Across the Universe: Mise En Scene

How does the mise en scene give you clues about what will be happening next in the film Across the Universe?

We continued watching Across the Universe in this lesson, starting with the "I Want You" scene.  In this scene, Max is wearing black and this is implying that he will soon be joining the U.S. army to fight in the Vietnam war. The film did not use dialogue to tell us that Max is joining the army, but instead the audience could tell through the set dressing and costumes. You can see a large amount of soldiers and Max is being carried into a 'room' which has the words "United States Army". Moreover, another clue is the costume of the guy on the poster. He wears the colours red, blue and white - which represents the United States, and that particular part of him is shot from a low angle, suggesting that he is powerful and Max is forced to obey and be controlled by him (the U.S. government). Max and the other chosen men are carrying the Statue of Liberty as giants and stamping into a tropical forest with tiny palm trees (one of Vietnam's geographical feature). The difference between the size of the Americans the the Vietnam palm trees portrays that the Americans are proud about themselves, however they are treated as slaves as they are only wearing their underwear. This again indicates the the U.S. will soon be having a war with Vietnam, and Max would be part of the U.S. army. 

Another scene that I would like to talk about is "Strawberry Fields Forever"- one of the most memorable and impressive scenes in the movie. The colour and lighting used in this scenes give us clues about what might be happening next. There is light on only half of Jude's face, telling the audience that we don't fully know about him and something bad associated with him is likely to occur. We can see him expressing his emotions - anger through the color (Red) of the strawberries. Red in this scene is also representing blood and violence - which is what is occurring in the Vietnam war. Color and lighting is excellently used in this scene to tell the audience the emotions of the characters and what is happening in the film.