Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back Reviews
Lanning :
Super Reviewer
December 30, 2008
Amazing . . . My dear niece, who first invited me to join flixster actually, was working the bar at a London venue where Bob Dylan was playing. At some point she was sent backstage to deliver Dylan a beer. Like me, my niece is a big fan of his; we still are. Her report: He was not very pleasant. I'm sure Dylan is not the only celebrity who may not come off well from time to time in public interaction. I know I'd never want to have a beer with Dylan, but I won't let his personality quirks color the power of his music for me. My niece and I do remain big fans. Note to self: You will never be famous. How do I know this? No one ever follows me around like this in my day-to-day routine with a camera.
Cameron W. Johnson
Super Reviewer
June 13, 2012
I've got to say that I'm seeing what the critics are talking about, because this is some good old fashion music documentary filmmaking; back when they had hardly any, if at all any discernable point. Oh wait, the critics are calling this masterpiece classic (*cough*be*cough*cause*cough*it's*cough*old*cough*), and not an aimless mess, much like many documentaries of its time and era that were. The film is all but entirely devoid of narrative structure, drifting from footage clip to footage clip, and occasionally having that footage be feature someone playing music, while the all too rare occasions in which the film does adopt some faint degree of focus also go plagued, as it is so faint, as well as brief, being immediately followed, if not actually broken up by the continuous excess of footage. For the longest of periods, there's absolutely no music, and until we get to a mild piece of narrative - which is almost never not dead on its feet when we get there -, it's just long periods of absolutely nothing, but nothing. The film is just so aimless and, at times, rather dull, plain and simple, a non-structure found in many films of this type and time, thus making it, on top of everything, rather conventional. This documentary is a mess if there ever was one, and yet, it's messy in just the right way. True, the film can never achieve the state of being genuinely good (Critics), as it is so aimless, yet it's still an enjoyable watch, because whatever kind of structure it's following hits perhaps just a little bit more than it misses.
Clearly, this documentary could care less about an ultimate point and purpose amidst its aimless barrage of total nothingness, looking only to serve as an avatar for the audience to immerse them within the world of its subjects. More than a fair couple of slip-ups in that department, and this effort falls to pieces, yet lucky for it, while writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker couldn't make this mess into a consistent narrative to save his life, he certainly knows what he's doing, as far as setting up an immersive environment. The endless footage assembled by Pennebaker is often trimmed down to particularly focus upon the casualness of Bob Dylan, both on his own and with his friends, bandmates and other associates. The comradery that Dylan shares with these associates, as well as his own notorious charisma and wit is extremely palpable, as it's right there on the screen, going intensified by a relaxed atmosphere set by Pennebaker, as director, whose laid-back approach to this project may also serve detrimental to it, yet also makes it rather transcendant in a way. However, when it comes down to focusing on the career of Dylan, Pennebaker's editing, structure and atmosphere gives subtle, yet generally effective insight into both the art of Dylan and, to a degree, the business that surrounds it. There's a charm in the film's simplicity, and while it, likely on purpose, fails pretty spectacularly at delivering on general point, it succeeds at what it sets out to do. In the end, this film is, in fact, rather immersive, and with all of its bumps and lows, it's hard to not stick with this very down-to-earth, rather gripping portrait on the life of Dylan by the mid-1960s.
Looking back, this documentary was conventional for what it was at the time, and in many of the wrong ways, being aimless and pointless, with the slightest hint of narrative quickly going dashed away for the sake of total nothingness, all for the sake of creating an immersive atmosphere, which is an attempt that could have destroyed this film, yet saves it, as writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker has managed to assemble an often thoroughly charming look at Bob Dylan's personal life, as well as a rather fascinating occasional look at his professional life, thus leaving "Dont Look Back" to stand as a generally enjoyable portrait on a period in Bob Dylan's life and career, even if that is seriously all it is.
