Masked and Anonymous
by Larry Charles
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Penélope CruzDirector: Larry Charles
Brand: BRIDGES,JEFF
Writer: Bob Dylan
Writer: Larry Charles
Producer: Anatoly Fradis
Producer: David Gaines
Producer: David M. Thompson
Producer: Guy East
Producer: Jeff Rosen
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.78:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
Published: 2004-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Columbia Tristar
Movie Reviews of Masked and Anonymous
Movie Review: sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well
Summary: 5 Stars
Uncle Sweetheart: [to Jack Fate] You look good. You got the "jail pale". It suits you.
The first time I tried to watch Masked & Anonymous I got to the part where Jack Fate sings for the first time since being released from prison and I couldn't understand a word he was singing. I gave up and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up refreshed and gave it another try. When I heard "My Back Pages" performed by Mogokoro Brothers as kind of a hip hop thing done in a foreign language (Spanish?) I knew I was going to enjoy the movie. The sound track is chock full of Bob Dylan songs, done everywhich way, from The Golden Gate Strings, or Percy Faith and his Orchestra, to The Ramones, or Los Lobos. Pulled in by his music, I had no trouble understanding the words of Jack Fate, alias Bob Dylan.
Jack Fate: I was always a singer and maybe no more then that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well. Like what does it mean to not know what the person you love is capable of? Things fall apart, especially all the neat order of rules and laws. The way we look at the world is the way we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago.
The movie takes place in a politically unstable future, like some South American country always on the verge of another coup, another revolution. Jack Fate is in jail, but Nina Veronica (Jessica Lange) and Uncle Sweetheart (John Goodman) have plans to spring him so he can play a big benefit concert. It would mostly benefit them, of course, but The Network is not really aware of just how big a legend Jack Fate is. Still, they can get him cheap, and so the show will go on. Meanwhile journalist Tom Friendly (Jeff Bridges) is assigned to do a story or an interview on the man, and Tom reluctantly brings along his young girlfriend, Pagan Lace Penélope Cruz).
But don't let the plot get in the way of the story, because the movie is really a fable or a metaphor for the career and life of Bob Dylan. How he approached the life of a traveling folk singer as a kind of poet, but then became a prisoner of his own fame. Where his poems came from he didn't know himself, they kind of just went through him. He saw flaming letters and wrote down what they spelled out. People thought he had the answers. They thought he had all the answers and was just sitting on them, like a dragon guarding a decaying horde of gold that wasn't doing anybody any good. Obsessed fans went through his trash and harrassed him because he refused to give them the answers they knew he had stashed away.
Jack Fate: By the way, which side of the political fence are you on?
Desk Clerk: I do not belong to any political party, sir. I guess you could call me... a feminist
The movie was written by Bob Dylan and Larry Charles under assumed names, because they were masked and anonymous. Dylan was Sergei Petrov and Charles was Rene Fontaine. Mr. Charles was a writer for Seinfeld and then he had his own show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry Charles directed it, his first feature film, and they knocked it out in 20 days, filming on digital video. A stellar cast worked for much less than usual for the chance to be in a movie with Dylan. They were honored to be included, as well they should.
A high point in the movie is when a very young black woman (Tinashe Kachingwe) sings "The Times They Are A-Changin'" Even a tool of a critic who trashed the movie and called it a vanity project was moved by this scene. There are many interesting versions of Dylan's music performed for the soundtrack. Virtually all of the songs were written by him, and he also contributes quite a few performances of his own music. Masked and Anonymous is a great film, but if you don't 'get' Bob Dylan, then you probably will be perplexed by it. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well.
-----
Soldier: I wish I could live in my dreams. Do you dream?
Jack Fate: Yeah, I dream. I dream that I'm walking through fire... Intense heat. I don't pay much attention to my dreams.
MASKED & ANONYMOUS
Directed by
Larry Charles
Writing credits
Bob Dylan (written by) (as Sergei Petrov) &
Larry Charles (written by) (as Rene Fontaine)
SELECTED CAST
Bob Dylan ... Jack Fate
Jeff Bridges ... Tom Friend
Penélope Cruz ... Pagan Lace
John Goodman ... Uncle Sweetheart
Jessica Lange ... Nina Veronica
Luke Wilson ... Bobby Cupid
Angela Bassett ... Mistress
Bruce Dern ... Editor
Ed Harris ... Oscar Vogel
Val Kilmer ... Animal Wrangler
Cheech Marin ... Prospero
Chris Penn ... Crew Guy #2
Giovanni Ribisi ... Soldier
Mickey Rourke ... Edmund
Christian Slater ... Crew Guy #1
Fred Ward ... Drunk
Alex Désert ... Valentine
OTHER NOTABLE ROLES OF CAST MEMBERS OF MASKED & ANONYMOUS
Hearts of Fire (1987) .... Bob Dylan was Billy Parker
Renaldo and Clara (1978) .... Bob Dylan was Renaldo
The Big Lebowski (1998) .... Jeff Bridges was Jeffrey Lebowski - The Dude [John Goodman was Walter Sobchak]
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) .... Penélope Cruz was Maria Elena
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) .... John Goodman was Big Dan Teague
Music Box (1989) .... Jessica Lange was Ann Talbot
Old School (Widescreen Unrated Edition) (2003) .... Luke Wilson was Mitch Martin
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) .... Angela Bassett was Anna Mae Bullock / Tina Turner
The Wild Angels (1966) .... Bruce Dern was Loser
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) .... Ed Harris was Dave Moss
Wonderland (2003) .... Val Kilmer was John Holmes
Up in Smoke (1978) .... Cheech Marin was Pedro De Pacas
Boiler Room (2000) .... Giovanni Ribisi was Seth Davis
Reservoir Dogs (1992) .... Chris Penn was Nice Guy Eddie Cabot
Barfly (1987) .... Mickey Rourke was Henry Chinaski
The Contender (2000) .... Christian Slater was Reginald Webster [Jeff Bridges was President Jackson Evans]
Henry & June (1990) .... Fred Ward was Henry Miller
Swingers (1996) (as Alex Desert) .... Alex Désert was Charles
Jack Fate: All of us in some way are trying to kill time. When it's all said and done, time ends up killing us.
Write your own review
Summary of Masked and Anonymous
In a fictional America caught up in a civil war that is tearing the nation apart, a benefit concert is being organized. A traveling troubadour named Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) is sprung from jail by his scheming former manager (John Goodman) to headline a concert with the expectations to bring peace to a country that is entrenched by chaos, lawlessness and pandemonium. Star-studded cast includes: Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson. Cameos by Mickey Rourke, Angela Basset, Giovanni Ribisi, Val Kilmer, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris and Bruce Dern.Masked and Anonymous is a mesmerizing experiment in surreal drama with lyrical content, a cinematic approximation of an epic Bob Dylan song on the order of "Desolation Row." Not coincidentally, Dylan is a co-writer and star of this 2003 film, playing an enigmatic folk-rocker named Jack Fate, a political prisoner in an unnamed, civil war-torn country. Set free to headline a benefit concert organized by an unscrupulous promoter (John Goodman) and television executive (Jessica Lange), Jack embarks on a fateful journey through a battle-scarred land. Taken literally, Masked and Anonymous proves bewildering, even exasperating, but as a feverish act of unrestrained political satire the film has a lot to offer, including some of the best recent performances by Goodman, Lange, Jeff Bridges (as a cynical journalist), Val Kilmer (a babbling prophet), Luke Wilson (a musician), and Giovanni Ribisi (a haunted soldier). Dylan himself proves a stiff cipher, but fun to watch. --Tom Keogh
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