Cakebug Tranch

Where the heck is Taylor Anne? We need her to bring the blind love for this thing back into play!

Clearly Professor Huber was a hot-shot professor at Princeton before the war, a child prodigy who graduated high school at 13, Bachelor's at 15, Master's at 16, PhD at 20. Ready to take on the world, tenure-track, ready to go, and then: Pearl Harbor. The patriot that he is, he drops everything, signs up to fight, writes his occupation on his army records, including a specific address at Princeton, then goes to Liverpool to do some basic training (as you do), knocks up Jude's mum, heads off to war, but receives a head injury that not only awards him a Purple Heart but an honourable discharge. Problem is, with the head injury, his academic career is in tatters. Along come the benevolent deans at Princeton, who offer him a job as a janitor who fixes the window leading, where he can gaze into the classrooms that once he prowled, stimulating the minds of future leaders. And one day, as he daydreamed into that window, an English boy calls him by his previous title... Professor Huber. It all comes flooding back.

I'm sitting here wondering what kind of movie AtU would be if we cut all of the music. That would probably knock out characters like Prudence, Bono, Izzard, Sadie, JoJo, Joe Cocker, but then with that freedom (and potentially adding us back into a world where the Beatles exist), the story between Jude and Lucy (and Max?) could have some room to breathe. Take out the cringey references, and make a new movie where a Liverpudlian named Jude meets an American named Lucy. I think it'd be better.

Plus Lucy gets picked up from high school the first time she meets Jude, so she's 17. Max even goes so far as to note that one of Lucy's friends 'got boobs' which ages her down if anything. And there's no reason to think Jude is the same age, since he's been working on the docks for lord knows how long. The movie's supposed to cover 2 years (with six years of stuff squashed in), so at best Lucy's 19 at the end of the movie. Max is dropping out of college and he's been there long enough to have 'pissed off every professor in Princeton' plus also somehow knows the janitor's name (that's commitment to a community right there), so I'd say he's not a freshman. The 'older woman' comment clearly aligns to the fact that she's not 20, so she must be 'older'. Why bother qualifying that? Why not just say 'what a fox', without the offensive follow up?

They pay him in strawberries so NBD. Also, this stupid post was the post I chose to be my 500th post on these boards. How momentous.

Strawberry Jamz duh

And then of course there's the very curious process of hunting for Beatles Easter Eggs in a created world in which the Beatles clearly don't exist at all. No one in this world looks at the rooftop concert and says 'oh, hey, just like in 'Let It Be''! No one sees Maxwell with a silver hammer and says 'hey, like the song'. The Beatles are just gone (also in this world there is zero music that doesn't feature the Beatles, so there is no popular music at all?)

1. Nope, England were out of Vietnam. And Jude in this movie is a Brit, so that checks out. Maybe.

Okay, 'add' was the wrong term. More, what could we have done differently? Jude couldn't be drafted into the US Army, hence the need for Max - I think Max was reverse engineered into this when they realised they needed a character to go to Vietnam. He needs to leave the girl in Liverpool so he can sing 'All My Loving' and to parallel Lucy's boyfriend. Sadie's another reverse engineering that was invented the minute the writers said 'oh and then they rent an apartment in the east village'.

I love that part where Eddie bumps into that one Blue Meanie. And also, WELCOME to the MM thread Ellen. We haven't met yet, but we're fellow Canadians and I post a lot these days. Glad that I might have another AtU defender...

