A raucous and intimate road movie of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, DON'T LOOK BACK may be the most influential rock star documentary of all time. D.A. Pennebaker's trademark cinema verité approach, with its comprehensive perspective, captures the paradoxical Dylan in alternating... [More]

A raucous and intimate road movie of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, DON'T LOOK BACK may be the most influential rock star documentary of all time. D.A. Pennebaker's trademark cinema verité approach, with its comprehensive perspective, captures the paradoxical Dylan in alternating moments of confrontational belligerence and contemplative repose, all within the framework of the pop culture hurricane of one of the most publicized concert tours of the mid-1960s. Mobbed by frenzied fans and stalked by confounded journalists and music critics unable to penetrate his carefully evasive yet antagonistic persona, Dylan takes refuge with Joan Baez, his folk contemporary, and Albert Grossman, his juggernaut manager. As the tour progresses, a pattern emerges from Dylan's modes of expression, offering a glimpse of what would come to be a constant in his career: his perpetual redefinition of himself. Displaying the enigmatic performer's roles as both folk artist heir apparent to the Woody Guthrie throne and electric guitar rock pioneer who turned the Beatles on to pot, DON'T LOOK BACK preserves not only Dylan's musical genius but his inimitable, vital, and profound defiance of definition. [Less]