Movie RX
Dr. Benjamin prescribes movies that help and heal through his own experiences or the experiences of others.
Movie RX
Across the Universe (2007) ft. Jen
Ever wondered how a Beatles-themed musical could reignite a passion for the Fab Four while navigating the turbulent Vietnam War era? Join Dr. Benjamin and producer Jen as they humorously debate the medicinal value of musicals like "Mamma Mia" and dissect the personal impact of the 2007 film "Across the Universe."
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Hello and welcome to MovieRx, where I prescribe entertainment, one movie at a time. I am your host, dr Benjamin. I am a doctor, in the same way that Dr Robert and Dr Geary are doctors. I'm a doctor. Way out there, man, no.
Speaker 1:I'm just here in the thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, as you hear, joining me today the angel on my shoulder. Movierx producer Jen. Welcome Jen.
Speaker 1:Thanks.
Speaker 2:Of course, I don't know how I can welcome you to a studio that's like yours. Fair Welcome to your own studio.
Speaker 1:Glad to be here. Welcome to your own studio, glad to be here, all right.
Speaker 2:So this, the movie that we're doing today, is kind of a kind of part of me in a lot of different ways. It came to me soon after it's released and it kind of reignited my appreciation for the Beatles. Today we're doing Across the Universe.
Speaker 2:Which really like honestly I said, I did not think that you were going to pick a musical well, I mean and I guess that's a little bit of a disclaimer to have for my, for my listeners, is uh, do not anticipate that there will be a lot of musicals on this podcast. That is not a typical thing that I am.
Speaker 1:I'm really into what if I give you a super sad face? If I give you a super sad face, will you do a musical?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, if it is, if it is medicinal for you, then fine, but I guarantee that Mamma Mia was not medicinal for anybody no if anything it was, it was bomb inducing. I'm just saying I mean Pierce Bros. Pierce Brosnan, great bond, horrible singer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they made more than one, I'm pretty sure that there's no, no, yeah, I'm pretty sure that, uh, that my step-mom made my dad go to both of them in the movie theater.
Speaker 1:Oh, your poor dad.
Speaker 2:Now let's see here. So, across the universe. Uh, this revolution studio production was released in 2007. Uh was directed by julie taymor. Stars uh, there's tons of famous people in this movie, but the the poster names are jim sturgis, evan rachel wood and joe anderson. And uh, the imdb description now jamie's not on here to to you know, tell me that it's a bad one, but I think it. I mean, considering that this one's a musical and it's using beatles music, I think that this one's actually pretty good how does jamie not like across the universe?
Speaker 2:no, she doesn't like the IMDb descriptions.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they can suck.
Speaker 2:But she doesn't like any of the descriptions, except for the ones from the evil one, rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 1:Oh gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they give you like three quarters of the story before they're done with their movie description.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't that kind of give away too much of the movie? Yes, Rotten Tomatoes is evil.
Speaker 2:We'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 1:Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 2:Now IMDb description for this movie is the music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War form a backdrop for the romance between an upper class American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist.
Speaker 1:That makes him sound like some kind of weird dog breed.
Speaker 2:Right, I thought the same thing. I was like I I had to look it up. Is that right? Liver poodleian?
Speaker 1:yeah, so liver poodleian, I guess, is the proper way to refer to a person from liverpool I feel like we should move, just because I kind of want to be known as a liver poodleianian.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I could deal with that. I could. I could. I'll tell you what if we moved to anywhere anywhere in the UK, if we were to move anywhere in the UK, I would be okay living in like, in like Leeds, I'd be okay with that.
Speaker 1:What about Noodleoodlia?
Speaker 2:Noodleoodlia. That's a TV show, that's something else. Sorry, now I did. I did kind of pull up some fun trivia about this, mostly because I was really kind of curious about. I mean, we, we still have a couple of Beatles alive. You know, paul McCartney is is really the the one that I'd be if I were making a movie like this. His opinion would be the one that I would care about, but it, it, it.
Speaker 2:It happens that the uh, the director, julie Tamor, was able to sit down in a private viewing of this movie with Paul McCartney and she caught him. She caught him singing some of the songs, like under his breath, well, of course, and stuff like that. So it was like. So she said that that was, for her, very, very special. But after, after the whole thing was done, I guess she asked him was there anything you didn't like? And McCartney reportedly said what's not to like?
Speaker 2:Now, I mean, of course it's his, a lot of, it is his work and whatever, and I'm sure that he made some money off of this too, but but I would, I would hope that that's not why Paul McCartney, of all people, would would have said you know that he enjoyed the production, but he wasn't the only one. It, uh, it also received some praise from, uh, from Ringo Starr, yoko Ono and uh and Olivia Harrison, so I mean there's some representation from all of the Beatles had had given some pretty good remarks on it. So. But another fun bit of trivia is one that I had mentioned earlier with some of the cool people who were in it, just kind of on a side note sort of thing. Salma Hayek was the was the happiness is a warm gun nurse. Eddie Izzard was Mr Kite.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:You know, and then Bono was Dr Robert Joe Cocker actually played three different characters, that is so crazy Like they didn't.
Speaker 1:what do they call him the angry hippie?
Speaker 2:No, the mad hippie.
Speaker 1:Mad hippie, and then the bum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those two looked alike, but not the pimp. I think the one that most looked like him was the mad hippie and the one that looked least like him was probably the pimp Right and the homeless man. I think might have looked like him if things had gone different for Joe Cocker.
