No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

I've just watched the first part of 'No Direction Home". All I can say is thank you Mr Scorsese for bringing us such a wonderful document. I suppose the movie has most resonance for people who were there and buying the records and listening to the performances, but I would have thought even a fifteen year-old looking at the footage of Dylan singing "Pawn in The Game" would feel a shiver of wonderment.

I did not actually go to any of the '65 and '66 concerts (something I always regret) but I know many people who did, and many have told me that the cheering was usually as loud as the booing, and I don't know if that will fully come across; but a wonderful document, nevertheless.

And that is why Scorsese must be applauded; the editing was superb, the interviews were well chosen, the music clips were generous and Dylan is wonderfully articulate and revealing.

Yes boys and girls I enjoyed it; and Highway 61 in all its vinyl glory is going on the turntable right now!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Martin Scorcese makes another visually stunning film, and paints Dylan in a way nobody else could have. Instead of being asked stupid questions by stupid journalists, Dylan has a camera put in front of him and he just speaks. He's got a bit of a schedule, but he does what he wants with it. I really don't have words for how this movie made me feel. The sheer passion behind it just fueled my fierce love for Dylan even more.

The live bootlegs and behind-stage clips give a wonderful insight into Dylan's world. He is a man who just emanates coolness like it was the way he was born. It seems like nobody can ever have the upper hand on this man, and it's truly a delight to watch.

Beautiful.

NO DIRECTION HOME is, without a doubt, the very best music-themed Documentary I have ever seen in my life!

Before diving in...Let us FOCUS on the Title´s Content & Context:

For any person who considers themselves someone with a special interest in pop culture, music, sociology or even contemporary history, this mesmerizing Martin Scorsese documentary not only is a "MUST SEE", but I would say a "Must have"! (As in "your collection"!)

Here we gain the most fascinating insight into many aspects of Dylan's early career, his creative process, his relationships with other artists and music industry insiders, (particularly with one time love interest, Joan Baez) and the general interaction of Bob Dylan, his music, his growing popularity and the overall effect of these on our culture in the 1960's!

Some of what is covered, I think I was previously aware of, some of it, I wasn't, and quite a bit of it had simply been forgotten, owing to the half a century that has passed!

What surprised me most in DIRECTION HOME? Well, Joan Baez is interviewed extensively and has perhaps the most on-screen time other than Bob Dylan himself. In the 60's and 70's, I always admired Baez as a very talented, outspoken and highly principed young woman ...But, quite honestly, never considered her as being very attractive. She has to be, what?... Like mid-70's when she was interviewed for this documentary. To see her now, so mature, articulate, radiant, overflowing with self-confidence... Well, let's just say that all of this made it EXTREMELY HARD for me to overlook her onscreen appearance!

Well, I hope this review did not contain too much imformation!

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments. Questions or observations.... in ENGLISH o en ESPAÑOL... are most Welcome!

Fascinating, but when the film was over I didn't really understand Dylan's genius to any greater degree than I had before. How did he go from being just another musician on the folk revival scene (as Paul Wilson observes, "(Dylan) wasn't the best, he wasn't the worst", and he had the same basic repertoire as his contemporaries) to writing songs like 'Masters of War', 'Mr. Tambourine Man', and 'Like a Rolling Stone'? And how did it happen so quickly? Probably this is as much of a mystery to Bob Dylan as it is to everyone else. Documenting honest-to-God inspiration of the type that Dylan received in those years--and understanding why he, rather than Joan Baez or Phil Ochs or Tom Paxton, received it--might well be impossible. But "No Direction Home" is utterly engrossing anyhow. Martin Scorsese does a fantastic job of documenting Dylan's emergence from the cold, dreary Midwest, the time he spent honing his craft in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village, and his rise to superstardom. (Yes, the audience at the Newport Folk Festival really *did* boo Dylan when he played a brief electric set there in 1965!) Of particular interest are the interviews with Allen Ginsberg and Dave Van Ronk, both of whom departed this life well before the completion of Scorsese's film. Obviously this is a must-see if you're a Dylan fan, but "No Direction Home" should--despite its length--hold the interest of more casual viewers, too.

Well, it took a director as great as Martin Scorsese and 45 years of recording, travelling, ramblin' and bein' busy bein' born instead of dyin', but at long last Dylan fans from Dharma to Duluth have a glimpse behind the genius in the dark sunglasses. A remarkable film--for so many reasons that it would take at least 3 1/2 hours (the length of the movie) to list them--but the main reasons anyone with an interest in His Bobness needs to view this film are as follows: 1) Scorsese's direction: Almost 30 years after he chronicled the passing of a musical era with his magnificent film The Last Waltz, Scorsese once again captures musical brilliance and history on film as only someone who truly appreciates Dylan's historical as well as cultural influence could. A Master Director chronicles a Master Musician. 2) Archival footage of everyone you never saw before on film, including Gene Vincent, Hank Williams, and early 60's Greenwich Village pioneers aplenty and of course.. 3) Bob. For reasons known only to himself, Dylan actually speaks on record about his least favorite topic, himself. Along with last year's autobiography, this film reveals far more of the portrait of the artist as a young man than could ever have been anticipated given Bob's notorious closed-mouthed history on his own history.

With Elvis, Ray Charles and John Lennon gone, there are few--if ANY--artists whose historical and musical importance even come near that of Bob Dylan. In No Direction Home, we see as much, if not more, than we are entitled to see about how and why young Robert Zimmerman from Hibbing, MN became the most important songwriter of the 20th century.

He's got everything he needs--he's an artist--but just this once, he DOES look back.