Don't Look Back (Bob Dylan, Albert Grossman) for Dylan fans, for non-Dylan fans
It takes a lot of nerve for a celebrity to allow themselves to be depicted in a less-than-favourable light. For one thing, it could potentially cripple their career and impact their record sales. Who would want to risk that? Who would knowingly allow themselves to be filmed in an unflattering manner? Bob Dylan, that's who.
Don't Look Back is a puzzling documentary that chronicles the legendary folk singer's tour of England in 1965. It's a time when Dylan's songs actually found themselves on the British charts, despite overwhelming competition from the Beatles. In fact, in some scenes he seems a bona fide pop superstar, as young fans swarm the airports or jump on top of his car, even though songs like "Blowin' In the Wind" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" are far cries from fluffiness.
And yet when he is interviewed, he is not grateful for his popularity nor does he wish to help out lowly reporters whose sole job is to promote the singer. In press conferences, Dylan has moments of arrogance and irritation that rival the brothers from Oasis. In one excruciating portion, a student by the name of Terry Ellis is haplessly dragged into a dialectic. Bob shows no mercy in deciding to answer each question with a question, and hacking away at Terry's character for no other reason than to start an oral argument.
The film is often referred to as groundbreaking, in the sense that it pioneered the genre of the rock documentary. Shot by D.A. Pennebaker, it certainly boasts some great camera work and fantastic sound quality during the concert footage. Unfortunately, there is little rhyme or reason as to what Pennebaker decides to include or exclude. A passage where Dylan gets upset because someone has thrown a bottle at him from a hotel window doesn't do anything but show him with a temper. His manager, Albert Grossman, is depicted in an office finagling over how much his client will receive for an upcoming gig -- this goes on for a good ten minutes. An African interviewer preps Dylan for four relatively simple questions he's going to ask, then the entertainer's answers aren't even included (although as a makeshift reply, the film does cut to a piece of footage from Dylan's teen years that is curiously moving).
One big complaint I had with Don't Look Back is how it doesn't identify any of the people. I wouldn't know Dylan's publicist from his piano player, and a few scenes could have benefited from some quick subtitled names. Even more recognizable entertainers such as Joan Baez and Donovan merely come and go in places, while other less recognizable musicians sing for five or six minutes at a stretch. Although we get the impression that Pennebaker is trying to keep the cryptic, enigmatic legend well camouflaged, Dylan himself tips his hand when he boasts an outrageous statement to poor Terry Ellis: "I know more about what you do just by looking at you than you'll ever be able to know about me". Is that so, Bob Dylan. Is that so.
