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Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back

Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: nice to own but...
Review: it's not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. The concert footage is brilliant but that makes up only a small part of this doco. Often it's best for our heroes to stay away from the camera then our illusions wouldn't be so vulnerable. In my opinion, you would have to be a very blinkered fan owning all his albums (I have nearly 30!!) to rate this 5 stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic Documentary....AND at the same time, a home movie
Review: This documentary was shot during Bob Dylan's tour of England in 1965. At this point, most fans of popular music only knew the name "Bob Dylan" because his music was being re-sung by pop-musicians, such as Peter,Paul & Mary & The Byrds.

Film maker D.A. Pennebaker decided he was going to follow young Dylan around, and capture a private look at someone who still wasn't fully exposed to the pop-world. This was a time when Dylan was just starting to rise up, and become a pop-identity of his own.

"Don't Look Back" gave most viewers their very first look at this poetical folk singer, who obviously was having a hard time handling his fast growing popularity as a song writer/singer. Yes, for most of the movie we see Bob giving everyone around him a hard time....well, can you blame the poor guy? When you're only 24 years of age and everyone's analyzing every word you say, and wanting to know WHY you said it...and bothering you to sign autographs...and demanding you be a romodel, JUST because you wrote some good songs....it's a little hard to deal with.

Bob Dylan played head-games and snarled at people for one plain and simple reason. PROTECTION! The only way he could protect himself against media and fans, was to be vicious and cocky. Who knows...maybe behind closed doors he was the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet.

This is quite an interesting look, at one great artist who not only inspired such bands as The Beatles, but also inspired many young song writers to speak their minds, in a way that helped change the world!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Give The Anarchist A Cigarette
Review: Dylan is chauffered back and forth, wades through rooms of strangers, waits around a lot. Hardly anything seems like much fun for him, but nearly all of it is interesting for the viewer. To relieve the boredom, Dylan lays into a herd of sacrificial lambs, slyly toying with some, nearly coming to blows with others. In most cases, he's doing these people a favor. (The film is bursting with confrontations. Just check Albert Grossman's crash course in "how to deal with hotel managers.") As the tour progresses, you can see him tiring, and by the time he delivers his unprovoked lecture to the 'Time' reporter, Dylan's all over the damn map. There's a glimmer of the self-righteousness that would sour his later years.

For the most part, however, Pennebaker's film catches Dylan at his most winning. His charisma is abundant; his intelligence and his fearlessness feed each other. Like Dylan's own music from this era, this portrait is quick, unsentimental, surprising.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CLASSIC!
Review: A classic- always imitated but never matched- this is Dylan's "A Hard Days Night"..filmed in crisp black and white, evocative of a great era, captivating and surreal..This is timeless, and NEVER gets old over repeated viewings. A must.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An interesting portrait of a rather frantic young man
Review: Shall I review this film as a work of art or shall I review the actions and behaviors of the young Bob Dylan who is the focus of the film? These would be two different reviews. As a film portrait, this is excellent, although not in a conventional sense. The filmwork is basic, even bootleg in quality, as is the sound. You will have to turn it up to make out all the dialogue. However, this lack of polish also lends a sense of intimacy to the film. If you ever wanted to be a "fly on the wall" around Dylan as he was coming into his prime, then this film is just that.

On the other hand, as a subject of the film's focus, Bob Dylan reveals himself to be brilliant, engaging, and humorous, but also arrogant, condescending and even a little vicious. The film captures it all without editorial commentary and what you make of it is your own.

By the way, I am a huge fan of Dylan's music and own all but a few of his albums. But I was a little shocked to see his mind-games with interviewers and his moodiness. This is no marble man at all. Through it all, I concluded he was and is, in fact, a genius, but one who is both intoxicated by his fame while dismissive of fame altogether. He walks a razor's edge between acting and speaking like a prophet while all the while mocking the very idea that a singer/songwriter can be a prophet at all. Like many artists to follow (Cobain?), Dylan seems to struggle against his rising fame, sometimes angrily, sometimes humorously, sometimes cleverly, sometimes snidely.

