Lucy and Jude begin dating, as well as Sadie and Jojo, which leaves Prudence depressed. When Max is sent to Vietnam, Lucy becomes involved in an extreme anti-war group, which leads to tension with the non-political Jude. He is unhappy with the amount of time she spends with the political group, suspecting that its leader, Paco (Logan Marshall-Green), is a man who obsessively seduces and deceives women. Jude's art and his relationship with Lucy both start to break down. Meanwhile, Sadie has formed a band called Sadie and the Po Boys, with Jojo as her lead guitarist. She gains the attention of a manager (James Urbaniak) who signs her to a record label, but he wants her to drop her backing band. This leads to a break up between Sadie and Jojo, both musically and romantically.
The differences between Jude and Lucy grow. One day, Jude goes into the offices of the political group where Lucy works and is kicked out after punching Paco. This causes a fight between the couple, resulting in Lucy leaving Jude. Jude finds her at an anti-war demonstration at Columbia University during which many protesters, including Lucy, are arrested. When trying to help her, Jude is also arrested. Though Wes (Jude's Father) persuades the police not to take further action for activity at the protest, he cannot prove that Jude is his son, and Jude is sent back to England.
Max is wounded in Vietnam and is emotionally and mentally troubled by his war experience, while Lucy remains involved in her anti-war group that is becoming more and more violent. After Lucy goes to the old headquarters of her anti-war group, she discovers Paco and some of his followers making bombs. She then decides to leave the group. One of Paco's bombs explodes, destroying the building. Jude reads about the explosion in a Liverpool newspaper and is concerned that Lucy has died. He then hears from Max that she is alive, and he arranges to return to the United States properly and without breaking the law. He meets Max, who drives him to Sadie's music headquarters where a Beatles-style rooftop concert is being held by Jojo, Sadie, and their band singing an anti-war song (Don't let me down). Lucy is supposed to be there to meet Jude again, but no one can find her, and the group is forced to leave when the police arrive. But Jude manages to sneak back onto the roof and begins to sing "All you need is Love", his eyes searching the crowd for Lucy. The rest of the band sneaks back onto the roof, too and they join him with their voices and instruments. Jude smiles sadly and turns to leave the roof, but Max suddenly points as they sing, and Jude turns to see Lucy standing on the roof across the street, singing along. They smile at one another with tears in their eyes, and the screen fades out to white clouds and blue sky.
The movie's end credits show that a total of thirty-three separate Beatles songs featured in the movie, either in full or in part. All of these songs were written between 1963 and 1970 by the members of The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) and recorded by The Beatles. Thirty of them are songs that are officially credited to the songwriting partnership of Lennon-McCartney. Three are credited to George Harrison. One title ("Flying") is a 1967 song credited to all four members of the Beatles (Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey).
Thirty-one of the soundtrack's songs feature vocals. Two of them ("And I Love Her" and "A Day in the Life") are brief instrumental versions of songs that were originally written with lyrics. One song ("Flying") was originally written as an instrumental.
Twenty-five of the vocal tracks are performed by one or more of the six lead cast members. Four of the songs are sung by stars with cameo roles (Bono, Eddie Izzard, Salma Hayek and Joe Cocker). One song ("Let It Be") is sung by supporting members of the cast. One song ("Blue Jay Way") is sung by indie Texan trio The Secret Machines. In twenty-nine of the vocal tracks, the vocalists are singing on-screen. Two of the vocal tracks ("Blue Jay Way" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds") are sung by off-screen vocalists.
The remaining three of the thirty-four songs are rendered instrumentally. "Flying" is performed by The Secret Machines, "And I Love Her" is heard briefly as part of the orchestral score, and "A Day in the Life" is performed on guitar by Jeff Beck in a version recorded for Sir George Martin's 1998 album "In My Life".
In addition to the thirty-four Beatles songs, the soundtrack features an original score written by Elliot Goldenthal. Goldenthal worked on Taymor's previous movies "Titus" and "Frida". (Goldenthal and director Taymor have also been partners since 1982.)
This is a listing of the thirty-four songs written by members of The Beatles that are heard on the soundtrack, in the order featured in the movie. This listing includes notation of three songs that are heard twice in the course of the movie, so there are a total of thirty-seven individual music cues.
In March 2007, the media reported a dispute over the final cut of the movie. Concerned with the length of director Julie Taymor's cut of the movie, Revolution Studios (production studio) chairman Joe Roth tested a sneak preview of a shortened version without first informing Taymor. The incident caused a quarrel between the two, later involving Sony Pictures (distributor) Amy Pascal urging Taymor to agree to the shorter version. After several months of dispute, Taymor's version was eventually reinstated as the theatrically released version.
The movie received mixed reviews from critics. As of January 6, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 52% of critics gave the movie positive reviews, based on 130 reviews. However, the movie is currently at 80% with the Rotten Tomatoes community. Metacritic reported the movie had an average score of 56 out of 100, based on 29 reviews.
The movie appeared on a few critics' top ten lists of the best movies of 2007.
Hugo Weaving
Hugo Wallace Weaving (born 4 April 1960) is a British-Australian actor. He is also well known as a voice actor. Weaving is most famous for his roles as "Agent Smith" in "The Matrix" and "Elrond" in "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy, the main character of "V for Vendetta" and the voices of "Noah the Elder" in "Happy Feet", "Megatron" in "Transformers" and "Rex" in "Babe" and "". He was born in Nigeria to English parents. He spent his childhood in South Africa and then moved to the United Kingdom when he was a teenager. He moved to Australia in 1976.
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an important naval battle of the Second World War between the navies of the United States and Japan. This battle took place on June 19 and 20, 1944 near the Mariana Islands, and involved two big naval forces and many Japanese aircraft from bases on land. The battle was a great defeat for the Japanese Navy, which lost three aircraft carriers and some 600 aircraft in two days of combat. This happened because the Japanese airplanes were getting old and their pilots had little training, compared to the more modern and better trained American forces. After the battle, the Japanese Navy was almost completely destroyed. This victory for Allied forces opened the door for the invasion of Iwo Jima.
Tour of Britain
The Tour of Britain is the name of a cycle race held in United Kingdom. The race is made up of several parts in which the racers go from place to place across parts of Great Britain. The history of the event dates back to 1951. The Tour of Britain is part of the UCI's European Tour.
The race includes teams from Scotland and Wales, as well as a Great Britain team. In recent years, no English team has been entered. Teams from outside the UK compete too, for example in 2007 Team T-Mobile will take part.
The latest version, a professional stage race, was first run in 2004.