Speaker 1:Well no, when you told me that they were all three the same person, I was just like bullshit, snapple, like no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure was weird. But I mean and of course someone might ask why that? Why that's so cool that you know joe cocker's in it, but he, he was the one who performed the reimagining of, with the help of my friends uh, get by with a little help from my friends, was? You know, joe Cocker performed that at Woodstock and that ended up being the one that was used for Wonder Years.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I mean Joe Cocker and the Beatles. They already have a history there and it's really kind of cool that he ended up being in the movie. I'm betting that McCartney probably laughed like hell when he saw him in there, especially being in there as three different people. So so here's kind of where where I talk about the initial movie impression and it's more of in the way of technically, you know, I mean the cinematography wise it was. It was interesting. Uh, I mean there were a lot of, uh, a lot of different things, uh, camera wise in the movie. Some of it was compelling and, thankfully, a lot of the crazy cinematography was, you know, very conservative for most of the movie, which, I mean, later on it got pretty crazy, but that was also, you know, the you know the drug inspired things.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't think anything in that movie was drug inspired.
Speaker 2:Never Now, the a lot of the time I like to. I like to talk about the soundtrack in this part, and I mean the soundtrack is the point, yes, and it's the beatles, so of course the soundtrack was pretty awesome. I mean, the only thing that you could really pick on a whole lot is, you know, the, uh, the technical ability of the actors which the singing, the singing was, was pretty satisfying. I mean, none of them were Pierce Brosnan. I'm sorry, pierce, I'm picking on you a lot you have. You have plenty of talents, mr Brosnan, but one of them is not singing.
Speaker 2:Um, now, uh, jim Sturgis, evan Rachel Wood, they both did fine. Uh, tv carpio did fine. I liked, um, yeah. And then joe anderson kind of surprised me a little bit. You could definitely tell that any, any singing that he has done, it feels like he's he's more singing wise, he's more, he's more in tune with rock because he he holds a lot more of the ends and stuff like that than a lot of the regular singers do. Dana Fuchs did a nice Janis Joplin impression, but I'm not a Janis Joplin fan, so I mean, take that how you will. I mean she did a really great Janis Joplin impression.
Speaker 2:For those that like Janis Joplin, Right, exactly, but honestly I think you know, jojo, yeah, martin Luther McCoy. He was Martin Luther McCoy when this movie came out. I think he's just Martin Luther now. He did a great job he did, but I think the best vocal performance of the whole movie got lost in the middle with Let it Be. I mean it was still powerful and it was still really good when they had it, but it really did just kind of get lost with that much power in in a performance just right there and then and then it's gone hidden behind so many other tracks that are after it. So, yeah, that I mean that was just kind of how I, how I, took in the movie technically. What about you?
Speaker 1:um, well, I I definitely excuse me, I definitely like tv, um, and like I said when, when jojo martin luther martin luther um, when he was singing, I told you it was like a welcomed punch in the face because it was. It comes at you so strong like his, his voice and his tone and everything is just so strong, but it's not like strong in an aggressive way, it's, it's just smooth it's very smooth and soft.
Speaker 2:It can be soft without without the complaint. The only complaint that I have about Evan Rachel Wood is that her singing was very airy, like she had a lot of air in her voice while she was singing and I don't know if that's just how she sings or whatever. But I mean not to say that it was bad, it's just. It was noticeable to me, right, but he didn't have that, even with the calm things that he was singing, like as my guitar weeps. Oh, my god, like I mean. It was just it was really, really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he keeps that same tone.
Speaker 2:It's a strong tone, but it, yeah, it's just smooth and soft and, like I don't know, calming almost, depending on what he's singing I guess, but still yeah, and when he took over a performance that was supposed to be you know, sadie's big thing, right, it was like man, I really prefer it.
Speaker 1:After she left, I mean again, it's probably because I'm not a janice joplin fan and like during that performance she was looking at him when he would do those riffs and I'm like dude, I like that, I'm you keep going well, I mean, he did kind of get obnoxious right before she unplugged his guitar. Yeah, that one went a little extra, but the rest of it was good right now.
Speaker 2:Uh, moving on to the characters, I kind of grouped them together again, like I tend to. The first one one is the trio Jude, max and Lucy and this trio really is more of two duos. Jude really seems to be kind of the fulcrum in this, where he's best friends with Max but he's interested in, or dating, lucy. So now with Max and Lucy being siblings, they know each other really well. So I mean, so that kind of completes, you know, the security of the triangle there that they're, they're kind of a unit. But I mean, I don't know, I really kind of like the way that you know Jude was from England, had dropped in on a ship and jumped ship, you know, and and just decided to stay thanks to Max inviting him to Thanksgiving and him meeting Lucy. I don't know, I can't really. I can't really find any flaws in any of these characters. I felt like I felt like they all portrayed their characters really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, Jude was just a curious kid looking for his dad to let him know that he existed.
Speaker 1:I am pretty cocky.
Speaker 2:And a little bit arrogant, but not anywhere near as much as Max. I don't know. I think had I been a college person, I think, I think I would have totally been friends with Max.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:He would have been my type of people.
Speaker 1:Sarcastic shithead yeah pretty much.
Speaker 2:And Lucy, I don't know Lucy. Lucy kind of. At first Lucy bugged me because she felt like more like a like a fifties high school girl in the beginning, where she was, like you know, dancing at the prom, dating the cool guy and kicking her feet while while looking at a picture on her bed and and gossiping with her sisters and whatever I mean. It was just like I don't know it. It felt really weird compared to what you get later.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I do have something to talk about about that a little bit later. So I mean I can, I can bring that up when that comes around. Yeah, I don't know, I think of the major three Max is probably my favorite, same, know, I think of the major three max is probably my favorite, same, I get a kick out of him. And then there's the, the two from the band, sadie and jojo. I mean, I don't even have to tell you who my favorite is out of those two. Yeah, I mean. And jojo's jimi hendrix, right, I mean, come on, how can you top that? Especially when she put him in the purple shirt. Oh, my gosh, with the scarf. Like I love how he hated it in the movie. But it was like nah, dude, that's cool it was so, but it was a tuxedo.