The film is engaging and deserves your attention if you are interested in early Dylan. And the music is incredible. Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HUMMM/
Review: WELL LETS SET ONE THING/ I AM ME YOU ARE YOU /SO DONT TRY TO FIGURE ME OUT / TRY TO FIGURE / YOU OUT /MY SONGS ARE MINE /
WROTE THEM ABOUT AND FOR ME / NONE OF YOU KNOW ME/ /AT ALL /
I MEAN NO 1/ BUT IF THATS WHAT YOU PEOPLE HAVE ON YOUR MINDS/
WELL THAN BE IT / BUT AS I SAY / YOU/ SPEAK YOUR HEARTS //AND /MINDS /GET HURT // YOU SPEAK YOUR MINDS// AND HEARTS GET HURT/// /THINK ABOUT THAT ...WHHYY//IS THAT????
THANK YOU BOB/

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dylan: talking gibberish, verbally abusive blues
Review: Here is a most unflattering portrait of Bob Dylan. For one thing, he seems incapable of speaking anything but irrational gibberish as his conversation consists of little more than wildly scattered fragments that resemble the stream of consciousness speech patterns of a schizophrenic. The man seems incapable of clear thinking or precise expression. When he isn't making a smug fool out of himself by trying to take some artistic high road with a reporter because Time magazine "only prints facts - that's all they do" (in Dylan's confused mind, this is a fault in a newsmagazine?), Dylan is verbally abusing and harassing anyone within shouting distance: a science student who is subjected to Dylan's contempt and warped existential interrogations, his guests at a party because of a broken glass, reporters, etc. Dylan comes across as a spoiled brat, a boor; a self-important, self-righteous creep; a curmudgeon, a man whose mind seems to be in total chaos. The performances here are great, I admit; Dylan the singer/songwriter is powerful. I just feel sorry for anyone who ever had to put up with him as a person.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love minus zero
Review: This is by far one of the best glimpes of Dylan you can get on tape, minus bootlegs that are floating out there. If you are a devout Dylan fan or merely a fair weather fan (do they exist?) and have not seen this yet, you are in for a treat. There are so many amazing scenes that made me stop in my tracks, cooking, talking, smoking, whatever I was doing at the time a scene such as when he plays 'love minus zero no limit' acoustic, and I swear, chills and a tear of unexplainable emotion in rhetoric surfaced. And every time I watch this documentary, the same emotions arise in me...there is a scene where Joan Baez sings bits of, 'love is just a four letter' and 'Percy's son'.....just beautiful, I wish that she would have recorded a version of 'Percy's song' as well as the former on an album. In short, I have had 2 copies of this tape, both of which have been ruined somehow in the hustle and bustle of life, and currently I am living in a foreign country but suddenly wanted to watch this again, so I came to Amazon.com and when I was browsing the site is said, "Do you want to write a review?" and I thought, why not, I have something to say about this. If you are a Dylan fan...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WARNING! For hardcore Dylan fans only!
Review: I am not a hardcore Dylan fan. I want to be upfront about that. I watched this last night with a friend that is a hardcore Dylan fan. I though this was just about awful and my friend conceded that this was one for big Dylan fans. Not interesting. No good performace clips. Dylan being an SOB to various folks. Rambling on ... Not good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Portrait of a very interesting individual...
Review: "Dont Look Back" is a look at one of the most unique pop culture icons the United States has ever seen: Bob Dylan. The usually mysterious and sometimes reclusive Dylan gives us insight into his life we before could only listen to in his music. There were many things that made this movie fantastic. It's so interesting to listen to Dylan interact with others. It sounds strange, but he seems to be on another plane, to think differently than others around him. A good example is the conversation he has with a student in which the student struggles to find a definition for the word "friend." Dylan makes him look like a fool and it's quite hilarious. Another great thing about the film are the live performances. Though I wish there were more featured, the ones shown are nothing short of captivating. This is reflected in the faces of the audience members, all sitting motionless, staring at Dylan with jaws slightly agape. I also enjoyed the scenes in which Dylan hangs out with his entourage, which features numerous celebrities such as Joan Baez, who sings a wonderful little folk song at one point in the film. Though fans of Dylan will definitley appreciate the film more than those who hate him, I think that many would enjoy this film, if only for Pennebaker's interesting cinematographical techniques. He makes you feel as if you are with Dylan, in London, in 1965. His techniques are quite effective. Recommended for all, but especially for fellow Dylan lovers.


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