Dont Look Back

Perhaps I'm biased -- Bob Dylan is quite possibly my favourite performing artist in the world. This very cinema-verite look at Dylan's 1965 tour of England offers both a serious justification of the man's genius and a very unflattering look at the costs and results of that genius. This was clearly not a happy time for Dylan, who rushes through most of the songs included here like a man who clearly wishes he were somewhere else. Not that the performances are poor (quite the contrary) but the heart and sincerity are quite obviously missing (note how "The Times they are a-Changin'" speeds up gradually but unmistakably throughout the film). The backstage material (the bulk of the film) shows Dylan being generally nasty to everyone around him, including Joan Baez (well, he's not nasty precisely, but he never really even acknowledges her presence), a newspaper reporter (the "science student") and basically anyone he comes in contact with.

In other words, this is not a portrait of the artist that I happen to like, but it is the truth (or at least it was at that time). In addition, Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager, is shown in possibly the least flattering light possible. A bonus is that the film begins with the brilliant 1965 promotional clip for "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and watch for the scene in a hotel room when Dylan and Bob Neuwirth sing "Lost Highway" - it's worth the price of admission.

The movie follows Dylan on tour throughout England. The beginning of the movie starts with a Dylan song in the background and a famous cue-card scene depicting the words of the song. Here we get an interesting visual and are drawn into what is going on in the film. We then travel with Dylan on the road and in the studio, meeting with fans and other musicians to make the full spectrum of what he does as an artist. We are able to understand all sides of the music for him and by seeing him interact with his fans and make music we see a side of the artist that most never get to fully understand. The movie is never has a true time line, it is a stream of images from one concert to the next. Because of this, we are able to see Dylan as a person who stays the same no matter where he is and that what he is truly about is the music and performing.

The whole movie focuses on Dylan and has a constant influx of other characters. We see the press, fans, his manager, and other business people. Throughout the movie, we never really know whom those people are, making the movie completely about Bob Dylan and his life. These other people are merely characters in his life, but he is the real important person. D.A. Pennebaker, the documentarian, is never a character either, showing that the movie is all about Dylan and not about the other people around. This allows for a deeper understanding of the singer and lets the audience see who he is for themselves, without riddling their opinion with interviews with other people.

D.A. Pennebaker has an artistic flair for music and introducing people to the deeper meaning in it. He has done other works about John Lennon, Jerry Lewis, and Jimi Hendrix. This shows that he understands the music genre and it is a place that he has delved many times. He is known for having the direct cinema style to his work. He just allows the camera to roll and it is a natural and true look at what is going on with the people he is documenting. The whole movie is an easy flow of life, combining scenes of travel and life on the road with songs of Dylan's to capture to true mood of the tour. The music is key because to truly understand Bob Dylan, you must understand the music. He writes very personal music and by using that in the documentary we are able to gain a better understanding of the man himself. Even those that go to see him understand that his music is important and something that is changing people and the way people think. So to have all the music be Dylan's allows the viewer to understand both Dylan and the impact that he had on the people during his tour. The editing of the film is consistent with the direct cinema style. There are no real cut aways or a narrator; rather there are sequences of people talking all together that then go into Dylan playing. Whenever music is being played, there is no interview or audio being used over it, it is just Dylan playing in concert or with his group of friends. Because it was edited this way we are able to hear the music and realize how important it is to the film and to the life of Bob Dylan. It is edited to seem as one constant period of time; we never see the real change as time goes on. The tour continues but it is never edited to seem as though things change from place to place. The great editing combines with the interesting cinematography that Pennebaker uses in the documentary. The film was done all in black and white and has a mix of shots that were used. The black and white is generally grainy with a balance of black and white. Pennebaker shoots the time backstage, in hotels, and in concert as if we are there. It is as if we are naturally sitting there with Dylan and all of his managers and others that tour with him. There are close up shots that show Dylan playing either on stage or behind the scenes and this gives the viewer the sense of how much he thinks and works on his songs. Most of the camera work is very controlled, though there are times where they are walking backstage, or trying to escape from a concert hall that the camera is very shaky. However, the shaky camera work allows the viewer to feel as if we are part of the tour and that we are there with them. Overall, the film Don't Look Back shows a side of Bob Dylan that most are unable to see. We see the person behind the songs and are able to understand Dylan as a person. We see that he is somewhat cocky about himself and tends to want things done his own way. We see all the chaos that follows touring as a famous star and how someone like Dylan deals with that. He is outspoken and passionate about what he believes. Pennebaker is able to give us this in depth look at Dylan and let the fans become more a part of the artist. It is a great look at Dylan and frames his life and music in a way that makes it more accessible and understandable to the general public. Looking back now, over 40 years later, we can see how Dylan started and translate that into his fame that continues today. We can see why he is one of the best artists of our time.

