It's one thing to acknowledge the widely disparate reactions to Julie Taymor's ode to the Beatles. It's another thing to figure out what causes it. More plainly, people either loved "Across the Universe" or hated it. Since Mr. Cranky was, of course, in the latter camp, it's hopefully incisive to examine why there were so many haters.

Whether they derided "Across the Universe" for it's Broadway-style presentation or for ruining every Beatles song ever written, the reason this film struck the wrong chord with so many is the reason our culture is going down the shitter faster than a flush: the destruction of art.

Effectively, "Across the Universe" is like one giant sample. It's like a remake. It's like a sequel. The lovers would argue that the film is a reimagining or an imagining. Haters are so hackled because their memory of the original is now corrupted. Taymor's film is the Warholization of the Beatles. Andy Warhol "reimagined" the Mona Lisa as a commentary on the commercialization of culture (I think). Taymor is forty years too late and her reimagining simply reeks of commercialization.

Another overlooked aspect to "Across the Universe" is that it's also some kind of weak history lesson of the 1960's. "Come Together" is played as Max (Joe Carrigan) is inducted into the Army. He's moved to New York with Jude (Jim Sturgess) where they live in a sort of apartment commune with Sadie (Dana Fuchs), a singer, JoJo (Martin Luther), a guitarist, and Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a domestic abuse victim. Jude has fallen for Max's sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Together, they all experience the 1960's together including street protests and the like. They're images of the sixties that are so clichˇd it's both shocking and depressing. However, that's precisely what's wrong with the film. It clings to a notion of importance that's not there.

And you can see by the character names where things are going. One waits for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" because one knows, it has to be coming. It's almost like watching the half-naked coed walking a hall of closets in a slasher film. Which closet will the killer jump out from and when?

John Lennon and George Harrison are probably rolling over in their graves. This film might put Paul and Ringo in theirs.