2.5/5 - Fair
Great, with "Don't Look Back", or in this case, "Dont Look Back" taken (good ol' Bobby D was so unconventional, he didn't believe in apostrophes), now what are they gonna call the Boston rockumentary? I mean, it's such a saying that's been done to death, much like how the song "Don't Look Back" followed Boston's formula that had been done to death (Still a pretty good song), so on regular terms I don't think we would mind too much if a Boston documentary used it. However, that documentary would be too similar to this one, as it would also be a music documentary, with the primary focus being from one of the whitest areas in America. Yeah, I know that Massachusetts isn't that white, but considering how segregated Boston still is, if you take a step in right, or rather, white direction, the only difference between Boston and Bob Dylan's hometown of Minnesota is that Boston has different and more ignorant-sounding accents, a higher crime rate, more drug issues, run-down towns and as one of the finest universities in America, and other than that, Boston may as well as be Mini-Minnesota. Anyone else love how I'm supposed to be talking about Bob Dylan, and yet seem more interested in a band that debuted almost ten years after this documentary came out? As you can tell, I'm more into rock, yet I do enjoy the occasional sample of the smooth, soothing and transcendant sounds of the high-pitched, sustained sharp notes by the folk legend. It certainly makes for a good documentary, and it's called "No Direction Home", which isn't to say that this documentary is bad, yet it's not at all without its faults that it's hard to not actually look back at.
I've got to say that I'm seeing what the critics are talking about, because this is some good old fashion music documentary filmmaking; back when they had hardly any, if at all any discernable point. Oh wait, the critics are calling this masterpiece classic (*cough*be*cough*cause*cough*it's*cough*old*cough*), and not an aimless mess, much like many documentaries of its time and era that were. The film is all but entirely devoid of narrative structure, drifting from footage clip to footage clip, and occasionally having that footage be feature someone playing music, while the all too rare occasions in which the film does adopt some faint degree of focus also go plagued, as it is so faint, as well as brief, being immediately followed, if not actually broken up by the continuous excess of footage. For the longest of periods, there's absolutely no music, and until we get to a mild piece of narrative - which is almost never not dead on its feet when we get there -, it's just long periods of absolutely nothing, but nothing. The film is just so aimless and, at times, rather dull, plain and simple, a non-structure found in many films of this type and time, thus making it, on top of everything, rather conventional. This documentary is a mess if there ever was one, and yet, it's messy in just the right way. True, the film can never achieve the state of being genuinely good (Critics), as it is so aimless, yet it's still an enjoyable watch, because whatever kind of structure it's following hits perhaps just a little bit more than it misses.
Clearly, this documentary could care less about an ultimate point and purpose amidst its aimless barrage of total nothingness, looking only to serve as an avatar for the audience to immerse them within the world of its subjects. More than a fair couple of slip-ups in that department, and this effort falls to pieces, yet lucky for it, while writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker couldn't make this mess into a consistent narrative to save his life, he certainly knows what he's doing, as far as setting up an immersive environment. The endless footage assembled by Pennebaker is often trimmed down to particularly focus upon the casualness of Bob Dylan, both on his own and with his friends, bandmates and other associates. The comradery that Dylan shares with these associates, as well as his own notorious charisma and wit is extremely palpable, as it's right there on the screen, going intensified by a relaxed atmosphere set by Pennebaker, as director, whose laid-back approach to this project may also serve detrimental to it, yet also makes it rather transcendant in a way. However, when it comes down to focusing on the career of Dylan, Pennebaker's editing, structure and atmosphere gives subtle, yet generally effective insight into both the art of Dylan and, to a degree, the business that surrounds it. There's a charm in the film's simplicity, and while it, likely on purpose, fails pretty spectacularly at delivering on general point, it succeeds at what it sets out to do. In the end, this film is, in fact, rather immersive, and with all of its bumps and lows, it's hard to not stick with this very down-to-earth, rather gripping portrait on the life of Dylan by the mid-1960s.
