I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
by Todd Haynes
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruce Greenwood, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christian Bale, David Cross, Richard GereDirector: Todd Haynes
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
Cinematographer: Edward Lachman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
Published: 2008-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 81090
Studio: Weinstein Company
Product features:
- Inspired by the life and songs of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There is "a profoundly personal and passionate film" (A.O. Scott, The New York Times) that captures the essence of this elusive genius. Six different actors - including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett in a "soon-to-be-legendary performance" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) - each embo
Movie Reviews of I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Where in the World is Bob Dylan in this Movie?
Summary: 5 Stars
The title of I'M NOT THERE comes from a Bob Dylan song of the same name. In the song, the iconic singer/songwriter/actor/activist seems to lament the ups and downs of his relationship with a woman described as "my prize-forsaken angel," and "a long-hearted mystic." Where Todd Haynes' and co-screenwriter Oren Moverman's ultra-brilliant movie is concerned, that same title might be applied to two things.
The first is the succession of public images--from committed folk artist and "radical" activist to evangelical disciple and reclusive outlaw--that Dylan has famously projected throughout his long phenomenal career, allowing the public access to these personas while battling to safeguard the integrity of his true core identity. The title's second reference may be to the fact that our hero himself is nowhere to be seen in the film (except in fleeting parting glimpses) but six other gifted performers acting as him, or as parts of him at different points in his life, are.
Generally described as a "biopic," I'm Not There actually trashes and reinvents that film category, whether done so intentionally or not. The various actors who portray Dylan's creative and spiritual qualities for this movie do more than simply mimic the performer. They embody with consummate skill all the elements that combined to make him the amazing human being that he is: the mesmerizing myths of American folk music, the turbulent political and social events of the 1960s, and the sometimes uneasy tension of the relationship between celebrated performers and their audience.
The tricky part of this movie for some viewers is the fact that the six actors portraying Bob Dylan are all called by different character names as opposed to being called just Dylan or Bob. Australian actress Cate Blanchett, for example, earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as the mercurial Jude Quinn. Hypersensitive, androgynous and almost alien-like in appearance, Quinn represents Dylan just as he was skyrocketing to world fame in the mid 1960s. He delivers some of the best lines in the film, such as when he freaks out after learning he's been booked to perform eighty plus shows to make him a millionaire, and then yells, "Who the f**k said I wanted to be a millionaire?!"
In addition to its other amazing attributes, I'm Not There will remain memorable for Heath Ledger's performance as Robbie Clark, the proposed romantic side of Dylan, and for the fact that this was one of Ledger's last films. It's also a treat to watch veteran actor Richard Gere as the matured but reclusive Outlaw Billy the Kid who gets drawn out of his self-imposed exile when developers threaten to build a road through the valley where he's hiding out. And Ben Whishaw (the gifted star of Perfume) provides a crucial anchor as the poet-philosopher Arthur Rimbaud who calmly endures interrogations about the motives and inspiration behind his art. While all these actors give outstanding performances in their own right, Christian Bale struck this reviewer as exceptionally convincing in his double turn as the young Jack Rollins and later as the converted Christian called Pastor John.
Yet possibly the most astounding performance of all came from the then 13-year-old Marcus Carl Franklin, a black youth named Woody (as in folk singer Guthrie) who in the film behaved and spoke like some seasoned bluesman four times older than he was. Unlike his co-stars, Franklin actually sang the songs attributed to his character and one of the best scenes in the film is of him and the legendary Richie Havens, a true-life contemporary of Dylan's, going at it as they jam "Tombstone Blues" on the porch.
Enough classic tunes, performed by a variety of artists, play throughout I'm Not There to satisfy the most hardcore Dylan fans and to provide newcomers with a thorough introduction to his music. The soundtrack not only underscores the onscreen action, but filled as it is with all of the singer's emotional intensities, social observations and philosophical inquiries, places the viewer in the very creative heart of it. In fact, it is through the songs, which Rimbaud/Dylan describes as "something that walks by itself," that the man himself is most present in the movie.
Director Haynes remains true to the psychedelic film style of the 60s complete with swirling background screens and cameo appearances by powerhouse figures like beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles, and the political activist group the Black Panthers. At the same time, he delivers a flawlessly entertaining New Millennium epic unlike anything ever seen before and probably unlike anything we'll see again for quite some time.
by Author-Poet Aberjhani
co-author of ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Summary of I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Inspired by the life and songs of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There is "a profoundly personal and passionate film" (A.O. Scott, The New York Times) that captures the essence of this elusive genius. Six different actors -- including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Oscar® nominee Cate Blanchett in a "soon-to-be-legendary performance" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) - each embody part of the Dylan legend: from Greenwich Village folk singer to electric guitar trailblazer to born-again preacher. Directed by Academy Award®-nominated writer/director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), I'm Not There is "unquestionably the year's most original American movie" (Thelma Adams, US Weekly).Unapologetically audacious, I'm Not There is more post-modern puzzle than by-the-numbers biopic. A title card sets the scene: "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan." Yet the film features no figure by that name. Instead, writer/director Todd Haynes presents six characters, each incarnating different stages in the artist's career. Perfume's Ben Whishaw, a black-clad poet, serves as a slippery sort of narrator. The action begins with the wanderings of an 11-year-old black runaway named "Woody Guthrie" (Marcus Carl Franklin)--his raucous duet with Richie Havens on "Tombstone Blues" is a highlight--and ends with a silver-haired Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) watching the Old West die before his eyes. In the interim, there's the folk singer-turned-preacher (Christian Bale), the actor (Heath Ledger), and the rock star (Cate Blanchett, who has Don't Look Back Dylan down to a science). The chronology is purposefully non-linear, and editor Jay Rabinowitz cuts rapidly, Jean-Luc Godard-style, between cinéma vérité black-and-white and saturated color, Richard Lester-like slapstick and Fellini-inspired surrealism (Ed Lachman served as cinematographer).
What makes the picture fun for Dylan fans--and potentially frustrating for neophytes--is that every album and movie bears an alternate title. Ledger's Robbie, for instance, stars in "Grain of Sand," actually a reference to the Pete Seeger song. As in Haynes' glam rock reverie Velvet Goldmine, the trickery involves the entire cast. While Julianne Moore plays former lover Alice, a dead ringer for Joan Baez; Michelle Williams embodies elusive scenester Coco, i.e. Edie Sedgwick. If I'm Not There is less affecting than Control, the year's other big music film, it rewards repeat viewings like few biographical features. The soundtrack mixes originals with covers, like Jim James's heartfelt "Goin' to Acapulco." --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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