10 Best Musical Numbers In Film
8. I Want You (She's So Heavy) - Across The Universe
Julie Taymor is a great director who somehow never makes great films. This only makes sense if you understand what makes her a great director: The complete willingness to throw anything at the wall and see what sticks.
Case in point: Across the Universe, a series of music videos that may or may not have a plot or compelling characters to connect them. As a piece of narrative filmmaking it is fairly rote, but as a dive into Vietnam War-era imagery and counterculture passion it is a must-see.
Across the Universe lives or dies on its rendition of Beatles songs, and while some of them aren't great (this film should get a prize for the world's most lazy adaptation of 'With a Little Help from my Friends'), some are downright transcendent.
Case in point: I Want You (She's So Heavy), a song re-purposed to stand for the USA's forceful drafting of unwilling young men to join the army. It's almost harrowing to watch these young men getting conscripted as the montage goes through the dehumanizing process of recruitment.
Julie Taymor excellent marries her stage and screen sensibilities in this sequence, providing both memorable theatrical images (such as soldiers with inhumanly square jaws) with effects that can only be achieved in cinema (the model palm trees spring to mind). It's a number that's extremely fun to watch, but also not afraid to make you feel guilty for enjoying it.