Speaker 1:For his due right right.
Speaker 2:Well, and I mean I wonder that's that. That's kind of the whole thing, though. Like, for some reason, those guys that everybody really remembers from history, that were in music, that that are just kind of timeless, like jimmy hendrix and well, he's the only one I can think of right now off the top of my head because I'm flying by the seat of my pants but like jimi hendrix wore women's clothes. I mean, look at, look at rappers now wearing women's fur coats and women's sunglasses that are oversized and all of that stuff. I mean that's a little bit of a, that's a little bit of a cross with elton John. Yeah, you know, I mean. Then there's Elton John and Paul McCartney. They're friends. It all ties together, see. But no, I mean, I don't know, I thought he looked cool in the purple stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, we like purple.
Speaker 2:I do like purple. Purple is a movie RX color. It is indeed Now. The last one on here is prudence, and I I only picked her as the last one because she's I mean, she's first off kind of a loner. She's from oklahoma, she's, uh, she's attracted to women right around the time of of the vietnam war, so that wouldn't really be well received then. Uh, she also seems to have shit luck with relationships what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:she was hung up on max.
Speaker 2:She can't be attracted to women bullshit snapple he seemed to think so yeah, no, he, uh, I, I don't know she, she really added a nifty, a nifty little favor to the group, one that I think that when I watched this movie when I was younger, I would get kind of annoyed with, because she does kind of like it comes off as attention seeking behavior, yeah, but but when you, when you stop thinking about it as attention seeking behavior, then you notice that she doesn't really throw it in at anybody. That that's I mean. Yeah, I don't know, it's just weird. It's weird how, how my perception of it has changed, uh, since the since I first had seen this movie.
Speaker 1:Anyway, and with the attention seeking behavior you're talking about, like locking herself in the closet and hanging out and stalking from the window and I.
Speaker 2:I have to say that prudence is in one of my favorite cinematography cinema to cinema, to god. Prudence is in one of my favorite shots in all of this movie and that is when she is singing. I want to hold your hand. And after she gets done, you know singing at the girl that's the cheerleader, you know on the sideline or whatever and she walks down the bleachers and she starts walking across the field and there are just football players flying around her in slow motion and like and not in any way actual football, right, like I mean, there are dudes throwing dudes and shit like that. That's not football, but but it was really.
Speaker 1:It was really fun to watch it, it really was it was like football meant wrestling, like pro wrestling with the big acts of yeah and her walking through it and just not getting hit by anybody it was. It made it a lot of fun to watch it did, but not as fun as the bowling alley the bowling alley was a lot of fun too.
Speaker 2:I did like that scene. The only thing that would make me like that scene more is because I like the song more. Yeah, like that, because that's one of my favorite songs from the Beatles.
Speaker 1:I, so I haven't watched this movie in a while, and so when we rewatched it, I caught myself going oh my gosh, I love that one. Oh my gosh, I love that one. It's like I couldn't narrow it down because I was like that one was so funny. It's just the way that they told this story with these songs, and the visuals that they used were just, they were fun, and how can you not love that?
Speaker 2:right. Well, in a big part of it. I think the thing when, when the movie came out, that I remembered that I remembered hearing a lot of people say about it is I didn't realize that that song was done by the Beatles. Then they'd hear another one later and be like I didn't. I didn't know that that one was done by the Beatles. And then I found one, you know, when I was watching it, that I was like oh shit, that one was done by the Beatles.
Speaker 1:Which one was that?
Speaker 2:I don't even remember which one it was now, cause now I feel like I just remembered them all being, you know, like ones that I just knew. Oh, of course that's the Beatles, yeah. But I think that it really kind of I think it kind of changed a lot of people's perception of the band, just because I mean, there are so many things that you know people didn't really realize were the Beatles because they had heard them on a car commercial or some TV show or something, and so this kind of I think that this kind of put some of that stuff right and the people who weren't Beatles fans had a chance to listen to something, so that their only reference wasn't we all live in a yellow submarine oh, that is my least favorite Beatles song and I don't even know if it, Most people don't care for it.
Speaker 2:I don't think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even know if it even has that much to do with the song as much as it has to do with, like, the memory that I have. The first time I heard that song, yeah, I was just, I was surrounded by a bunch of annoying people and in an annoying situation and annoying day and yeah, so that one is just kind of let's not day and yeah, so that one is just kind of.
Speaker 2:Let's not now as far as points of interest go, uh, I have down here so that we both know the other exists, and that is in reference to jude's reason for being in america. He tracks down his dad through army records and he tracks him down to, uh, princeton right, it was princeton university I think, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Princeton, and he's like you know.
Speaker 2:So he's walking around campus asking if anybody knows where he can find Professor Huber. And then eventually Max comes along and he's like you know, can you tell me where to find Professor Wesley Huber? And he's like I have pissed off every professor in this university and that is not one of them. And then he's like, oh, but wait, there's a wes huber right over there and he's a janitor. And then he goes over and finds out that his dad wasn't what he had imagined, um, that he was just a simple janitor, he wasn't some brainiac, you know, or anything like that.
