1961 - 1965 Bob Dylan No Direction Home (DVD) Bob Dylan Performances: Blowin' in the Wind Girl of the North Country Man of Constant Sorrow Mr. Tambourine Man Love Minus Zero/No Limit Like a Rolling Stone One Too Many Mornings Other Features Unused promotion spot for "Positively 4th Street" "I Can't Leave Her Behind" (Work in progress in hotel room) ************************************************************** Review taken from Amazon.com It's virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn't have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese's achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative. There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art's self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans' complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths. All of these threads reinforce each other, together weaving the film's intricate texture. Scorsese's 200-plus-minute focus on Dylan's earliest years allows for a portrayal of unprecedented depth, with multiple angles: a rich composite photo is the result. The main narrative has an epic quality: it moves from Dylan growing up in cold-war Minnesota through Greenwich Village coffeehouses and the Newport Folk Festival, climaxing in the controversial 1966 U.K. tour that crowned a period of unbridled and explosive creativity. In his transition from Robert Allen Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, we observe him concocting his impossible-to-describe, unique combination of the topical with the archaic, like an ancient oracle. Scorsese was able to access previously unseen footage from the Dylan archives, including performances, press conferences, and recording sessions. He also uses interviews with Dylan's friends, ex-friends, and fellow artists, and, intriguingly, with the notoriously reclusive Dylan himself (who looks back to provide glosses on the early years), fusing what could have turned into a tiresome series of digressions and tangents into a powerful whole as enlightening, eccentric, contradictory, and ultimately irreducible as its subject. Some of the deeply personal bits remain unrevealed, but Dylan's preternatural self-assurance acquires a slightly self-deprecating, even comic edge via some of his reflective comments. Alongside the arrogance, we see touching moments of the young artist's reverence for Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash. Joan Baez, in a poignant confessional mood, comes off well, and the late Allen Ginsberg is so seraphically charming he almost steals the show a few times. A crucial throughline is Dylan's hunger for recognition and ability to shape perceptions so that would be singled out as not just another dime-a-dozen folk singer. It's illuminating, particularly for those familiar with the artist's latter-day aloofness on stage, to see his reactions to audience booing in the wake of his "betrayal" in this fuller context. No Direction Home also makes clear, in a way that wasn't possible in D.A. Pennebaker's iconic Don't Look Back, how Dylan's ability to manipulate his persona always, at its core, protects the urge for expression: Dylan's ultimate mandate, as an artist, is never to be pinned down. As Scorsese masterfully shows, the myth around Dylan only grows bigger the more we discover about him. __Thomas May DVD features: This two-disc set of Scorsese's full two-part documentary includes treats such as Dylan working on a song at his hotel during the UK tour as well as performing several songs as in concert or on TV. ************************************************************** Review taken from Amazon.com In an event that has brought together Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese, AMERICAN MASTERS presents "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home," airing on PBS Monday-Tuesday, September 26-27, 2005, 9:00 p.m. ET. Check local listings. The two-part film, which focuses on the singer-songwriter's life and music from 1961-66, includes never-seen performance footage and interviews with artists and musicians whose lives intertwined with Dylan's during that time. Dylan talks openly and extensively about this critical period in his career, detailing the journey from his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, to Greenwich Village, New York, where he became the center of a musical and cultural upheaval, the effects of which are still felt today. For the first time, the Bob Dylan Archives has made available rare treasures from its film, tape and stills collection, including footage from Murray Lerner's film Festival, documenting performances at the 1963, 1964 and 1965 Newport Folk Festivals; previously unreleased outtakes from D.A. Pennebaker's famed 1967 documentary Don't Look Back; and interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Maria Muldaur and many others. In anticipation of the film, members of Dylan's worldwide community of fans also contributed rarities from their own collections. "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, A Martin Scorsese Picture" comes on the heels of Dylan's best-selling memoir, Chronicles: Volume I, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Bestseller list. In addition to directing such dramatic films as Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Aviator, Martin Scorsese is an avid chronicler of the history of American popular music. Most recently, he executive-produced the music miniseries THE BLUES, which aired on PBS, as well as the related concert film Lightning in a Bottle, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Scorsese also directed the documentary The Last Waltz (1978), which captured The Band's legendary farewell concert, and he served as an assistant director and editor on Woodstock (1970). In discussing his excitement about the current project, Scorsese remarked, "I had been a great fan for many years when I had the privilege to film Bob Dylan for The Last Waltz. I've admired and enjoyed his many musical transformations. For me, there is no other musical artist who weaves his influences so densely to create something so personal and unique." Along with Scorsese, "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home" is individually produced by Jeff Rosen of Grey Water Park, Nigel Sinclair of Spitfire, Anthony Wall of the BBC's "Arena" series and Susan Lacy of Thirteen/WNET New York's AMERICAN MASTERS series, which has won the Emmy for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series five of the last six years. "When we first began discussing this project years ago, we were overwhelmed by the material at hand - home movies and history-making concert footage, fascinating interviews with Dylan's friends and fellow performers and, of course, Dylan himself, speaking so frankly about this incredible period in his life," said Lacy, series creator and executive producer of AMERICAN MASTERS. "What we needed, above all, was an artist with a singular vision who could fuse this material into a unique visual narrative. That artist was Martin Scorsese, who graciously agreed to direct." Added Spitfire's Sinclair, "Bob Dylan is a true cultural worldwide icon. This is the first time Bob has given this unprecedented access, which, coupled with Marty's outstanding filmmaking talents, should provide an unparalleled portrait of Dylan's indelible mark on the culture of the 20th century." Part one of "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home" will also premiere on September 26 in the UK, on the internationally prestigious series "Arena." on the BBC. This will be a historic collaboration between the world's two principal public broadcasters. "This is history," said Wall, "Arena" series editor. "As Dylan's extraordinary career is building to another great peak, it's also a milestone for the BBC and PBS."