Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back
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Features
• Black & White
• DVD-Video
• NTSC
In Theaters : 17 May, 1967
DVD Release : 04 January, 2000 |
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Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back description
Both a classic documentary and a vital pop-cultural artifact, D.A. Pennebaker's portrait of Bob Dylan captures the seminal singer-songwriter on the cusp of his transformation from folk prophet to rock trendsetter. Shot during Dylan's 1965 British concert tour, Don't Look Back employs an edgy vérité style that was, and is, a snug fit with the artist's own consciously rough-hewn persona. Its handheld black-and-white images and often-gritty London backdrops suggest cinematic extensions of the archetypal monochrome portraits that graced Dylan's career-making early-'60s album jackets. Pennebaker's access to the legendarily private troubadour enables us to witness Dylan's shifting moods as he performs, relaxes with his entourage (including then lover Joan Baez, road manager Bob Neuwirth, and poker-faced manager Albert Grossman), and jousts with other musicians (notably Animals alumnus Alan Price and Scottish folksinger Donovan), fans, and press. It's a measurement of the filmmaker's acuity that the conversations are often as gripping as Dylan's solo performances. Grossman's machinations with British promoters, Baez's hip serenity, a grizzled British journalist's surrender to the fact of Dylan's artistry, and the artist's own taunting dismissal of a clueless sycophant are all absorbing. With the exception of the studio recording of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," the live performances (including five newly restored, complete audio tracks excised from the original film but included on the DVD version) are constrained by crude audio gear. Their urgency, however, is timeless, as is Pennebaker's film, a legitimate cornerstone for any serious rock video collection. --Sam Sutherland |
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Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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There's A Battle Outside, And It Is Ragin', Baby Blue
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"Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'"
Bob Dylan
In 1965, Bob Dylan changed the face of music. He was on the tail end of his Acoustic tour with Joan Baez and was invited to tour England. He invited Joan Baez to continue the tour with him. There was some sort of problem and even though she accompanied him, she did not participate in the concerts.Before Bob Dylan no one had put words to music about the social issues of the day and sing them in public. Bob Dylan's protest songs had an international impact. Along with Joan, Alan Price, formerly of 'The Animals' accompanied Bob. That tour was the end of Alan's time with that group. He was a brilliant musician and went out on his own.
The photographer had unprecedented access to Bob and the rest of the troupe. Nothing was held back, and Bob assisted the filming by making himself available for whatever was needed. 'Don't Look Back' could very well be the best music documentary ever recorded.The music was above all the music of the time. Joan Baez, with her voice at the peak of its glory, sings 'Turn, Turn Turn'. There were very few moments of peace and quiet because of the attention that Bob Dylan attracted. We do see one moment where Joan is singing, Marianne Faithful was present, listening and Bob Dylan was writing. Albert Grossman was the manager and he always put his artists first. He is there and he hung out with Bob Dylan and protected him.
The documentary was filmed by D.A. Pennebaker, and shows us one of Bob's first public appearances. He was singing at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. This young white man singing in the midst of black men, and they were singing along with him.Bob's mentor was Hank Williams, and he sang his tunes whenever he had a chance to relax. We see him at one of these times and hear him in harmony with Hank. Pennebaker had taken his film to anyone who might show some interest. At the first screening, Bob Dylan came with a large pad of paper ready to jot down changes that needed to be made. At the end of the screening, the pad of paper was empty. Bob Dylan jumped up and said "It is perfect and it does not need any changes".
There is a great deal of trivia available on this film and heard! Tom Wilson was the record producer, and he also produced the first Simon and Garfunkel record. We are privy to this information, and see these people up close and personal.What is noticeable in this film is that everyone smoked, all the time.Bob Dylan always has a cigarette in hand as does most every one else. I did not see Joan Baez smoke, and she may be one of the few. We see Bob looking in a guitar shop window, and how amazed Bob was. He was pretty much owned by 'Fender' guitars at the time, and he was amazed at the variety out in the real world. Bob was seen writing music while playing the piano, and this may be the first time that kind of scene was filmed. Pennebacker had no idea at the time what he had wrought!
One scene that is memorable was titled 'The Science Student', a man who was interviewing Bob. He later ran a music company, but he comes off as a dupe. Bob Dylan was just killing time before he went on stage. Nothing was staged, and Bob got the best of this Science Student. This guy wrote music criticism and came in looking for a serious interview. What he got was an artist blowing off steam before his concert, pre-concert jitters.
Pennebaker gives us his version of filming. He always sees a center point of each scene. He thinks of all of the people who have never heard this music before, and just waiting for their time. Dylan was restive during this tour. He wanted to go some place other than where he was, he was almost always that way. The old buildings in the UK were an acoustic challenge. The sonics of the performances drove the sound man crazy. Donovan made his appearance at Bob's hotel, and Bob had a copy of his record. Bob would play this at times, and he particularly loved the chorus.
The scene called 'The Drinking Glass' shows Bob wanting to know who had thrown a glass out the window of the Savoy Hotel and hit the limo driver. It was a humorous scene. Most everyone was 'feeling good', and we never find out who was the culprit. Bob starts singing 'Baby Blue'. What a wonderful time this was, the beginning of an era, and the end of the acoustic era of Bob Dylan. A special time to hear and see Bob Dylan singing one of his songs in a living room in the UK in 1965.
There did not seem to be any posters announcing that Bob Dylan would be singing, people just knew. We see the concert at the Royal Albert Hall- a glorious hall that as we hear 'Queen Victoria had built for her dude!' And, then the famous 'Interview with the Time reporter'. Bob Dylan puts this guy on waiting for the concert to start. In reality the reporter writes a very nice story. Bob talks to the reporter about the state of the world, but it comes across as if he were 'riffing' the reporter. Dylan was sympathetic to the writer, and he was trying to tell him something. The writer understood what Dylan was trying to do, but we don't understand that at the time. An inside to the film as told by the film maker Pennebaker who was there up close and personal.
A breakthrough documentary and the interviews with Bob are an illumination of the press who were supposedly conscious of what was going on with Bob's music, but in reality were more in the dark than anyone.
A tour through the beginning of the Bob Dylan career. Anyone who was anyone was at the Royal Albert Concert, the Beatles, the Who of the music world. Facing the Bull, the tension of facing the World, we see all of this, cause 'the times they are changin'. One man with a harmonica mesmerized the entire world with his charisma- Bob Dylan.
Wonderfully, Highly, Mesmerizingly Recommended. prisrob 08-17-08
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Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition)
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Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back dvd movie.