Who really knows Bob Dylan? America’s most famous folk singer came of age in the ‘60s as the counterculture was starting to find its voice.
Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in New York in 1963 with a guitar case in his hand and Huck Finn hat, quickly making a name for himself in Greenwich Village’s hip clubs, as depicted in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, now in theaters.
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His rise is swift, meeting folk stars Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), whose manager Albert Goldman (Dan Fogler) signs Dylan to a record contract with Columbia.
The record execs want him to sing covers, which he does for his first album. But after that it would be all Bob, who never stops writing and playing in the two-hour-and-20-minutes biopic. Chalamet strums guitar and sings admirably in Dylan’s nasal, slurred Midwest style. “Blowing in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone” are rendered several times with Dylan taking harmonica solos.
The two women in his life at the time - Baez and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning as Suze Rotolo) - struggle with Dylan’s mystique, his unwillingness to divulge much about himself. With Baez already a star, Dylan defers to her fame. They sleep together but he’s not sold on her. “She's pretty,” Dylan says. “Sings pretty. Maybe a little too pretty.” Baez fires back, “You're kind of an asshole, Bob.” A third woman Becka (Laura Kariuki), who is Black, makes a brief appearance.
He obviously cares for Sylvie but she can’t get over his bond with Baez, especially when they duet at the Newport Folk Festival.
Chalamet’s Dylan carries the weight of the past, a beat poet with a guitar preaching to a new wide-eyed generation.
The 1965 festival dominates the third act. Fest board members Seeger and Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz) fear Dylan plans to shake up the all-acoustic affair by plugging in. Why this was so controversial might seem anachronistic in this context, so many years later when most music is electrified. But the folkie fuddy-duddies weren’t into it, and tried to boo Dylan and his superb group that included Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper off the stage.
Seeger and Lomax attempt to talk Dylan out of using his showcase to play like an amped-up blues band. A musical purist, Lomax hated the Beatles and all forms of pop. Both seek to lower the volume to no avail.
Clearly it happened but it’s odd and unsettling to watch. Were people really that rattled by a few amps and electric guitars? Apparently so but it’s still weird to see a supposed liberal crowd be so reactionary.
Alan Light notes in the New York Times, "An electric set by the Chambers Brothers had opened the festival without incident," yet the crowd got all riled up over Dylan. "The booing is actually the thing that accomplished Dylan's aim of going electric while still being viewed as someone who completely went his own way and didn't care about stardom."
Dylan latches on to Woody Guthrie (Scout McNairy) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) as his muses. While Guthrie is hospitalized and can’t verbally communicate, Cash is a fireball of energy who encourages Dylan to “muddy up the carpet.”
His only male friend Bobby Neuwirth (Will Harrison) quickly is promoted to road manager and oversees the mayhem at Newport.
Dylan floats through it all, his hair rising higher as the years go by, eyes hidden by sunglasses so no one can peer too deeply, hands constantly reaching for and lighting a cigarette. The man who incited fans to get stoned never even touches a joint in the film. He drinks a few beers and pounds sone booze with blues singer Tom Watson (Eric Berryman).
Those old enough to remember the Village in the ‘60s will enjoy the scenes at Folk City and Cafe Wah? Even The Bagel joint on W. 4 St. Is recreated though Bob doesn’t sample the toasted butter-slathered doughy delights.
To make quick entrances and exits Dylan rides a motorcycle. There's a lot tension each time he hops on the bike since Dylan famously crashed it in Woodstock in 1966. The movie stops short of that incident which would ground him from touring for the next eight years. "I was on the road for almost five years,” he told Rolling Stone’s Jan Wenner then. “It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things ... just to keep going, you know?"
The movie also doesn’t show Sarah Lownds, who he married in late 1965 and had four children with, including Jakob and Jesse.
In the capable hands of Mangold, who also directed the Cash biopic Walk the Line, A Complete Unknown offers a slice of Dylan’s complicated life. A survivor of six decades of touring, Chalamet’s Dylan carries the weight of the past, a beat poet with a guitar preaching to a new wide-eyed generation.
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