Within Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe (Columbia Pictures, 2007) the “Strawberry Fields Forever” musical number uses lighting and set-design to show the duality of the meaning the song has on Jude and Max. Through the film lighting is used to convey the width of the characters knowledge regarding each other and themselves while an expressionist set design is used to show the symbolism of strawberries for the two characters and the fantastical element of the gravity of war on their lives.
From the get-go the establishing shot in this sequence is using lighting on Jude that has him half lit up and half in the dark with news of the Vietnam War playing, this is already conveying Jude’s conflicted feelings at not only his relationship with Lucy but also setting the tone for the heavy presence war plays on him and subsequently Max. As the opening chords of “Strawberry Fields Forever” starts to play Jude’s lighting has gone completely dark; however, soon after seeing Jude bathed in a completely dark, unknowing (#2) light the camera pans from the darkness of Jude to a close-up shot of bright, red, and succulent (#1) strawberries. This lighting contrast serves to show how the strawberries symbolize clarity and brightness to Jude, their red sticking out against the blackness of Jude’s previous lighting. Once the strawberries have been introduced the lighting on Jude turns from darkness to an almost subtle, understated halo of light surrounding Jude. The meaning of the song is not lost through the lighting, John Lennon having written it as a remembrance to the simplicity of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children’s home close to his own.
Though the underlying theme of remembrance of simpler remains in this melancholy, yet peaceful (#3) tune, Jude and Max add a certain tone of yearning to it. A yearning not for their youth but for simpler times, which is what the strawberries come to represent. To convey this yearning an expressionist set design is used throughout the song from the time Max is introduced in Vietnam to the end to add a certain fantastical element to the gravity of what the war is doing to Max and Jude, the war affecting each one in different ways. The expressionist set design is seen in various shots displaying either Jude or Max with different images flashing across their faces as the background is simultaneously changing. Through Max’s face Jude throwing strawberries can be seen with Jude’s white canvas with strawberries pinned to it in the background. As the scene shifts to Jude’s face it is plain to see bomb dropping across his face as images of war stricken Vietnam are displayed in the background. The expressionist set design is used here to add a fantastical element to the lyrics that Jude and Max sing, as both of their faces are shown with backgrounds of what the other is doing they sing “Nothing is real”, conveying how the war to them isn’t real and the situations each are going through isn’t real. Both wondrous elements splayed across Jude and Max’s face through the expressionist set design are brought together in a final shot of strawberries being thrown as bombs onto a flamed up Vietnam. This shot towards the end of the “Strawberry Fields Forever” sequence capitalizes it’s use of expressionist set design to bring together all the little details and symbolize throughout the scene: the strawberries that Jude uses to symbolize clarity and brightness are now being used as a bomb in a war that Max so desperately wants to believe “isn’t real”. It perfectly encapsulates Jude and Max’s yearning for a simpler time in their lives when there was “nothing to get hung about”.
If you are a fan of The Beatles and their music, there is no doubt that you will love this film, it undoubtedly does justice to their work. The film also uses the music to comment on the times and themes found in the 60's, simultaneously bringing to life a plethora of different characters. Great musical and film.
