Don't Look Back

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Really good, but man, Dylan is/was a pompous asshole. And D.A. Pennebaker's blind hero worship of him was amusing.

 

Interviewer: So, how'd you get your start?

(cut to a shot of a younger Dylan playing in a field to a bunch of black farmworkers)

 

Whatta crock.

[Modern Man's Hustle]

If you listen to the director's commentary, he talks about how when he was working on the documentary, some guy from the states sent him that footage, and he edited it in where he felt it was appropriate. Basically, Pennebaker was that generation's Michael Moore.

 

I really did enjoy the parts where Dylan and Joan Baez are sitting in his hotel room, just playing music and talking. The fact that no one had any idea who she was was also pretty amusing.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I like the drunken argument he had with Donovan.

 

"I'm nothing, man. I'm a nobody."

[Guest Brian]

I love Dylan messing with the interviewer. You cna just tell that to a degree he hated that kind of attention.

 

And the way Pennebaker shot that is really revolutionary for the camera work.

[godthedog]

nothing revolutionary about the way pennebaker shot it. the verite school had been brewing for years when the new portable equipment was available, and really came into fruition with 'primary' (for which pennebaker was a cameraman, i believe--he did SOMETHING on it).

 

i never thought pennebaker was that good an editor. he reveals a lot of interesting facets of dylan's character (i like how he shows us that "subterranean homesick blues" already tells us everything we need to know about him before we even see how he behaves). but it isn't terribly compelling and it doesn't really go anywhere. the maysles brothers, from the same verite school, i like a whole lot more. they had some of the best film editors ever, were fucking ACE with shaping all the maysles' chaotic footage into something really dramatic and involving. i love me some 'gimme shelter'. the stones themselves are pretty blah in that movie, not nearly as dynamic or charismatic as dylan, but the maysles capture the spirit of the event really well.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

I love Dylan messing with the interviewer. You cna just tell that to a degree he hated that kind of attention.

It was only entertaining because it showed how full of himself Dylan was.

[The Czech Republic]

The song by Boston is better.

[Guest Ransome]

I've seen it, interesting 'warts and all' stuff. We're meant to see how the pressures of fame have affected him, which explains Dylan's notorious handling of asinine questions from interviewers ("What is the main message of your songs?" "Eat").

 

Interesting sidenote: At the time the footage was shot (May 1965), Dylan's 'Freewheelin' had hit #1 on the UK albums chart, making it the first time since May 1963 that the top spot was occupied by anyone other than the Beatles or the Stones. I doubt Dylan could have realised how famous he was in England at the time, at least when he got off the plane.