Speaker 2:But the reason why I put this point of interest down was because, like, I mean, you could totally tell that he was really nervous about the fact that this guy shows up and proves that he's his kid. He's like, yeah, there's no way you can deny that I'm not your kid man, you know. And and this guy's kind of freaking out I mean not really visually freaking out, but he's like you know, I've got, I've got a wife and kid now and a family and all this other stuff. And Jude just tells him man, I'm not here to derail your life, I just I wanted both of us to know that the other exists.
Speaker 1:I actually had a friend who grew up the same way. She didn't know her dad growing up and when she saw this movie she's like. That is exactly what I would want to say that's exactly how it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and it doesn't even have to be malicious or anything like that, especially, you know, in that kind of a situation where they're like he, he had no idea, right and she didn't. You know, his mom didn't tell him that she was pregnant with his kid and and it was funny because Wes Huber was telling Jude, if I'd have known he said what you'd have gone back and done the right thing. She didn't want you to do that because you know, then, then it's not so much that you're going back because you loved her, but because you were obligated to, and it's like that's pretty wise. I mean, I don't, I don't know if you get that kind of stuff out, uh, american thinking typically, I don't, I don't know. A lot of people really feel like, no, I deserve to have, you know, that recognition or whatever.
Speaker 1:I don't know. She didn't force the, she didn't force the issue, uh, for for her personal benefit. Well, and you see, those, those people that are together once someone finds out that they're pregnant, and a lot of times, at least in the ones that I have seen, there's a lot of like malicious things between the two for being stuck in that relationship. And, yeah, you know, you ruin my hopes and dreams and this is all your fault and I don't even want you here, but we have to be here. But honestly, you don't.
Speaker 2:Right, and and I mean that's kind of the big, kind of the big message that I took from the whole thing, is it it? It brings to mind the thing that you hear a lot of people say that they stay together for the kids, but I can sit down here and tell anybody you know who is staying together for their kids. You are making your kids miserable, yes, setting a bad example not showing them what a relationship is supposed to be Right First off, your kids know you're miserable and that's not making them feel any better.
Speaker 2:No, and yeah, you're not modeling what a real relationship is, so that way, when they, when they become adults, then they they don't know what to expect out of a, out of a good relationship and things like that.
Speaker 1:So and it actually can cause a lot more problems because, like you don't know what it's supposed to look like, you don't know what you're supposed to do or how to act. It it almost does more damage than it does good. And then those kids grow up like you know oh, my parents hated each other, they were always fighting and all of that kind of stuff. So really like it would be better to divorce and co-parent than it would be to stay together and just unleash all of that for your kids to watch as they grow.
Speaker 2:The next one. The next one I have under points of interest is do, do, do, do, do, and I've actually I've actually got a soundbite that I'm going to play for that. So here goes that Do you have any idea what your father pays for those tuition fees, please? You know, uncle Teddy, he won't have to pay them much longer. I'm dropping out Cranberry sauce isn't as tangy as last year, don't be ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I am not cut out for this collegiate crap, no problem. What are your plans? You gonna buy a broken down station wagon, drive across America like Jack. What is it?
Speaker 2:Kerouac Mom I read.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, you know, I was hoping to borrow your card.
Speaker 2:Dad, it's got AC and stereo. Damn it, max. Be serious for once. What do you?
Speaker 1:actually intend to do with your life? Why is it always about what will you do, what will you do, what will he do? Oh my God, what will he do? Do, do, do, do, do. Why isn't the issue here who I am? Because, maxwell, what you do defines who you are.
Speaker 2:No, uncle Teddy, who you are defines what you do. Right, june? Surely it's not what you do, but it's the way that you that you do it. Now there's, there's a reason.
Speaker 1:I put that in there because it's fun to hear max go do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Speaker 2:There's, there's a lot of stuff to unpack in that one scene. I mean the, the family dynamic is is super. I mean there's there's a lot of high expectations. There's, um, there's a lot of clashing in philosophies. There's a lot of stuff in there. That that is I mean stuff that you'll see in a real, in a real household.
Speaker 2:But uh, but the first thing that really kind of that kind of stood out to me is the. You know how his dad is so focused on careers and and money and and things like that, and Max is more concerned with who he is, and and that includes the person that he is, uh, which, of course, that you know comes into question later when he, when he gets drafted to go to war. He is not a person who believes in war, but he, he has to go. So I mean, I don't know that point in the movie. I mean it had different, different meanings to me at different times, but as far as, as far as the deeper meanings for me, I'm I'm going to go into that kind of more towards the end of the episode. But, um, but yeah, I don't know, I'm going to go into that kind of more towards the end of the episode. But yeah, I don't know, I really feel like that was kind of an important scene to the whole story.
Speaker 1:Well, and that kind of stuff hasn't changed. Like you ask any kid in high school and the number one question they get asked is like what are you going to do after you graduate? And everybody thinks you have to go to college and you have to get some kind of office job and you have to do all of these things. And everybody thinks you have to go to college and you have to get some kind of office job and you have to do all of these things. And while, yes, obviously I want my doctors and lawyers and stuff like that, going to college, College isn't for everyone. It's just not.
Speaker 1:I had plenty of friends who are perfectly happy and they never went to college. They enjoy the jobs that they're doing. I went to college. I am not doing anything with my degree, so I paid for college, basically for nothing. I mean it's. It's one of those things like kids are young and how are they supposed to know at that age what they want to do with the rest of their life? And they're not. Their brain is not done growing at that age, Like why would you want to base the rest of your life when your brain doesn't need? Like you don't know who you are, yet you don't know what you like. You don't have that life experience.
