Bob Dylan film ‘electric’ experience for all fans

Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan

A Complete Unknown tells the story of Bob Dylan in New York in the mid 1960s, going up to 1965 when he added an electric band to his music. After this period, the essence of his music remained but the lyrics took a more abstract, surreal, subjective point of view. This change is the main narrative of the film.

Dylan was famously accused of “selling out” folk music. In the post-war years folk revival, under the umbrella of the Communist Party sympathisers, it was seen as the frontline defence against imperialism, war and racism.

The film, and I think accurately, shows Dylan disconnected from the movement but intensely aware of what was going on around him. The two main influences of Dylan musically, at the time, were Woody Guthrie and Buddy Holly and what become known as “traditional music”.

The film begins with Pete Seeger at the McCarthy witch-hunt trails. Then Dylan visiting Guthrie in hospital, where he is dying. It follows Dylan becoming a professional musician, working in the cafes and bars of New York and his relationships with Joan Baez and Suze Rotolo. Above all, it follows him learning to compose and record music. I found the way the film showed him composing lyrics constantly very well done.

A lot of the social background is just mentioned in passing. For instance, you would need to know, that he sang in Washington at MLK’s I have a dream speech.

For me at the time, I had absolutely no problem with Dylan adding a band to his music. It wasn’t so much rock music as Chicago rhythm and blues. Most of his 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited is hard urban blues.

The film conflates the Newport Folk concert with the later tours. But that’s poetic license. For me and all Dylan fans, old and new, the film is extremely enjoyable.

How people who have no idea of Dylan’s music or the back history will take the film, I don’t know. I would really like to hear their response. Dylan is portrayed by Timothee Chalamet as intense and disconnected. It is a brilliant performance.

The music is an integral part of the film and is also brilliantly performed by all the cast. The US in the sixties and its counter culture are covered. But I think only half of Dylan is shown. What is missing is Dylan’s incredible sense of the absurd and his humour. The rest is superb.