Across the Universe Post 1: Revolution

I've become obsessed to an almost unhealthy degree with the movie Across the Universe. I saw it when it first came out, and I didn't love it, but it has since grown on me. It's basically a musical using Beatles' songs to take a young couple through the obviously tumultuous 1960s. Many of the songs are strongly political, and I'll be posting clips from Youtube every once in a while... 

The clip below is the song Revolution. For reference, Jude (the main character) is a Liverpudlian artist illegally living in America, and Lucy (the other main character) is an increasingly radical Vietnam protester. This scene is  Jude's callout 0f Lucy (the other main character) for her overly zealous role in anti-war revolution. This one gets my blood boiling every time.

For starters, William Ayers, anyone? The organization Lucy works for eventually self-destructs itself (literally... they make bombs in the attic that explode and kill Paco, the leader Jude scuffles with, and his two main associates).

This clip, as I mentioned, gets me excited every time. Yes, we can say that most extremist American terrorist organizations are roughly extinct, but I think this video can connect generally to all political overreactions. It is a shoutout to the Dissident Voice, the radical extremist sect that goes through great pains to accomplish generally nothing. It is the realization that problems must be attacked with forethought and moderation, as the new media movement has attempted to do against the MSM, instead of with sock bombs and shouting. This clip is no longer simply a piece of the 60s, but it is a timeless metaphor for the call to moderate justice.

UPDATE: This will now be a weekly piece, available every Sunday at exactly noon, and I'll call it the Sunday Universe... maybe - I don't know