The Beatles make Across the Universe happen, as we follow Jude from Liverpool across the pond to America, as he meets the draft-dodging Max at Princeton University, the temptress Sadie and her Jimi Hendrix-like Jo-Jo in New York City, and finally, his love, Lucy, providing an overview of the times of protest and self-exploration that dominated mid-century America. Over the whole story rings the sound of the music of the Beatles, which you’ll either love or hate, but you can’t ignore. Regardless of what you think of the music, Jude’s story is one of experience, and one of the people he experiences along the way. Each one has a sage piece of advice for Jude to nibble on, and a thought for us to consider as well.

I’ll start with the wisdom of Jo-Jo: “Music’s the only thing that makes sense anymore. You play it loud enough so you can keep the demons at bay.” And about being inducted into the military, Jo-Jo says, “You can burn that paper, boy, but you still gotta show.” Music is one of the things I’ve found to help move past those moments when the world seems too dark to bear, and hope can’t be found. Music protests, rebels, confronts and uplifts, while shining light into all the dark places. War is one of those things, as the burning of the paper shows, that confronts our very core—and that means music has to work even harder to repel it.

Possibly my favorite moment occurs when Lucy comments, “Maybe when bombs start going off here, people will listen.” Is this just about Vietnam? I have to protest that it is! Our moviemakers seem to be shining their light and focus on today’s war, calling for our recognition of the damage that conflict causes. It wasn’t, in retrospect, until our own cities were bombed that we did take notice, and war itself lost the glamour that many believed it to possess. John Lennon’s music implies that “all we need is love,” and the world that would show love would be one that was lacking in wars and other conflict. Is it a world we can imagine? Maybe not, but I hope it’s a world that we’re striving for.

Of course, we’re privy to some philosophical discussions along the way, like the one Jude has at the dinner table with Max’s family. The debate revolves around these three questions: Does what you do define who you are? Does what you are define what you do? Or does the way that you do it define who you are? Jude presents the third option, a sort of model that my father the coach might present, or maybe a Dwayne Wade commercial (“You have to get knocked down seven times and get up eight”). It’s not the losing in life that marks us but how we respond to it.

While not claiming the same launching pad for their philosophy, it seems fair superficially to say that Lennon and Jesus could have supped together, and discussed the merits of a philosophy that bears the mark, “all you need is love.” Love is all you need, come down and presented to us by Jesus’ sacrifice. It’s that sacrifice, crossing many miles, that brings Jude and Lucy back together, across the universe, together at last.