serenaded out by the other cast members - is a reference to a real occurrence in 1968 at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India where The Beatles, Mia Farrow, Donovan, and others were studying. Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, was reclusive and did not leave her living quarters to join the other students, inspiring John Lennon to write the song "Dear Prudence." The film also uses the song as a subtle reference to the fictional Prudence character's reluctance to 'come out of the closet' in relation to her sexual orientation.
5. Sadie, with her fiery red hair and passionate temper, is a reference to Janis Joplin. Sadie is even seen drinking directly from a Jack Daniels bottle during her downward spiral, an action that Janis did regularly with Southern Comfort. Even Janis' throaty singing voice is used by Sadie in the movie.
6. The character of JoJo is a clear reference to Jimi Hendrix. Sadie dresses him up in the purple shirt and bandanna - one of Jimi's most famous stage costumes. JoJo also plays a Fender guitar - the same brand played by his prototype, Jimi Hendrix.
7. The musical arrangement of "With a Little Help From My Friends" starts out being closely tied to the one used by the Beatles' original 1967 studio recording, but then it segues into sounding much more like Joe Cocker's radically re-orchestrated 1969 cover version of the song, which he performed at Woodstock (this was the version that was also used as the theme song to the TV show "The Wonder Years" (1988). Cocker performs on a different Across the Universe (2007) track, "Come Together" (with Martin Luther McCoy).
8. Some scenes are derived from actual 1960s events, such as the violent student protest at Columbia University. The actual explosion at a New York townhouse was the work of the Weather Underground and took place at 18 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village; a photograph of the actual house appears in the movie. The Beatles were also stopped by police while playing a rooftop concert in London while filming Let It Be (1970).
9. Studio head Joe Roth disliked Julie Taymor's initial cut of the film, and had it re-edited to better suit mass audiences. While Taymor's contract gave her "final cut" rights, Roth hoped to persuade her to allow his version of the film to be released instead. This was unsuccessful though, and Taymor threatened a lawsuit if Roth failed to release her version. Moreover, in exchange for participating in the DVD release and the film's publicity campaign, Taymor forced the studio to sign an agreement that all copies of Roth's edit would be destroyed without ever being released to the general public, and that no further re-edits of the film (barring television edits) could ever be released without her express permission.
10. The non-existent joint in the "With a Little Help From My Friends" sequence is non-existent to ensure that the movie is not R-rated.
11.  The painted bus and Dr. Robert (Bono) singing "I am the walrus" is a reference to psychedelic painted bus The Beatles had in their film Magical Mystery Tour (1967), as well as Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters who traveled around the United States in his bus. The punch at the party is of course then "electric" Kool Aid, just like Kesey used at his parties. Finally, when Dr. Robert stops at "Dr. Geary's" place, this refers to Timothy Leary who also experimented with LSD and was often at odds with Kesey.
12. According to Julie Taymor she used 30 songs of The Beatles as a basis for the script that covers events from 1963 to 1969, but in the film those 6 years are compressed into two years.