Across The Universe

So on Sunday Stephen took me on a date and we had dinner (Thai of course) and then saw "Across the Universe" which is a musical set in the late 1960's and the score is all music by the Beatles. Now being a Beatles purist I thought I would cringe at every song sang. But I didn't. Songs such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were actually very tastefully done. Most of the songs were sung with a different feel but kept the beauty of the melody. Of course there were a few songs that did make me cringe. "Helter Skelter" being one of my favorite Beatles tunes did indeed make me want to leave the theatre. "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" wasn't great either but it was during the credits so I only had to listen for a bit. "Strawberry Fields", "Dear Prudence" and "Hey Jude" where some of my favorites and I have to admit I never thought I would enjoy those three being that they are on my top 10 list of all-time best Beatles songs. "I am the Walrus", sung by Bono, as well as "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite", which was hardly sung at all, were both a little too strange for me. Being that they were during scenes of LSD use it did seem appropriate. Although, there wasn't much drug use at all. They story line was simple. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Boy finds girl again. Happy ending. The part I thought was powerful were the parts depicting the Vietnam war and the way they portrayed the process of "brainwashing" the soldiers. Very interesting indeed. All in all I thought it was very enjoyable. Stephen didn't really like it but I thought it was fantastic and very surprising. Not worth seeing in the theatres though. I would have been just as happy waiting for the DVD. But I was hardly disappointed the way I thought I would be.