'Across the Universe,' a film directed by Julie Taymor, and 'Birdsong,' a novel by Sebastian Faulks, have little in common. Both, however, strike the same chord.
'Across the Universe' is a movie that delves into the lives of Jude, Lucy and their friends exploring themes that range from love, freedom and American Imperialism. The movie is an impressive piece by Julie Taymor set in the 1960's -- A time of counterculture with people going against norms. The plot begins with Jude jumping ship to America to find his father at Princeton. Jude is disheartened to find his father, a janitor, with a family and uninterested. He falls in with rich-kid Max and finds himself drawn to Lucy, Max's sister. Max, tired of all the "What are you going to do with your life?" atmosphere at home, journeys to New York taking Jude along. There, they hook up in with singer Jadie, guitarist Jojo, and lesbian Prudence. Lucy joins them, later on, after her boyfriend dies in the Vietnam War. The characters go through the whole gamut of living in this free city. Jude and Lucy get together. Jude draws and Lucy fights to stop the war. Max, despite his efforts contrary, gets drafted to the military. Sadie falls in love with Jojo. And Prudence finds herself wanting Sadie and not knowing what to do. The characters want things, get and don't get what they want and, ultimately, gain and lose things along the way. All this happens to the perfectly apt and wonderfully sang Beatles songs and Julie Taymor's beautifully imagined Strawberry Fields.
'Birdsong' is a novel that centers mostly on Stephen Wraysford, an Englishman who spends most of the important or at least life-altering parts of his life in France. The book is divided in to seven chapters set in three different time frames: pre-World War I (1910), World War I (1916-1918) and sixty years later (1978-79). It begins pre-World War I with an erotic and adulterous love-affair between Stephen and Isabel Azaire. They elope together but Isabel eventually leaves him to return to her family. At this point, she is carrying a child Stephen will never know existed 'til the later part of his life. The book then moves on to the bulk of its plot, Stephen and World War I. Faulks brilliantly tells the story a man and other men caught in the most horrible human device, war, and its horrors. Fear, death and simple joys riddle the pages of this novel. Stephen survives this war and goes on to lead a quiet life with his daughter and Jeanne, Isabelle's sister, whom he marries. To add an epic flavor to the novel, Elizabeth Benson is Stephen's granddaughter in search of her grandfather's past. Faulks' prose is simple yet hold great strength in painting images in the mind and heart of a reader.
For me, both movie and novel are pieces of art that ingenuously depict how lives mean more than just one moment. The lives of all the characters are fraught with dilemmas left and right as to what to do -- What is right and what is wrong. Jude is jealous of the time Lucy devotes to an activist and his movement. Max is fraught over his parents whose idea of a good life is having a degree and making money, having to join a war he doesn't believe in and maybe losing his life over it. Lucy devotes her time to fighting a war that killed her boyfriend, may kill her brother and is disheartened to find the activist leader making a bomb himself. Sadie is being asked to drop Jojo and go solo to further her career. Stephen is an orphan, left by the only woman he loved, and saw tens of thousands die in one day at the Battle of the Somme and Messines Ridge at Ypres, France. Stephen leads a band of men who receive care packages with a letter saying their son died, have lice in their clothes and hair, and deal with the smell of death and the sound of bombs and shelling everyday. Isabel wants to be loved and love in return without scandal. Jeanne wants to reach out to a man made cold and distant by the war and by unrequited love. Elizabeth discovers the sacrifices of previous generations, and is impregnated by a man who can never be hers.
I appear to be ranting, but, in fact, I am raving about how the characters in the novel and movie resemble real life. They all clamor for redemption. In their idealism, the characters threaten the utopias they strive to create, and the stories become more interesting and three-dimensional because of this. They never really achieve in full what they want. Everything comes in bits and in parcels. In the end, they all find themselves not where they want to be but where they should be.
The true strength of novel and movie lies in illustrating humanity. No matter how flawed we all are, we are still heroes. Heroes are people who "in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice." The characters of both the novel and book exemplify this. Jude fights to save Lucy, gets deported, but finds himself back to claim the love they shared. Max doesn't shirk from his duties, goes out to fight for what his country believes in, and calls Jude back to claim his love. Sadie shares the mic, stage, and her life with Jojo. Lucy learns to forgive. Jude's father makes a turn around and declares Jude his son and offers help. Stephen tries to help a friend and a comrade and fights for a brighter future he never thought he'd believe in. Isabelle faced ridicule and shame in going back to her family to do what is right. Jeanne despite her beliefs is always ready to aid her sister and, later on, slowly restores a broken man back to life. Elizabeth is grateful for what her mother and predecessors sacrificed and finds herself willing and wanting to sacrifice for the next generation.
Both book and movie end well. The last picture in the book is Elizabeth giving birth and, for the movie, it is Jude with friends on the rooftop singing to Lucy "All You Need is Love." Cliche as it sounds, that is what we all need-- Love. In the end, all the characters find themselves going home. To the people they have made sacrifices for. And to the people that have sacrificed for them.