Speaker 2:Right. No, that's I mean, and that's exactly it. Kids, kids are pressured so so much to grow up. But I mean, even even today, you know, you talk to a 16 year old, they're still in high school and everybody around them, from teachers to guidance counselors, to their friends, to their parents, to their aunts and uncles, everybody is telling them you need to be ready to be an adult. But I mean all of these, all of these people telling, telling kids that they need to grow up and that they need to be adults and that they need to learn how to be adults.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, they do have to learn, but you have to give them the opportunity to learn. You know, you have to give them an opportunity to fail Right and to explore. Because when you really think about it, you know how many people have found more success by dropping out of their collegiate career to go into something that ended up. I mean, even if it didn't make them a lot of money, it garnered them a lot of respect. I mean everybody, from from Albert Einstein all the way up to Markiplier. You know I mean so there's all kinds of different levels of success that somebody can have by finding something that they're really passionate about and satisfies more who they are than it satisfies what somebody else expects them to do.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say, like my version of success is that you're not miserable every day. How many of us go to a well-paying job or an important job every single day, but we hate waking up in the morning, we hate going to work every day, we hate sitting there and doing our jobs every day, like to me, you spend how much of your life working? You should do something you want to do and, yeah, it may not make you a lot of money, but if it's something you enjoy, it's worth it.
Speaker 2:Right. While I 100% agree, the only trouble with it anymore is that now you run into the problem of a job that you love and enjoy may not pay enough to make the bills you know I think that's honestly most jobs well, yeah, it's becoming more of more of those jobs that that are being, you know, that are falling into that sort of realm but I think that has more to do with the government and pain and minimum wage and all that fun stuff it's more about economy and governance than it is um, than it is about about the person.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you're, you're right um yeah, I know, I just like to hear you say it nice just kidding now, oh, and the next.
Speaker 2:The next one I had was lucy's character's evolution. Reminds me of the beatles evolution. Now what I, what I mean there is. I mean this is just kind of a simple you know side thing. So lucy remember how I had said that she was kind of like that 50s high school girlfriend that you know wore the skirts every day and and played, played basketball, but it was just because it was pe right just very much like she was on track to being a really great housewife.
Speaker 1:Right, she went from that not that there's anything wrong with housewives. I just don't like the whole, like it's almost one of those oppression things where it's like I'm going to put you in your place because this is where you belong.
Speaker 2:That I don't like it's the being being pushed into that space rather than choosing it yes, because that's all you're capable of doing type of thing, right no, I know what you're talking about. Um, now, I think that with the way that she changed like I mean, when she did change, it came with somebody dying and and drugs, if we're, if we're being quite frank, and so like a lot, of, a lot of those things kind of changed the same way that the Beatles did, like they started off as a boy band.
Speaker 1:That is exactly what they were, but it's still weird to like put them in there To think of them as a boy band.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and that is in the days of I want to hold your hand. I mean, it's all just it was guys wearing the same suit, wearing the same hair.
Speaker 1:And it really was them wearing the hair. I'm not a hundred percent sure that that was their actual hair. It was just weird, right, it was a helmet. It was just weird, right, it was a helmet.
Speaker 2:It was all perfect, perfectly their hair. The evolution of the Lucy character felt very much like it was a euphemism for the evolution of the band, which I don't know if that's true or not.
Speaker 1:That's just my own speculation as a side note as a side note, so well, and while the, the drugs and the death did play a part, um also her location. Like she lived a pretty sheltered life with her parents, but when she went out into the world she saw some. She saw some shit.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, she did so. The next, the next one that kind of came up for me was let it be now. Let it be every time I watch this movie. Uh, let it be, let it be now. Let it be Every time I watch this movie. Uh, let it be, let it be. Touches me pretty, pretty deep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how could it not?
Speaker 2:It's, uh, I mean the, the song. The song was meaningful to me before, but but really it didn't. It didn't have as much impact on me like it did with the performance in this movie, the, the, you know, I mean the. The. It starts off with um, with jojo's little brother, you know, sitting on the street singing next to a car that's been burned out, and there's there's cops and neighborhood kids running around all around him and and fires starting and he's basically hiding and trying to bunker down and stay safe until the coast is clear to go home in in the middle of a riot, yeah yeah
Speaker 2:and between his part of singing and then it transitioning into, you know, the gospel, the gospel style, with with it being in the church at his funeral. I mean just that whole thing. It was really actually quite eyeopening for me. Um, it wasn't the first time I watched it because I mean, when the the very first time I watched this movie, it was just kind of a, a general watching, you know, glance over sort of thing, but it wasn't until like the third or fourth time that I watched this movie. Um, and it was over over a pretty short period of time, cause I I did kind of binge watch this movie when it first came out, but, uh, it was personally my first glimpse into the meaning of the phrase white privilege and and and let me explain that when Jojo's little brother was singing, was singing the first part.
Speaker 2:I have never had to worry about that I. I've never lived in a neighborhood that I had to worry about turning into a war zone. I've never, I've never worried about the police coming to my home and taking my parents away. I've never worried about the police coming to my home and taking my parents away or taking me away from my parents. I've, I've never had to worry about. You know, uh, playing in my yard and somebody driving by and and shooting somebody because they were in the wrong neighborhood earlier that day, or you know, I mean, that's that's something I've never had to experience and for some reason, that vision of him sitting in the street against that, that burned out car, that that brought that to mind for me and so I would say, probably right around, right around 2008, was the first time that I'd really felt that, I'd really kind of felt the beginnings of understanding the meaning of what, of what white privilege is, and it was all.
Speaker 1:It was all just because of that one scene well, I mean the very, very early years of my life, I lived in kind of a sketchy area, um, and stuff like not anywhere near that severe happened, but some stuff did happen and we ended up moving and I didn't grow up wealthy by any means. We did get into a safer area, but yeah it's. I'm glad that I didn't stay there in that area, because I I'm sure I would have turned out to be a completely different person. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't imagine living life having to constantly look over your shoulder, living in that fear I.
