Rolling Thunder Revue (Netflix)

Anyone know if any of the performances in the movie are the same as what’s on the re release of the Bootleg 5 LP set? I sure hope so!

 

Article from Rolling Stone of 5 fake aspects of the film:

rollingstone.com
A Guide to What’s Fake in ‘Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story’
Andy Greene
4-5 minutes
“If someone’s wearing a mask, he’s gonna tell you the truth,” Bob Dylan says midway through Martin Scorsese’s new Netflix movie Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. “If he’s not wearing a mask, it’s highly unlikely.” As he says these words, Bob Dylan is most definitely not wearing a mask. He’s also in a documentary that occasionally takes wild deviations from the truth by utilizing actors to tell tale tales about the tour. The tactic is sure to confuse a great many people, so here’s a guide to the several fictionalized elements of the movie.

1. A teenage Sharon Stone did not join the Rolling Thunder Revue.
Many rock stars from Bob Dylan’s era did indeed have relationships with teenage fans in the 1970s that have the potential to cause them great harm and embarrassment if the details were to surface today. Dylan, however, is the only one bold enough to go to great lengths to manufacture such a relationship for the sake of art. It comes up about halfway through the film when Sharon Stone (playing herself) talks about a being a 19-year-old student when the Rolling Thunder Revue came to her town and then hitting the road with the tour for a brief time after Dylan took a liking to her. None of this is true and the photos of them together are phony. (She also would have actually been 17 at the time, but the gag is a little less funny if she’s underage.)

2. Dylan didn’t see a Kiss concert in Queens.
In the movie, Dylan says he got the idea to wear white face makeup on the Rolling Thunder Revue after Scarlet Rivera took him to a Kiss concert in Queens. But Kiss haven’t played a show in Queens since February 1973 when they were first starting out and long before Dylan met Rivera. These were tiny club shows by a totally unknown band. No way Dylan was at one of them and he also didn’t get the makeup idea from them. By most accounts, the makeup was inspired by the 1945 French film Children of Paradise.

3. A mysterious man named Stefan van Dorp didn’t direct the original footage.
Throughout the entire 1975 leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan was shooting the movie Renaldo and Clara with nearly every member of the performance troupe. The raw footage from the film is the seed of this new documentary, but Scorsese’s film never once mentions Renaldo and Clara. Instead, it has talking-head interviews with a supposed filmmaker from the tour named Stefan van Dorp that shot the entire thing and never got enough credit for his work. Such a person does not exist. It’s actually Martin von Haselberg from 1970s performance art duo the Kipper Kids playing a role. He’s also married to Bette Midler, who can briefly be seen with Dylan at a Greenwich Village club early in the film.

4. There is no congressman Jack Tanner.
Near the end of the movie, a supposed Michigan representative named Jack Tanner talks about using his connection with Jimmy Carter to get into a Rolling Thunder show at Niagara Falls. It’s actually actor Michael Murphy. The name Jack Tanner comes from Robert Altman’s 1988 campaign mockumentary Tanner ’88, which was written by Garry Trudeau.

5. Jim Gianopulos didn’t promote the tour
Jim Gianopulos is a man of many accomplishments. He worked as the co-chair of Fox Filmed Entertainment for 12 years and is now the CEO of Paramount Pictures. But he did not promote the Rolling Thunder Revue. At the time, he was attending law school at Fordham. He is a surprisingly good actor, through.

None of this stuff takes away from the power of the documentary. After all, this is a story that’s been told many times in many mediums. Throwing in a few fictional elements with this incredible, never-before-seen footage just makes the whole thing more fun and interesting. “We hope that people will watch it several times to unlock its various Easter eggs,” a source close to the Dylan Camp told Rolling Stone. “Documentary footage can be used in any way that you want to tell a story and it’s our hope that people will figure out what delights them about this film.”

 

I don’t get the point of the Sharon Stone ruse. Makes no sense to me. Was surprised to see Jim Gianopulos in this - I played his wedding.

 

Saw this at a packed house last night in Chicago thanks to feellowe resident posnera. Was duped by the filmmaker, Sharon Stone stories
But knew the ruse by Tanner which was brilliant.
The live performances was fantastic but the other parts could have been edited further.
The best scene is Bob and Joan wearing a bridal dress at a bar. Has to be from Renaldo.

