atlasmb Filmed in 1965, this documentary follows Dylan and his entourage on his British tour. There are some concert scenes that give a feel for his performance persona. There are scenes of his manager and British agents making deals for him to appear at various venues. But most of the film concerns Dylan backstage.Shot in black and white, the film shows Dylan to be very mercurial. He is at times charming, communicative and seemingly open about his feelings. Other times--in fact most of the time--he is confrontational, condescending and self-contradictory. He is about 24 years old and these scenes remind me of discussions I had when I was that age with other college students. His arguments are circular, as if he enjoys arguing more than he enjoys communicating. He embraces the poet's privilege of not explaining the meaning of his lyrics (which is fine). One gets the feeling that he is tired of dealing with the media and others who want to pick his brain. Why did he give them audience, then? On the other hand, he is generous with fans who have no questions for him, merely seeking his presence or a glimpse of the man.While some of his songs do seem somewhat shallow, others are undeniably deep with meaning about issues that are very timely. Regardless, his songs often have a hypnotic effect, with their sing-song cadences. This film might raise more questions than it answers, but it is fun to watch. The presence of Joan Baez is a plus. Her voice was always special. We don't see much of her, but enough to see her react to teasing and to make silly faces in return.Dylan's songs feel mostly declarative. They are assertions and observations. They usually don't extract the emotional responses of, say, Joni Mitchell, who invites listeners to her inner world. Dylan asks his listeners to regard the outside world with him.

Spuzzlightyear Although Dylan, on the whole, still scares me somewhat, and I can't still quite get into his music, I do like D.A. Pennebaker quite a lot, and decided to finally see this. Much like my favorite "concert" film of all time, Depeche Mode 101, Pennebaker doesn't really focus on the music (in this case, Dylan was on tour of England at the time), but focuses on the inner-workings of the tour, and most importantly, on the man himself. Dylan doesn't hold back, and seems comfortable with the camera in front of him as he goes with the day to day operations of being Bob Dylan. There are some nuggets here, Dylan's feelings about Donovan, Dylan gets into a loud argument with an unidentified person about throwing a glass off the hotel balcony. And you also get to see a lot of Joan Baez. Ack. lol. What I dug about this is the whole 60'sness of it all, look at the kids arriving to the concert in their shirts and ties! Such well mannered blokes! Fun film that I wouldn't mind seeing again,

tedg History only matters to the living at least, and among them to those who can consume the packages we devise to understand what happened.Sometimes I really do believe it requires elite skills, a term used by people without the training and discipline. But most of the time, its just about cultural wrappers, and this is such a case. I can imagine a young person, say a 25 year old, watching this and wondering what the big deal was. Why is this pretentious gnome at all interesting?I think you had to be there, which is another way of saying that you had to be culturally tuned to accept the possibility of major change. For whatever reason, we were, from say 65 to 70, a hundred million in the US and countless others elsewhere. And where we invested our hopes was in these artifacts of the popular culture. In films, yes, but more so in the music. It was religious, with the artists serving more as receptacles for what we sent them than as creative geniuses. Well, yes they were that too, but we have many of those today but miss this huge investment.When Dylan made records from about this period on, each of them (until, say he was lost to Jesus) — each of them anticipated where the poetry we were imagining was going. It was open, liquid, sexually ideal. Powerful stuff, because we felt power. Collective because we did most things collectively then, not just purchasing as now. This little film is so imperfect that its embarrassing that it is all we have to cling to. It just happens to be rare.It has three parts. One is some stage performances. These aren't interesting at all, in large part because he had already changed but hadn't told us. This same period is covered by Martin Scorcese's rather precious "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," which at least tells a story for those who weren't there.It also hangs around in hotel rooms, interviews and backstage and hears Dylan rattle on. Its embarrassing this, because we still have this notion that great art comes from great men and women and that they know what they are doing. He's basically a twit that we chose, and we see it here. The only really interesting element of this is a glimpse of Sally Grossman. You'll know her from the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home." She's an important woman in the transformation of our poet. She's perhaps the key, a mystery, a poetical story we still can fill after all these years, because it still carries things we accept. If not power and change and better futures, honest politicians and ideal government, enlightenment, at least love from a wise woman who transforms a willing soul.A third part of this really is great and is something you really should see. Dylan's first electric song was "Subterranean Homesick Blues," originally inspired by Alice in Wonderland meets a Guthrey "dream" song, but loaded and transformed with the sort of open images that would characterize his best work. He hadn't started performing it in shows yet. Alan Ginsberg decided to make a text — a residue in words — of the song, introducing puns and annotations of the already open lyrics. These were put on large sheets. Then, while the camera and record were rolling, Dylan flipped through them as the lines appeared, Ginsberg in the background.Its wonderful, a film of a poem of a song of a life of an imagined future revisited from that future.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

[email protected] Too bad this dreadful documentary didn't show a lot more of young Joan Baez and a lot less of Bob Dylan. Baez casually and unselfconsciously sings a couple of songs, relaxed, strumming her own guitar and reminding us of what a miraculous voice she had as a youngster. Bob Dylan, the star of the film, reminds us -- unfortunately -- that while he is a brilliant writer of songs and music, he had a voice like chalk on a black board and a manner that was thoroughly obnoxious. While he may have been joshing several of his interlocutors, the conversations had a distinctly unpleasant and confrontational tone and displayed Dylan at his absolute worst as a human being. One can forgive him his youth but his exaggerated opinion of himself and his hostility toward people just trying to do their jobs are disagreeable in all respects. Since Dylan's manager was involved in producing the film and it clearly had Dylan's blessing, it's evident that they were oblivious to the impression it leaves of Dylan as a callow youth with no interest in anyone other than himself and his crew of friends and supporters.