Speaker 2:It would be awful right, another one that kind of came a little later with a slightly later viewing. Another thing that I'd kind of picked up from that scene was a funeral is a funeral, um, and it sometimes a funeral has, uh, with honors attached, and sometimes sometimes it doesn't, but uh, but yeah, I mean it's like there's there's a lot of parallels there because of because of the funerals being happening at the same time in the movie and uh, and I don't know those. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, one of the one of the funerals was for somebody who volunteered to go off to fight Um, and the other one was someone who was actively trying to avoid the fight, Completely innocent, a bystander, someone who just happened to be in a terrible place at a terrible time.
Speaker 2:And with those, well, I mean, and being that they were so terribly different, it's still the same in the end. You know, it doesn't matter who you are rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight. Everyone leaves the world the same we all die and what you leave behind is important, important, um what? What daniel left behind for lucy was inspiration to go and try to stop what happened to him from happening to other people well, not even just people, but, if you think about it, kids right, you know.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, jojo's little brother, uh, I don't, I don't remember his name, I think it was. I think it was just on the imdb. I don't know that they ever mentioned his name in the movie I don't think they did but uh he, what he left behind, had sent jojo to to the city to pursue a life of music. Uh, to push away those demons.
Speaker 1:That music was the only thing that made sense anymore well, and especially during that time, I could totally get it like so much fighting and honestly, you don't know how much of it was true, how much of it wasn't true what you're being told, and it just it's hard to see yeah, no, uh, the the next one I have is I want you.
Speaker 2:oh, my god, god, I loved that I loved that so much. That whole sequence was weird.
Speaker 1:It was, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:I loved it. Yeah, I mean having having them all done up with the, with the heads, you know, like toy soldier heads.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, because at that point it that's what they were. They weren't people, they were just more soldiers to send out right and like.
Speaker 2:There are so many little analogies in that, in that whole section, you know, I mean uh, dancing with their, dancing with their superiors, and being laid on a conveyor and then like covering their face as they were being sent in. I mean they weren't saluting, it looked like a salute, but they were covering their faces and I don't know. There's there was just a lot of, a lot of little and like analogies in there that I don't know that you could catch it if you watched it 10 times. I don't know if you could catch everything, uh, but it was really good. And the she's so heavy portion of it.
Speaker 2:The first time I watched it more critically, I laughed my ass off at the she's so heavy part, like you know, she's so heavy. And then then it pulls out and it's it's them carrying the Statue of Liberty, it's them carrying the statue of liberty. It's like, oh man, there is such a message there, but, um, the funny thing is is that the message can really go in either direction and, honestly, the real message that I think that that portrays is not one, uh that is anti-freedom or anti-patriotic or anything like that, because really it's. It's showing that freedom comes with a heavy price.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean, that's the way I took it too, like yeah, yeah, you get freedom, but you have to remember how much that has costs over the years.
Speaker 2:And whose backs carry it Right, I don't know, it's it. There's just so much in that that I mean I I could probably honestly have an hour-long episode just about that scene, just about that song. Uh, that little collection there, uh, especially if you toss in the happiness is a warm gun from later. I love that, but anyway, but anyway, uh, so I want you. She's so heavy was really was really really good. Uh, musically dear prudence was a fun arrangement and that's kind of when they started to get into the really weird cinematography stuff. The first one was very welcome. I like how the, how the apartment disappeared and turned into the sky. That was kind of neat, um. But then after that it started to get really bizarre and I didn't, I didn't really appreciate that as much because I don't, I don't know, I don't really get into that drug recreation thing.
Speaker 1:Fair.
Speaker 2:Uh, but yeah, I don't know it was. It was still musically dear prudence.
Speaker 1:I thought it was really good, Are are you gonna touch on the happiness as a warm gun?
Speaker 2:um, well, I don't, I don't actually have it down, oh um, but why what? What do we? What do you got?
Speaker 1:well, it's max sits there and at one point jude says he looks okay and he's like yeah, from the neck down I work just fine. Yeah, drugs are bad and they do horrible, horrible things to you. But at that point in time, like what else did those vets have? They were forced to go off and become soldiers and see all these horrific things and then when they got back back they were just dropped like nobody cared and they didn't have anything to help them deal with the stuff that they did and saw yeah, well, and that was, that was the big thing with uh that I had with max of the jungle yeah that was one of the next points.
Speaker 2:Uh, I had had, You're fine, but at a point they started going into scenes of Max jumping out of helicopters and you know gunning up. Wow, Like he looked like a soldier and it was like they turned him into one, but he kind of had to be. When you're drafted, it doesn't matter whether you agree with the war or not. You have to become the soldier otherwise. Otherwise you're not going to be okay. The only way you're going to survive is to become that soldier. And and he did so. It's like it. I mean whether whether he stayed with it long term or not, I mean he bought in at least enough to fight the war.
Speaker 1:So super weird comparison, but it also made me think of Hunger Games because, like little kids thrown into war and being forced to kill other people, whether they can do it or not.
Speaker 2:like you have to or you won't make it right, but he did it, he did and, and, and you kind of see it later later on in the movie when he comes back. But uh, we can, we can come around back to that one because because next is is a thing that happened kind of in between that Paco had claimed, uh, lucy's time and it was kind of kind of creating some jealousy with jude.
Speaker 1:He wasn't liking how much time that lucy was spending with paco well, would you like it if I found a paco and spent a bunch of time with him?
