Movies 365: Day 10 – Don’t Look Back
Don’t Look Back, 1967 Directed by D.A. Pennebaker
A young Bob Dylan holds an armful of papers, stares into the camera as the jangly chords of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” begin to play, he tosses aside paper after paper, each containing a word of phrase from the song, poet Allen Ginsberg and another man converse in the background, as Dylan stares into the camera flinging each card down, adjusting the stack in his arms every now and then. Thus begins Don’t Look Back D.A. Pennebaker’s revealing 1967 documentary following Dylan on his 1965 tour of England. Though it doesn’t have much of a plot to speak of, Dylan arrives in Englad, is questioned by journalists, spends time in his hotel room with then girlfriend Joan Baez, converses with various people, plays concerts, repeat. The thing that is great about Don’t Look Back is the way it captures the young Dylan at what was an artistic crossroads.
In 1965, Dylan was a young, and if the film is to be taken as truth, highly arrogant man. But didn’t he have the right to be? He had released five albums by this point, had been called “The Voice of a Generation,” he was playing sold out shows around the world, doesn’t one have a right to be a bit arrogant? I’d say yes. The tour which is the subject of Don’t Look Back is also the last tour Dylan would do before making a major artistic move and going electric, enraging many of those who admired him as a folk singer.
When you watch the interview sequences, it’s almost easy to understand the anger that went into record “Highway 61 Revisited,” often considered exemplary of the “angry young man” period in Dylan’s career. Each and every journalist seems to ask the same, surface level question, a common theme presents itself, after journalist, after journalist asks him to explain his music, his message, himself. For a twenty-five year old kid, it must have been annoying, and the film is infamous for a sequence where Dylan berates a journalist from Time Magazine. The scene is interesting as Dylan launches into a tirade against the man, but where an older and wiser person would have ultimately had something to say, Dylan, ironically says almost nothing with his spoken anger. It’s interesting in that with someone who said so much in his music, that speaking, he seems almost to be a different person, lacking the insight, anger and wisdom that the singer has.
D.A. Pennebaker doesn’t insert himself into the film at all, and unlike a modern documentary, there is no narration, no “confessional” style interviews, Pennebaker is truly making a documentary, he and his camera observe events like a fly on the wall, which leads to some beautiful sequences, one of my favorites being Joan Baez playing songs for Dylan and company while he sits at a typewriter. You get the sense that this is not a performance for the camera, that this is the way they behave at home, with each other and no one else. It’s something that seems like it would be impossible to capture in today’s society, with everyone so concerned about their image, and so knowledgeable about the documentary process, people seem to play themselves up, change things they don’t like about themselves, or behave in ways they normally wouldn’t, in order to create a character. Dylan is indeed a character, but one wonders how much is artifice (surely some of it has to be) and how much is real? I come down on the side of believing that most of the film shows us the real Dylan, the man behind the music.
I can’t finish this review without mentioning the concert sequences, which are beautifully shot. Several concerts are shown during the film, and it’s easy to understand how the audience was so captivated by Dylan, forty-five years later, they still are, and I didn’t even have the benefit of being at the show. I suppose the one caveat I have about recommending this film is that it probably won’t appeal to people who are not Dylan fans, but for those who love the music, this film should be considered essential viewing.
Last updated: 2010-03-05 07:19:52 by user05
