Hi, I'm fairly new to Ciao, and hope that I can be of help. I aim to be as honest as i can be, and ...
Hi, I'm fairly new to Ciao, and hope that I can be of help. I aim to be as honest as i can be, and to write something that might be somewhat informative beyond simple "I Like / I Hate". I post on dooyoo.co.uk also.
Member since:20.08.2008
Reviews:27
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Martin Scorsese's brilliant documentary tracing the progression of Bob Dylan from endearingly awkward Duluth teenager to other-worldly, speed-fried Icon is as stunning a piece of work as any of the director's classics, and leagues above most of his output from the preceding decade.
Utilising a wealth of revelatory, rarely-seen footage and interview material, No Direction Home is, for the first half at least, as much about America in the pause-for-breath moment between the beat writers of the 1950s and the counter-culture student movements of the mid-to-late 1960s as it is about the life and work of Robert Zimmerman. It is - clichéd as it sounds - a sweeping, engrossing portrait of a time and of a place, scouring the terrain leads from the rattle-tattle zap-pow gyrations of Ginsberg and Kerouac to the pound pound pounding of Odetta's acoustic guitar, from the wandering shoes of Neil Cassidy to those of Woody Guthrie.
Dylan features heavily throughout this section of the film, of course, but he is very much a character-in-the-making. When he does take centre-stage in time for the second half (the film is, incidentally, almost four hours long), it is via some of the most compelling footage available, some of it assumed lost or destroyed.
A talking heads documentary is not, necessarily, the most cinematic of endeavours, however much the genre may have thrived at the theatres in the past five years. Scorsese, though, a master if anyone is, charges his film with an array of cinematic devices, most rewarding of which is his tendency to leap, in a similar style to Goddard or Nic Roeg, from "present" to "future" and vice versa. Incendiary, almost hypnotic performances from Dylan's UK electric tour, for example, - footage originally shot, one supposes, for the Dylan-directed Eat The Document - intercuts a discussion on the Protest Years (a period much, much shorter lived than one might suspect) to startling effect.
Chronologically, Scorsese's film ends at the infamous motorcycle crash in 1966 which neatly (too neatly, most continue to mutter) severed Dylan from all pressing engagements - notably any live performances and the completion of his novel, Tarantula. A series of follow-up films of equal depth is, of course, something any Dylan fan - or any Scorsese fan, even - would give their teeth for. It is, however, unlikely. Scorsese is interested in America growing up, a progression charted on the increasingly wired face of Robert Zimmerman, a fellow who just happens to be amongst the most mysterious, allusive, evasive characters in popular culture. He has acheived that, and so much more besides.
That Scorsese gets this close under the old cad's skin is, perhaps, somewhat less of a shock given the release a few years prior of Dylan's memoir collection Chronicles Vol. 1, but it is worth remembering how closed, how stand-offish Dylan frequently appeared in interviews hitherto. A reminder is offered in the film itself via some beautifully sarky press conference performances. "What are your songs about?" a reporter asks our hero in one such exchange. "Well..." he considers (I'm quoting from memory). "Some are about six minutes and some are about four minutes and..."
Considering that the film itself is pretty much a collection of very, VERY special features, it seems a touch greedy to demand a terrible lot from the disc itself. As it happens, it is next to barren, with only a couple reels of performance footage (short and nowhere near the quality of those in the film) to offer. Still, it is a Must Have for any fan of not only Bob Dylan, although certainly for them, but also for anyone in any way interested in the development of the radical American counter-culture of the 1950s and 60s.
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In an event that has brought together Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese No Direction Home: ... more
Bob Dylan is the first time Dylan has participated in an exclusive film biography. This DVD covers his explosive arrival on the downtown New York City scene in 196...
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He is one of the most influential, inspirational and ground-breaking musicians of our ... more
time. Now, Academy Award-nominated director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, 1990) brings us the extraordinary story of Bob Dylan's journey from his roots in Minnesota, t...
Advantages: Great Set That Offers An Interesting Insight Into One Of The Most Interesting Eras In His Career Disadvantages: Mainly For Fans, But May Offer An Incentive To Get Into Him For Those Who Aren't
Advantages: Great Set That Offers An Interesting Insight Into One Of The Most Interesting Eras In His Career Disadvantages: Mainly For Fans, But May Offer An Incentive To Get Into Him For Those Who Aren't
![No Direction Home: Bob Dylan [DVD] [2005]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78499732.jpg "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan [DVD] [2005]")
Sep 4th, 2008
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