Speaker 2:no, no I don't think, I don't think I'd really appreciate that terribly, but at the same time, like I, I trust you. So, uh, that I think. I think that that was the thing that really bothered jude, though, was that he trusted lucy but he really didn't trust paco, and a lot of it, I think, was because, uh, I mean, there was, there was a part where they were in the laundromat and I actually actually I have that sound bite too of course you, you do.
Speaker 1:Why were you so rude to Parker before? It wouldn't have killed you to talk to him. You know he's got a good mind, he's committed, he's involved. He's a shagger. A what A shagger A. John Juan, a seducer of young, vulnerable women, jude, you know nothing about him. Every time I go to your place there's about 50 people there. There's one bloke licking stamps and the other 49er. Oh, they're all female, don't exaggerate.
Speaker 2:Trust me, I'm not.
Speaker 1:We're in the middle of a revolution, Jude.
Speaker 2:And what are you doing?
Speaker 1:Doodles and cartoons. I didn't mean it like that, no, no. Well, what did you mean? You know, I'm sorry, I'm not the man with the megaphone, but this is what I do.
Speaker 1:You can at least hear what he has to say. I suppose you don't, though, because you know you're never going to be drafted. Nor will you, lucy. I would lie down in front of a tank. It would stop this war and bring Max home. Yeah, well, it wouldn't. What do you mean? It wouldn't. You don't think that it's worth trying? I didn't say that. Well, maybe when bombs start going off here, people will listen.
Speaker 2:So they go to the laundromat and this guy, paco, he's the guy with the megaphone and he's the one that stands up in front of the crowds and gets everybody fired up and at one point you know Lucy's describing the things that they do, that they're handing out pamphlets and that they're giving flowers to police officers and and things like that, to kind of try to to keep things regulated or whatever. Well, this, uh, this Paco guy, ends up talking like talking everybody into believing that the only way that things are going to change is if they go more radical. And so radical also apparently means taking up all of your people's time, and and that gets that, gets Jude jealous. I mean some of it, some of it is just plain jealousy, but he, he's also I don't know like. I mean he just he wants all of that to stop. But lucy can't get past the cause to see that the guy who is behind the cause is also bullshit.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, like yes, I understand many men are away and having to be drafted and stuff like that, but he wasn't lying. There was all females there. And not only that, but Paco was sitting there fighting the cause and ends up being just as bad.
Speaker 2:Well, right, I mean I think Lucy walks in on him and the five other guys that are involved in this thing, because jude wasn't wrong. Yeah, I mean it was a little bit of an exaggeration one bloke licking stamps and 49 women okay, so that that is a little bit exaggerated, but it's seriously like five guys and the rest women, and those five guys are sitting in the leadership room with Paco and all the girls are out doing all the work, like it. Just I don't know. But I think what really kind of puts, what kind of puts Jude into. He becomes a dick, like he is being an asshole.
Speaker 1:Okay, to be fair, he was kind of a dick in another way throughout the whole movie.
Speaker 2:But right, right, uh, he, he's not exactly a model of good relationship advice either, but, like, what ended up kind of triggering him into becoming, into becoming that asshole, is that lucy was defensive about this cause, like, I mean, she, she wouldn't stop and listen to him when he was giving his you know his concerns like, hey, I think I think this guy is trying to seduce you and I think he's trying to take you from me, and I think he's doing a good job, instead of being like, look, I'm sorry, you know, I'll, I'll tell him, you know that I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be there all night, like like I have been, and then I'm going to come home and then I'm going to spend some time with you or whatever. There was no rectifying anything. It was all just well, you're being an asshole because you're not letting me do do this thing that I want to do. Of course, he didn't do a very good job of portraying that. He was really just concerned for her.
Speaker 1:No, well, and that's another thing, like he was trying to show concern for her and he could see past Paco's bullshit, I guess, if you want to call it that, and uh, bullshit Snapple yes, bullshit Snapple. He saw it escalating and he knew that Paco was out for Paco and getting the attention and all of that stuff and he just didn't want to see someone he loved get in the middle of all of those riots and get hurt and all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:No, it's uh. Well, there was the whole. There was a whole thing where she kind of wasn't really realizing right away that he was turning into the people that they were fighting, um, until she walked in on them, on the one guy, you know, on paco with the, with the handful of guys that he's in charge with building bombs, and it's like I think she said it really well, wasn't it something like like I thought they were the ones that I thought it was the other side that was dropping bombs. Yeah, and it's like dude.
Speaker 1:Mic drop, walk away.
Speaker 2:Right, and she did. She totally dropped that mic in that room and walked away and I don't know why. I don't know if it was because she called the cops or somebody else did, or you know, the cops were paying attention to them. Anyway, they might have just figured it out. But the cops show up and they start arresting people in there and jude comes back just as they're taking lucy out and getting ready to toss her in the back of the paddy wagon I thought that was a different point in the movie, like they were at a rally when they came for everybody well, they might have.
Speaker 2:I thought I. I thought it was in, I thought they came for him in Lucy's house.
Speaker 1:No, that was the explosion.
Speaker 2:Oh OK, oh right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ok, they went to a rally and that's when they started arresting.
Speaker 2:That's when they started getting arrested, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then came the bomb.
Speaker 2:Well, that's when the bomb went off, because Jude had gotten sent back when they were arresting lucy yeah uh, because they, they picked him up, they put him in jail for a while.