Looking back, this documentary was conventional for what it was at the time, and in many of the wrong ways, being aimless and pointless, with the slightest hint of narrative quickly going dashed away for the sake of total nothingness, all for the sake of creating an immersive atmosphere, which is an attempt that could have destroyed this film, yet saves it, as writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker has managed to assemble an often thoroughly charming look at Bob Dylan's personal life, as well as a rather fascinating occasional look at his professional life, thus leaving "Dont Look Back" to stand as a generally enjoyable portrait on a period in Bob Dylan's life and career, even if that is seriously all it is.
2.5/5 - Fair
Mike T
Super Reviewer
March 17, 2010
This isn't just a great music documentary... this is a great film. Director D.A. Pennebaker does a lot of inventive things to ensure that his movie will stand on its own and he succeeds. This is a candid, brilliantly energetic glimpse into the life of a genius, and it captures so much of the madness and the humour and the excitement that we want to see. Dylan is the best subject that a filmmaker could find for this sort of feature. He is absolutely fascinating to watch. The final scene is so intimate, it could arguably be seen as profound. The loose black-and-white photography is beautiful, and Dylan's music further underlines how enjoyable this movie is.
Wu C
Super Reviewer
October 8, 2008
Watching this doc makes you feel like you are in Dylan's inner circle. It's like hanging out with a brash young musical genius.
Tecnoandre
Super Reviewer
November 27, 2010
Great documentary of this genious musician.
Dracula787
Super Reviewer
May 16, 2009
I?ve always been a casual Bob Dylan fan, and recently I?ve become more and more aware of this D.A. Pennebaker documentary chronicling his 1965 English tour. A lot of this footage has become iconic out of context, a handful of quotes from it were used in Todd Hayne?s film I?m Not There and outtakes from the film were used in Martin Scorsese?s documentary No Direction Home. The film has a lot of footage of people making asses of themselves in Dylan?s presence, and Dylan being a dick to them partly because they deserve it and partly because he?s an asshole. While Dylan?s behavior is not entirely savory, it is interesting, so the Doc works pretty well.
Patrick D
Super Reviewer
February 11, 2009
It's a great "fly-on-the-wall" documentary. D.A. Pennebaker really constructed one heck of a portrait. Although it seems somewhat on the side of trying to show Dylan as "super cool" and "super philosophical", which ends up making him look like he's a jerk talking out of his ass. Great musician though.
toejambaseball24
Super Reviewer
June 1, 2008
I wanna chill with Bob Dylan and we can just be jerks together.
Christopher B
Super Reviewer
February 8, 2008
Great pioneering documentary on the legendary Bob Dylan. Pennebaker made a masterpiece sure to be enjoyed by Dylan and non Dylan fans alike. Remember when documentarians let the subjects speak for themselves?
kenscheck
June 20, 2012
Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK is covered in D.A. Pennebaker's well made documentary. I've never been a huge Dylan fan, but I did like this film, and I find Dylan's sense of humor at times in this to be quite entertaining...even if at other times he seems a little arrogant. This is also the from the period I personally find to be Dylan's best, or at least the one that appeals to me the most. His manager seems like a real brash jerk, but what manager isn't? The "Subterranean Homesick Blues" opening is rather iconic of Dylan in general. Mostly this is an important document of a clearly important figure in the Counter Culture of the 1960s.
August 3, 2010
Masterpiece documentary. This film shows Bob Dylan taking on the world. It really captures Dylan and all his escapades in 1965, from going tit for tat with Time Magazine to playing country songs with Donovan and everything in between, "Don't Look Back" begins to show just what a traveling circus Dylan's life was becoming.
cmrnlewis
June 14, 2008
Great look at Bob Dylan during a tour of Britain in 1965. The interview footage of a snide and snarky Dylan is a must see for any fan of the music.
vidiot49
May 30, 2008
An amazing look at Dylan at the peak of his performance quality and his skills with blowing the minds of interviewers. Favorite quote - "be careful or I'll put you on".
