Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
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Movie Reviews of Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
Movie Review: Astounding.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am certainly "running hot" in terms of documentary selection as it seems like every time I find one which is superlative another comes along and outperforms it. No Direction Home makes one contemplate a great many things. Perhaps the most immediate is the idea that there is nothing in this world that Martin Scorsese cannot do better than his peers. We don't think of the eminent director's name being associated with documentary, but he advances this genre in the same fashion he did short film with his forty-some-minute work, Life Lessons, within New York Stories. Here he accomplishes the impossible as viewers finally are exposed to the man Bob Dylan as opposed to the idol. Unfortunately, the results are fairly jarring. I'm always worshipped Bob but my opinion of him was definitely lowered by this portrait comprised of interviews with the artist and those who knew him "back in the day." On the positive side, we again, just as in Don't Look Back, see firsthand evidence of his genius and how so much of what he did could not have been done by anyone else. His production during this brief moment of time was amazing. As a person though, we find him to be ruthlessly ambitious and opportunistic. Bob Zimmerman was on a mission to make it one way or another and nothing was going to stop him...and nothing did. The most disheartening element in this depiction is the lack of honor he showcased. He appears to have stolen a few hundred records from an old friend, and, even when confronted, refused to give them back. It is implied that he never, even when worth tens of millions, made good on this debt. This is unfortunate but probably reflective of the way in which young Dylan used and discarded others. Relationships seemed to be a means to end and never an end in them self. Joan Baez's observations support this as well. To please her, he merely had to invite her upon stage with him in London, but this was asking too much from a man about to become king. Yet, in the final analysis, he is a king and the person of the artist is always subsidiary to the works produced--at least in the minds of fans like this reviewer who will always love Dylan no matter what he does or says. Movie Review: A time capsule!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this movie as two part "fund raiser" special on PBS. Having grown up in NY in the early sixties this wonderful movie by Scorsese really brought back a flood of memories I didn't even know I had of that period.
While this movie is shot in a documentary form it flows effortlessly through Dylan's formative and (I think) most creative years. The mix of performances and following Dylan and his entourage are masterfully done. The interviews with an older weary Dylan and his contemporaries are so insightful: Dave Van Ronk, Allen Ginsberg, Maria Muldaur and of course the incomparable Joan Baez who still seems to have such a soft spot for Bob and his genius.
If you're even remotely interested in Dylan and the music of that era this is a must have DVD for your collection. Kudos go to Scorsese for whom this was clearly a labor of love.
The times they have changed...we just don't have music with this power any more.
Movie Review: NOW IF SOMEONE COULD JUST MAKE A DOCUMENTRY
Summary: 3 Stars
About BOB that did not feel as if they had to do it to please BOB.
Non-Bias without all the Flattery...Bob is a GENIUS! This movie shows him as if he actually believes it himself! All it needed to do was to show his work and a bio.
Movie Review: How Does It Feel, Bob?
Summary: 5 Stars
Bob Dylan has always seemed the kind of musician I should have been into (intelligent lyrics, etc), yet for some reason I never have been able to find a way to get into his music. This is probably going to sound silly to Dylan fans, but I was put off by everything from not knowing which album to buy first, struggling to understand what Bob was saying. It just all seemed a very different world to mine. Well, after this DVD "No Direction Home", compiled by Martin Scorsese, I'm rather turned around on the subject. I've gotten some context, I GET it now!
By way of original concert footage, TV spots and present day interviews from many people including Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg and even Bob Dylan himself, we see over two discs the rise of Dylan's career, disc one covering his early life and influences up to about 1963, the second disc covering 1963 to just after Dylan's infamous motorcycle crash in 1966. It's done pretty straightforward, though there is the occaisonal arty directional flourish put in by Martin Scorsese (silence after the motorcycle crash, beginning the documentary in silence, as if there was no music before Dylan, etc). It's not strictly chronological, the documentary will often cut to 1966, where people will be booing Dylan for having a band and going electric. Though I usually like my stories and documentaries pretty chronological, I thought the flashing back and forth added to "No Direction Home". It reminded you what was going to happen, compared the folk versions of Dylan songs to some of the electric renditions, provided some contrast, showed what the shock must have been to the audience back then.
I'd always heard about this infamous change, and had never really understood what the big deal is. After seeing this documentary, I understand why it was such a big deal to some fans, who saw Dylan as a folk purist, as a national conscience, etc. I also see why it wasn't such a big deal to Dylan. He had always been into rock'n'roll, even when he was growing up. He'd had an electric guitar back then, even.
I know a lot of things now that I've seen this documentary. I know that Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash not only met, but sung a song together. I know why, in the 1960s, so many bands did covers of Dylan's songs. I now know more about Allen Ginsberg and his scene. It's great to have a documentary where you come away with a heap more than what you expected. Then again, it is a rather lengthy documentary.
Special features include a selection of performances used in the film that can be watched seperately, plus a few performances that are not. They date from 1963 to 1966. As a casual listener, I was pleased to find some footage of "Positively 4th Street" being performed, as it's a song I quite like.
I'd recommend this DVD to anyone interested at all in Bob Dylan. It'd be a good place for newcomers to start, I think, it definitely was for me. I don't think I've seen a music documentary this interesting since the Beatles Anthology. I'll be picking up an album of Bob's pretty soon, I'm sure.
Movie Review: No need to be a "fan" to find something to like here
Summary: 5 Stars
So much archival footage and interviews with folkies, beatniks, poets, singers, you name it - this dvd has it all- very extensive. I am not a major Dylan fan -but you have to dig this pixie who roils the waters - Liam Clancy put it best when he said that Bob Dylan was a 'shape changer" in the tradition of Irish mythology- "they change voices, they change faces"- and that's what Bob Dylan was guilty of .You don't have to embrace "Bobby" as a saviour to like him or this DVD - you can take what you like and leave the rest behind. that's what I did and I didn't have to leave much-