Speaker 2:Everybody else got let out and then, like they weren't going to press charges for the for the protest but unfortunately he was he. He didn't have any documentation, so he had to go back and his biological dad showed up and tried to help but couldn't. So I mean that was really kind of cool that he showed up anyway, right, but uh, so he gets sent back to liverpool and then that's when everything seems to go back to normal. You know, max comes back from the war, lucy gets out and then everybody just seems like they're kind of lost. Max has clearly seen some shit. Yeah, I mean, granted, in retrospect it's like they just told him not to shave for a week. But I mean he looks rough, doesn't look like he's sleeping real well, doesn't look like he's able to take care of himself and he's driving a cab, which I mean cab drivers are cool and all. But I mean he just went and lived through war, he's driving a cab.
Speaker 2:But I really liked the way that they kind of had it connect. I mean there wasn't it kind of implied some metaphysical weirdness or whatever. But he started singing hey Jude and in the bar. When Jude was in a bar and it was like they saw each other in the mirror and and Jude decides to go back to America the right way, they give him the stamp of approval and off he goes and then when he gets back, you know he greets. He greets his friends and Lucy's just you know smitten, and inets his friends and lousy's, just you know smitten, and in love with him again and everything's all okay and everything and that's whatever it ends with. You know, all you need is love, of course, because it's something based on beatles music but with that whatever right, but with that, that brings the end of the movie and that brings us down to the active ingredient.
Speaker 2:Did you have an active ingredient for this movie? If you did, what was it?
Speaker 1:There were definitely a bunch of different ones. It just you see generally what people went through in that time and how horrific it could be. But you also saw people that already saw their fair share of shit and were just I'm done with this. I don't want a part of this anymore. I'm not going to have a cause because, honestly, at some point it didn't matter at that time to have a cause and, if anything, it tended to make things worse. But the thing that you could count on is if you had your group of people.
Speaker 2:You can get by with a little help from your friends right, and you can also get high with a little help from your friends you can um, oh, interesting fact. You remember in that, in that song, when they were passing around the joint, that didn't exist yes do you know why they did that? No, to keep it from getting an r rating. Oh, that is 100% the reason why I believe it yeah, and I'm not sure why.
Speaker 2:You know, when he leaves the bar with lucy to ask her if she's okay about the whole daniel death thing, and there's the, the head shop with all of the bongs in the background. How that didn't give it an r rating, but whatever I pointed that out.
Speaker 1:I'm like, huh, that's a whole lot of paraphernalia yeah, that's a big paraphernalia charge. Yeah, no, that the whole invisible joint thing was strictly to to avoid an r rating and that's super weird because at one point I think it was jude during that song blew out when he coughed.
Speaker 2:Yeah he coughed in it and he coughed up smoke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's funny for me, there were, there were actually several active ingredients at multiple times yes um, when I first watched it, the movie kind of told me that it was okay for men to love, I mean which is so stupid because it it shouldn't take something like that like a human is a human, no matter the genitalia or hormones.
Speaker 2:Like right, but it's, but it's still one of those things that you know what society expects, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, now to be clear. Um, I said that it taught me that it was okay for men to love. It didn't model how to love.
Speaker 1:No, don't. Don't take any relationship advice from that movie.
Speaker 2:No, it would be a very big mistake to do that, modeling any of your relationships after any of these. It also made something make sense to me. I talked in an episode in the past about my dad and I not getting along for a little while. Yes, that a lot of it had to do with a difference in philosophy, ethics. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the conversation at the table was kind of big for me, as my dad and I had just freshly started talking again.
Speaker 2:Just a couple years before that, I saw the conversation again in front of me in a movie where Max says why isn't the question who I am? And I feel that that had kind of proved to me that my dad had considered who is my son. It also gave me perspective enough to consider that my dad wasn't trying to make me miserable. When he and I were were not really seeing eye to eye, a lot of that was coming from I didn't. I didn't want to go to school, um. It gave me perspective enough to consider that my dad wasn't trying to make me miserable and that he wanted the best for me, um, in the way that he most naturally knew. So I mean it kind of helped me to understand his his side of that whole thing too. Later I'd kind of taken in the the parallels of the funerals.
Speaker 1:Like Jojo's brother and Daniel, we all leave this world, you know um I feel like we, I feel like we'd do bad, a bad job if we uh, you know talked about this movie and not the importance of learning french right, learn french or die.
Speaker 2:That was such a weird thing. Make sure you're learning french. Um, most recently, I think that that this movie, what it really taught me was that, as much as I love the beatles and as much as I love the music uh, they were wrong.
Speaker 2:Uh, it taught me that love is not all you need no um, now I mean, I understand that from a uh, from a 1970s hippie standpoint that you know that love also means you know, if you love somebody, then that means that you trust them. That means that you, you know that you can rely on them, and things like that. But in in, in reality, you can love somebody and and not trust them. You can love somebody and and not be able to rely on them. The key is figuring out if, if you can rectify that. Those are not always equal.
Speaker 1:And it takes a lot of work to make them work.
Speaker 2:The work is the important thing to remember. You know, uh, because love, once you have love, then it then it's there. You know if it's, if it's real, it's there. That doesn't need to be worked at because that's already there. But the things that do need to be worked at are what keep the love there. It's the legs that love stands on um yeah, some days I just kind of like you see, it happens. That's what happens when you spend all day in your editing room.
Speaker 1:That's what happens when?
Speaker 2:yeah, um. Well, thank you for listening. That's all the time we have for today. Uh, now, if you have a movie that's been medicine for you and you'd like to be on the show, uh, you can email me at contact at movie dash rxcom. Uh, or you can leave me a voicemail or text message at 308-519-5790. Uh, if anxiety is keeping you from being on, you can write me a couple paragraphs about a movie and I can read it on air. Now, remember, this movie is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease, and we'll see you at the next appointment. So so, thank you.