AngelWantsABadMan
January 9, 2008
Everything you imagine it could be and more! Its so candid and special. His music was ahead of its time . And I know everybody has said that but its staggering in this film. LOVE it!
dooritor
December 5, 2006
omg joan baez!!! *drools* this is a kinda silly statement movie of bobs, D.A. really makes him look like a jerk and a genuis at the same time, when tahts not what he wanted at all.. so bad idea but stil fun.
Cameron W. Johnson
Super Reviewer
June 13, 2012
I've got to say that I'm seeing what the critics are talking about, because this is some good old fashion music documentary filmmaking; back when they had hardly any, if at all any discernable point. Oh wait, the critics are calling this masterpiece classic (*cough*be*cough*cause*cough*it's*cough*old*cough*), and not an aimless mess, much like many documentaries of its time and era that were. The film is all but entirely devoid of narrative structure, drifting from footage clip to footage clip, and occasionally having that footage be feature someone playing music, while the all too rare occasions in which the film does adopt some faint degree of focus also go plagued, as it is so faint, as well as brief, being immediately followed, if not actually broken up by the continuous excess of footage. For the longest of periods, there's absolutely no music, and until we get to a mild piece of narrative - which is almost never not dead on its feet when we get there -, it's just long periods of absolutely nothing, but nothing. The film is just so aimless and, at times, rather dull, plain and simple, a non-structure found in many films of this type and time, thus making it, on top of everything, rather conventional. This documentary is a mess if there ever was one, and yet, it's messy in just the right way. True, the film can never achieve the state of being genuinely good (Critics), as it is so aimless, yet it's still an enjoyable watch, because whatever kind of structure it's following hits perhaps just a little bit more than it misses.
Clearly, this documentary could care less about an ultimate point and purpose amidst its aimless barrage of total nothingness, looking only to serve as an avatar for the audience to immerse them within the world of its subjects. More than a fair couple of slip-ups in that department, and this effort falls to pieces, yet lucky for it, while writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker couldn't make this mess into a consistent narrative to save his life, he certainly knows what he's doing, as far as setting up an immersive environment. The endless footage assembled by Pennebaker is often trimmed down to particularly focus upon the casualness of Bob Dylan, both on his own and with his friends, bandmates and other associates. The comradery that Dylan shares with these associates, as well as his own notorious charisma and wit is extremely palpable, as it's right there on the screen, going intensified by a relaxed atmosphere set by Pennebaker, as director, whose laid-back approach to this project may also serve detrimental to it, yet also makes it rather transcendant in a way. However, when it comes down to focusing on the career of Dylan, Pennebaker's editing, structure and atmosphere gives subtle, yet generally effective insight into both the art of Dylan and, to a degree, the business that surrounds it. There's a charm in the film's simplicity, and while it, likely on purpose, fails pretty spectacularly at delivering on general point, it succeeds at what it sets out to do. In the end, this film is, in fact, rather immersive, and with all of its bumps and lows, it's hard to not stick with this very down-to-earth, rather gripping portrait on the life of Dylan by the mid-1960s.
Looking back, this documentary was conventional for what it was at the time, and in many of the wrong ways, being aimless and pointless, with the slightest hint of narrative quickly going dashed away for the sake of total nothingness, all for the sake of creating an immersive atmosphere, which is an attempt that could have destroyed this film, yet saves it, as writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker has managed to assemble an often thoroughly charming look at Bob Dylan's personal life, as well as a rather fascinating occasional look at his professional life, thus leaving "Dont Look Back" to stand as a generally enjoyable portrait on a period in Bob Dylan's life and career, even if that is seriously all it is.