Okay. Just as an exercise: here's every track and its function moving the plot along, ignoring lyrics. "Girl" — Jude (JUDE THINKS ABOUT LUCY, WHO IS A GIRL) "Helter Skelter" — Sadie (OPENING CREDITS, GENERIC SIXTIES IMAGERY, HELTER SKELTERY) "Hold Me Tight" — Lucy, Molly, and Prom Night singers (LUCY AND JUDE GET HELD TIGHT BY OTHER LOVERS) "All My Loving" — Jude (JUDE SAYS GOODBYE AND PROMISES TO BE GOOD) "I Want to Hold Your Hand" — Prudence (INTRODUCE PRUDENCE AND HER SEXUALITY) "With a Little Help from My Friends" — Max, Jude, and Dorm buddies (MAX AND JUDE BECOME FRIENDS) "It Won't Be Long" — Lucy and Students (LUCY NOTES IT WILL NOT BE LONG) "I've Just Seen a Face" — Jude (JUDE FALLS FOR LUCY) "Let It Be" — Gospel singer, Jojo's brother, and Church choir (GUYS, IN RIOTS, WHY CAN'T WE LET IT BE?) "Come Together" — Pimp, Bum, Mad Hippie, Jojo, and Prostitutes (ALL THE CHARACTERS COME TOGETHER) "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" — Sadie (GENERIC SADIE ROCK SONG) "If I Fell" — Lucy (LUCY FALLS FOR JUDE) "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" — Max, Sadie, Prudence, Uncle Sam, and Soldiers (UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU, CARRYING LADY LIBERTY LITERALNESS SONG) "Dear Prudence" — Sadie, Jude, Lucy, and Max (PRUDENCE IS CLOSETED) "Flying" (instrumental) — The Secret Machines (DRUG CULTURE STARTS) "Blue Jay Way" — The Secret Machines (DRUG CULTURE CONTINUES) "I Am the Walrus" — Dr. Robert (DRUG CULTURE ADDS BONO) "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" — Mr. Kite (DRUG CULTURE GETS WEIRD) "Because" — Lucy, Jude, Max, Sadie, Prudence, and Jojo (COMMUNING WITH THE EARTH) "Something" — Jude (JUDE THINKS ABOUT HOW HE LOVES LUCY) "Oh! Darling" — Sadie and Jojo (SADIE AND JOJO HAVE A LOYALTY FIGHT) "Strawberry Fields Forever" — Jude and Max (JUDE PAINTS STRAWBERRIES) "Revolution" — Jude (JUDE FIGHTS THE REVOLUTIONARIES) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" — Jojo and Jude (JOJO IS SAD) "Across the Universe" — Jude (interwoven with "Helter Skelter") (JUDE GETS CONTEMPLATIVE) "Helter Skelter (Reprise)" — Sadie (interwoven with "Across the Universe") (THINGS ARE GOING CRAAAZY) "And I Love Her" (brief extract incorporated into the orchestral score during the "Across the Universe"/"Helter Skelter (Reprise)" sequence, also sung by McCoy in a deleted scene) (JUDE LOVES HER) "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" — Max, Bang Bang Shoot Shoot nurses, and Soldiers (MAX GOT SHOT BY SALMA HAYEK) "A Day in the Life (Instrumental)" — Jeff Beck (A DAY IN JUDE'S LIFE) "Blackbird" — Lucy (LUCY GETS CONTEMPLATIVE) "Hey Jude" — Max, Jude's mother, Children and Immigrants (MAX SAYS, HEY! JUDE!) "Don't Let Me Down" — Sadie and Jojo (SADIE HOPES NOT TO BE LET DOWN) "All You Need Is Love" — Jude, Sadie, Prudence, Max, and Jojo (ALL JUDE NEEDS IS LOVE) "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" — Bono and The Edge (end credits) (OH SHIT I GET IT LIKE THE CHARACTER'S NAME)

Excellent points, all. I doubt the content of lyrics were particularly important in the adaptive process here - it was more about using the tone of the songs to illustrate a moment (hence the very good 'I've Just Seen a Face' moment being more to do with the fact that he's 'Falling' and less to do with 'I've just seen' in this context). The recontextualisation of 'Walrus' lyrics bothers me less, to be honest, because the original context aside, the religious mantra side of it is relevant in the fact that even though Lennon didn't want people to gain insight into his lyrics that he didn't write there, it's inevitable that we will. As a race, we're excellent at ferreting out meaning, most often meaning that wasn't intentionally placed there. (I mean, shit, 'Helter Skelter' is in this movie twice and that's a track that - er - has been misinterpreted) I think if you look at the songs from a title perspective ONLY (i.e not lyrics), then you can see how they fit together on the running sheet as they put the film together. They are shoehorned in to help them move from moment to moment. Once you introduce the content of the lyrics, though, that's where the trouble starts, I agree. The other option here would have been to change the lyrics to the moment, but I doubt the Ghost of Michael Jackson would have let them do that. So, they try to work with the songs on the strength of their timelessness, and hope that we'll enjoy these familiar songs strung together by its plot. Here's a big question then: I think arguably the Beatles are the only band that could be effectively adapted in this way - big enough, enough of a span, enough material - and the idea of a Beatles jukebox musical isn't a new one. So how might it have been more successful? What could have been added that would have helped?

Probably. But he was briefly the 'it' guy around that time - he also did the awful 'The Other Boleyn Girl' (good lord, now THERE is a shitty adaptation) and that Las Vegas card cheating movie with Kevin Spacey ('21', Ive just remembered), as was Evan Rachel Wood. I think for a little bit they were trying to make the both of them a thing but I'm not sure it took.