To get this window into Bob Dylan on tour in England in 1965, at that specific time, and with such a high level of access, makes this documentary fascinating. Dylan was the voice of a generation, a true poet, and the film was made after a string of albums changed popular music forever (including Freewheelin', The Times They Are a-Changin', and Bringing It All Back Home) but right before he "went electric" to great controversy at Newport, and released Highway 61. Throughout his career, he defied boundaries and labels others tried to constrain him with, and deliberately tore himself down in one genre in order to explore another as an artist. We see some of his frustration here, with the British press baffled about how to approach or analyze him, and Dylan going from earnestly trying to answer questions early on to getting antagonistic with them. Combined with concert footage, and moments like Joan Baez and Dylan singing in his hotel room, it's a true gem.

This is a look at one of the greatest minds in modern music during his most prodigious period. It does a great job of capturing the character of Dylan and placing it within the context of the events happening in the film. It's fascinating hearing him ask about electric instruments and talk about folk music when we know, in hindsight, that his shift from folk to rock would be one the most important artistic shifts in music history. The footage gathered and the way it's presented are good for allowing the subject to be seen as it is but I think a little more direction could've been used at times. That being said, I appreciated the honesty that the film treated Dylan with. We don't see him as anything close to perfect. He's not as wordy as you'd think, his logic isn't always sound and he's rude to the point of meanness but the viewer is still witness to his genius. This is a must-watch for any fan of music.

The documentary starts off well enough, Bob's famous alley video of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" in which beat poet Allen Ginsberg is seen gesticulating in the background. Then we see Bob and company arriving at Heathrow airport in London, prophetically singing "London Bridges falling Down" as they walk in. During this scene we see the first contradiction of the movie's main character. A passer-by who lights one of Bob's smokes asks him about what is different about him this tour, why is he so popular this time around in England. Bob brushes it off by indicating that he has no idea he is so popular and sort of indicating that he does not keep up with those mundane things. He then spends a lot of time in the film doing exactly that, stopping conversation to ask where he is placed in the charts and in reading his press.

It's hard to know how to take Bob Dylan in this documentary. Many of the interviews shown are ones given on the fly just before he goes on stage, and a certain amount of pre-show jitters and nervous reaction is probably to be expected. I would not want to interview a musician just before they are set to perform on strange stages in a foreign country. His interviews come across as a person who has been doing way too much of what we, in fact, see Bob doing all through the film, reading his own press clippings and being very impressed with what he finds. He comes across as a person who thinks he understands all, but is too deep to be understood in turn. So deep, in fact, that mere mortal reporters are not even worth taking the time to explain things to. He wastes the reporter's and the film audience's time playing verbal games, quibbling over choics of words in questions and in general coming across as far more self-important than he really is. This can be seen as anti-establishment, it can also be seen as being a plain old pain in the butt just because you can, to entertain your buddies.

Donovan is there, and is a presence from the start of the film. Bob is very aware of him, has been told that Donovan plays better than he does. Donovan was the British version of Bob and, at times, sold better than Bob did. They finally meet and trade songs, Bob sarcastically choosing to sing "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" right at Donovan. Joan Baez is there for a portion of the movie, beautiful and ignored by Bob and his entourage. Albert Grossman comes across as a bull in a China shop in England where the genteel older gentlemen who still handled promotion were absolutely no match for Grossman's New York tough guy ways. We see him on the phones, milking every last dollar he can from promoters.

Highly recommended documentary. For what it is worth, besides his music, this is about as close as anyone ever got to Bob Dylan. The film makers were wise in not asking any questions or directing anything, but just in letting Bob talk.