 

Just finished it on Netflix, and I loved it ! Looking at the soundtrack stuff that's available, and pulled out my copies of No Direction Home, and my boot of the '86 tour with Tom Petty, to watch again.

 

Just watched it on Netflix, too.

 

Watched the first half of this tonight, mostly a big Dylanesque shaggy dog story (very cleverly done and enjoyable) interspersed with incredible and electrifying concert footage. Definitely not a documentary and all the more interesting for it!

 

I think what Scorsese did is kind of brilliant. A mockumentary wrapped around a real documentary. Has this been done before?

 

Loved this. My wife who hates Dylan was in the room and was spellbound (despite the fact they were obviously hamming it up for the camera).

 

I saw this last night and enjoyed the hell out of it! What a fun film. You really got a sense of the times and some great behind-the-scenes footage. I'm eagerly waiting to buy this on blu-ray with some bonus features!

God, and the footage in Gordon Lightfoot's palce with the newly-written "Coyote?" Possibly my favorite part of the whole thing.

 

Fantastic film. I could tell more than a few times that I was watching the work of Scorsese. No drugs and booze though, which I was expecting...

Watching Dylan perform Isis was amazing. One of the best things I've ever seen!

 

No drugs or booze shown, just their results.

 

Definitely yeah. I'm guessing mountains of blow backstage.

 

Watched it yesterday. Very satisfying. Well done.

 

Anyone seen any interviews with Marty about the film?

 

I dislike the fake elements. The Sharon Stone story was interesting because it suggested that Dylan knew the name of a famous Kabuki actor (which I certainly don't myself!) but what was interesting becomes purely vexing once you know it's made up. I suppose the story is “clever” in that it ties Kiss and Kabuki together as putative sources for the makeup. But ... who cares why Dylan wore whiteface really? Obfuscating what is essentially not an engaging mystery seems pointless ... trying to transform a not very successful stage device into an enduring enigma.

I must say, I found this a disappointment after No Direction Home because if there was a narrative to the Rolling Thunder tour then Scorsese didn't find it. The footage is great but the editing did it little service.

 

I think drugs were #1 on the call sheet.

 

Yeah, if there was no story to tell just give us a concert film.

 

I got fooled. I thought it was a documentary until that politician who looked and sounded an awful lot like Michael Murphy. And even then.

 

Same here, because how many actors have gone into politics ?

 

Just watched on Netflix, I liked it for exactly what it is a traveling medicine show with Bob Dylan in
control of a quirky show and his interpretations. Funny sarcasm yet He seemed so relaxed and happy and enjoy himself through the whole thing. Love Joan Baez singing them together just two perfect people who had magic and appears to have had love and respect for each other. They make it look fun and easy when they are together. I enjoyed it just like I always do all that is Dylan. I will probably watch it again.

 

Thanks for posting. Some of the stuff, esp the Sharon Stone/Kiss stuff, seemed head scratching to me. Either way, I still thought it was pretty interesting. I think people like this Dylan live material because he sings more like a rock singer than folk. I must admit, the footage of Jack Elliot and Patti Smith are kinda cringe worthy.

 

I know it is just Bob being Bob but I really don't get the idea of the fictional content other than to frustrate the audience. It's not particularly interesting, well done or tells any story. Just an award road bump that is crow bared into archival footage.

There is an argument to be made that this is the most significant period in his career. I believe this is the tour that followed his most commercially successful album which followed his divorce. None of that mentioned. Rolling thunder looks a lot like a guy that had his marriage collapse and decided to take all his party buddies and ex girlfriend on the road to do a hard bender for about a year. What about the movie? What were they thinking, what went wrong, did Bob even screen it before it was released? Did this period of theoretically dealing with divorce, commercial success and drug abuse have anything to do with being born again two years later? 44 years after the fact an honest reflection on how this came about and the impact it had on his life would have been more interesting that a made up story about Sharon Stone and all the rest.

Fake interviews in the middle of documentary is a weird move.

 

How out of place did Mick Ronson look with his glam hair look and hard rock leads? I thought he played brilliantly but he must have felt like a fish out of water. Dylan apparently never talked to him. Apparently he was quite popular with the ladies on the tour though.

Anyone know the story of how he got on the tour? Was Dylan a Bowie fan?

 

He was great at keeping unwanted intruders out of back stage areas. Just ask Ronnie Hawkins