Also, speaking of Julie Taymor (inSANE), I urge you all, if you haven't already, to get Glen Berger's INCREDIBLE book 'Song of Spider-Man', which chronicles his dysfunctional years writing the Spider-Man musical with Taymor (inSANE). It's a must for anyone who loves musicals, theatre, or things that are crap. https://www.amazon.ca/Song-Spider-Man-Controversial-Musical-Broadway/dp/1451684568

Ahh! Sorry, was out all morning and just got back. Not to leave you hanging... Okay. So, I'll preface this by saying that I am an adaptation fiend. The first university course I ever taught was adaptation theory, and so much of what I've done in my academic work has been working on modes and means of adaptation. I published my first book last year on adaptation structure and theory (hey, shameless plug! https://www.amazon.ca/Adapting-War-Horse-Cognition-Spectator/dp/1137594748) so for me, the process of adaptation is always very interesting to me. When i came across AtU, I didn't know the Beatles all that well (yeah, shut up). I mean, I knew the big hits and some of the more pervasive things, but I had no real relationship with the group or their music. The music I knew was good, but I didn't really appreciate its brilliance. So, when I saw 'AtU', a few tracks ('Mr Kite', 'Girl', 'Across the Universe') were fairly newish to me. I remember years ago my old buddy Tim Minchin did a comedy song called 'Inflatable You', which he includes the lines 'Don't Let Me Down' at the end, and when I saw 'AtU', I was surprised when I heard Sadie sing 'Don't Let Me Down' that Tim was parodying the Beatles. That's how shitty my Beatles knowledge was. For me, the achievement of this glorious mess is that they have tried really hard to adapt this work into a cohesive whole, which includes the reorchestration of nearly every track. There's not many songs in here which are as-is (and why should they be, given that we're essentially seeing a Liverpool where the Beatles never existed), so the adaptation was something I really dug. I know there's already been comment on 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' as 'dirge' but I appreciated the flip. What this film was not, was Mamma Mia, and I think it's all the better for it. The visuals are beautiful if sometimes heavy handed. The love story is spotty but the 'All You Need Is Love' moment always gets a tear from me. I love the friendship between Max and Jude. The psychedelic sequences later on with Bonobos and Izzard are less interesting to me, but I like how they skirt the history of the Beatles career, and that's part of the track. In fact, I really do like how the film starts in the Cavern Club and ends with a live show on a rooftop, just like the band's career. I love Joe Cocker's 'Come Together'. I will fight you. I also love 'Let It Be'. Anyone not? Come on. The film is heavy-handed in many ways (Sadie as Joplin, JoJo as Hendrix, Prudence's closet scene), which is why I don't love it. But I do like it a lot. Bottom line: this film made me want to listen to the Beatles. And now I know the Beatles much better, appreciate their songwriting, and their place in our culture. There's a joy in much of this film that helps me forgive the shit that gets old fast. And if you check your cynicism about the names (Lucy, Jude, Maxwell with his Silver Hammer), I find a lot to love here. Also: Julie Taymor is INSANE.

Honestly, when I picked this movie, I did so knowing that it would be divisive, and that some people would hate it. Even watching it again last week, I (like tomspanks did a few weeks ago with Tommy) was surprised that it wasn't as good as I remember, but I still stick to my nostalgia factor from when I first saw it, years ago. Even so, I was surprised with how much everyone seemed to hate it - but hopefully this will engender some good discussion rather than simply dismissing it and saying it sucks. I really, really thought that we'd have a 50/50 split on like/hate, but it seems more like 20/80. That's cool! If nothing else, Taylor Anne and I can circle the wagons and defend this film (and the casting of Jim Sturgess). I'll try not to dominate conversation (yeah right). Have at it!

Agreed! I was genuinely shocked that my hockey jersey research made the cut over it. The only explanation was that you commented later than I did, and they cut off the contenders early. Although now that I think about it, Cameron's poop research came later. So maybe Scheer just HATES THE WEATHER.

Arguably 'Army Intelligence' is a much more descriptive title for the events of that film?

That's what I knew it as growing up in Australia.

According to Fister, absolutely! I wasn't as big a fan, but it's entertaining as all hell. Certainly not a waste of a movie outing! With that said, if it comes out on DVD quickly, you wouldn't lose too much seeing it on your TV.

This gif is clearly not a Cincinnati washroom: no toilet paper suspended by chains 7 feet off the ground like some twisted spin on Tantalus.

And I thought I knew you both so well. On the other hand,

Remember the Courtney and Doug conversation on the Explanation Hopeline? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXElU2k7OkY Oh shit snap, their separation was just reported today. That's spooky.

Also, the American caller from Melbourne might have had the experience of finishing the twelfth grade in the US after her parents immigrated to Australia, but there's no way that it would mean that they would have to start over in that year's curriculum. American kids come to Australia all the time (the mining industry is a big reason for parents to be posted there) and they wouldn't have to start over again. They might have some catch-up to do, but even if they showed in the September of the school year, they would be accommodated. This is even more of a possibility given that Mitchell's supposed to be 15, so in the 10th grade. So, I call you out, Melbourne American caller. Mitchell totally could have gone to Australian school.