“The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood.”
ANDRE BRETON, Surrealist Manifesto, 1924
Surrealism, which began in the early 1920s, was greatly influenced by Dadaism. Dadaism is an art movement that began in Switzerland during World War II, and its concentration was anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anarchistic in nature. The leader of the Dadaism movement, Tristan Tzara, decided to attack society with ugly and obscure art because of their [society] need to create the monstrosity of war. That is when the surrealist movement got its momentum. Artists that did not appreciate Tzaza’s approach of lashing out began to follow surrealism. The surrealist movement washed over the U.S. in the early 1940s, and from there created a hard foundation to art and what it is today. Surrealism was discovered in Paris by Andre Breton, and the goal of the movement “…is to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute, a super-reality.” (Wikipedia)
The movie, Across the Universe, is a phenomenal film based heavily on the surrealism movement. Across the Universe is about a love story that took place during the era of riot and protest. The 1960s were the years the counterculture was born, so the movie is saturated with characters that portray people during that time. Across the Universe starts with a man named Jude singing on the beach, and then quickly transfers scenes to a high school prom where Lucy is dancing and singing with her boyfriend. The movie goes back and forth for awhile between scenes of Jude and Lucy, and then the story begins to unravel. Jude, the main character, is a young guy fresh in his early twenties. Originally from Europe, he travels to the Americas to find his father. Once he reached the states, he found his father immediately, and what he had hoped for was unsuccessful. His father was nothing more than a working man with a family he could barely support, and his father made it clear he didn’t want a further relationship with Jude. Luckily, before Jude decided to return to Liverpool, he met a guy named Max. Max, a former student at an Ivy League College, takes Jude under his wing and becomes close friends with him as Max continues his journey to self discovery. Jude and Max make a spontaneous decision to move to New York after Max explained to his parents, “…I’m just not cut off for this collegiate crap...”
After Jude and Max moved to New York, Lucy’s boyfriend that was drafted to serve in Vietnam was killed. With Lucy being Max’s little sister, she decided to move to New York for the summer to be with her brother as she recovers from her loss. The house that Jude, Max, and Lucy are living is a condo/apartment like complex that houses many other individuals that are in New York for the same reason they are; to live, love, and have fun. Inevitably, Jude and Lucy fall in love, and throughout the movie it’s a constant battle keeping their relationship strong. Because Max dropped out of college, he unavoidably was forced to join the draft to Vietnam. The idea of Max risking his life, too, wasn’t something Lucy was ready to face. To occupy her time and thoughts, Lucy and Jude along with their other housemates took a road trip. They ended up experiencing the weirdest of occurrences along the way, but with each passing day Lucy and Jude fell further in love. When returning from their trip, Lucy gets involved with the peace advocates and anti-war protesters. When her position with the peace organization consumes her, she begins to lose hold of her relationship with Jude. Jude uses his art as an escape to overcome the pain of losing his one true love. Eventually, Jude returns to Liverpool with an empty heart because he completely lost the best thing that had ever happened to him. Unsure of when he’d ever see Lucy again, Jude gets word from Max that Lucy misses him and loves him. Jude returns to New York, and when he gets to the city he quickly becomes hopeless because Lucy is nowhere to be found. His former housemates were gathered on the rooftop of a tall building singing of love, happiness, and peace. When Jude arrived on the rooftop, the police forced everyone to get back downstairs. But Jude hid from the cops so that he could sing Lucy back to him. He started singing, and the housemates talked the police into allowing them to stay, so they joined Jude in singing Lucy’s way back to them. The next thing you know, Lucy appears on the rooftop of a building across from them, and the depth of love in Jude’s eyes when he saw her was enough to make you feel their love. After the scene on the rooftops, the move ended.
The reason I chose Across the Universe as a surrealist movie is because of the creativity in the scenes. Throughout the movie, the characters sing songs by The Beatles. The significance of the music being by The Beatles is that during the 1960s, The Beatles defined the era of peace, love, and happiness. According to IMDB, over 30 Beatles’ songs are woven into the plot together with visual allusions to their timeless films. The lyrics to the Beatles songs in Across the Universe are acted out as a part of reality in the movie. When the characters are singing the Beatles’ songs, the scenes are fabricated with creativity and a surreal type setting. For instance, my favorite scene is when Jude, Lucy, and the other housemates are lying in the tall grass meadow singing ‘Because’. They start off by lying in a circle in the tall grass, but the scene changes to Jude and Lucy swimming under water and singing to each other. Other scenes that portray the surrealism in the film include the scene at the bowling alley, the scene when Max gets drafted and he is carrying the Statue of Liberty, and the scene when they take the party bus to the carnival. Each of these scenes is acted out through song, but the graphics and use of color portray a parallel universe between reality and fantasy. Surrealism is about reuniting your conscious and your unconscious. In Across the Universe, the director, Julie Taymor, does just that. The director does a phenomenal job combining reality and surrealism into multiple scenes.
In conclusion, surrealism is an expression of imagination revealed through dreams that are free of conscious control. The purpose of surrealism is to combine the unconscious and conscious realms to produce a form of surreality. The movie, Across the Universe, is known for its exaggerated scenes of art and music, and is clearly defined as a surrealist film. Through a love told through music, art, and peace, we are given insight to the minds of creativity, and the capture of surrealism in every scene.
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