2.5/5 - Fair
Great, with "Don't Look Back", or in this case, "Dont Look Back" taken (good ol' Bobby D was so unconventional, he didn't believe in apostrophes), now what are they gonna call the Boston rockumentary? I mean, it's such a saying that's been done to death, much like how the song "Don't Look Back" followed Boston's formula that had been done to death (Still a pretty good song), so on regular terms I don't think we would mind too much if a Boston documentary used it. However, that documentary would be too similar to this one, as it would also be a music documentary, with the primary focus being from one of the whitest areas in America. Yeah, I know that Massachusetts isn't that white, but considering how segregated Boston still is, if you take a step in right, or rather, white direction, the only difference between Boston and Bob Dylan's hometown of Minnesota is that Boston has different and more ignorant-sounding accents, a higher crime rate, more drug issues, run-down towns and as one of the finest universities in America, and other than that, Boston may as well as be Mini-Minnesota. Anyone else love how I'm supposed to be talking about Bob Dylan, and yet seem more interested in a band that debuted almost ten years after this documentary came out? As you can tell, I'm more into rock, yet I do enjoy the occasional sample of the smooth, soothing and transcendant sounds of the high-pitched, sustained sharp notes by the folk legend. It certainly makes for a good documentary, and it's called "No Direction Home", which isn't to say that this documentary is bad, yet it's not at all without its faults that it's hard to not actually look back at.
I've got to say that I'm seeing what the critics are talking about, because this is some good old fashion music documentary filmmaking; back when they had hardly any, if at all any discernable point. Oh wait, the critics are calling this masterpiece classic (*cough*be*cough*cause*cough*it's*cough*old*cough*), and not an aimless mess, much like many documentaries of its time and era that were. The film is all but entirely devoid of narrative structure, drifting from footage clip to footage clip, and occasionally having that footage be feature someone playing music, while the all too rare occasions in which the film does adopt some faint degree of focus also go plagued, as it is so faint, as well as brief, being immediately followed, if not actually broken up by the continuous excess of footage. For the longest of periods, there's absolutely no music, and until we get to a mild piece of narrative - which is almost never not dead on its feet when we get there -, it's just long periods of absolutely nothing, but nothing. The film is just so aimless and, at times, rather dull, plain and simple, a non-structure found in many films of this type and time, thus making it, on top of everything, rather conventional. This documentary is a mess if there ever was one, and yet, it's messy in just the right way. True, the film can never achieve the state of being genuinely good (Critics), as it is so aimless, yet it's still an enjoyable watch, because whatever kind of structure it's following hits perhaps just a little bit more than it misses.
Clearly, this documentary could care less about an ultimate point and purpose amidst its aimless barrage of total nothingness, looking only to serve as an avatar for the audience to immerse them within the world of its subjects. More than a fair couple of slip-ups in that department, and this effort falls to pieces, yet lucky for it, while writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker couldn't make this mess into a consistent narrative to save his life, he certainly knows what he's doing, as far as setting up an immersive environment. The endless footage assembled by Pennebaker is often trimmed down to particularly focus upon the casualness of Bob Dylan, both on his own and with his friends, bandmates and other associates. The comradery that Dylan shares with these associates, as well as his own notorious charisma and wit is extremely palpable, as it's right there on the screen, going intensified by a relaxed atmosphere set by Pennebaker, as director, whose laid-back approach to this project may also serve detrimental to it, yet also makes it rather transcendant in a way. However, when it comes down to focusing on the career of Dylan, Pennebaker's editing, structure and atmosphere gives subtle, yet generally effective insight into both the art of Dylan and, to a degree, the business that surrounds it. There's a charm in the film's simplicity, and while it, likely on purpose, fails pretty spectacularly at delivering on general point, it succeeds at what it sets out to do. In the end, this film is, in fact, rather immersive, and with all of its bumps and lows, it's hard to not stick with this very down-to-earth, rather gripping portrait on the life of Dylan by the mid-1960s.
Looking back, this documentary was conventional for what it was at the time, and in many of the wrong ways, being aimless and pointless, with the slightest hint of narrative quickly going dashed away for the sake of total nothingness, all for the sake of creating an immersive atmosphere, which is an attempt that could have destroyed this film, yet saves it, as writer, director and editor D.A. Pennebaker has managed to assemble an often thoroughly charming look at Bob Dylan's personal life, as well as a rather fascinating occasional look at his professional life, thus leaving "Dont Look Back" to stand as a generally enjoyable portrait on a period in Bob Dylan's life and career, even if that is seriously all it is.
2.5/5 - Fair
