Rolling Thunder Revue (Netflix)

I like what he does. I just don't like feeling like I'm being intentionally hoodwinked because I do. It does nothing to Dylan's mystique to tell this story without making up a Sharon Stone storyline. Scorsese is trying to be cute, and it comes off as patently silly.

 

But, as someone mentioned above, his songs also intentionally hoodwink us. That's what's great about him and I've always enjoyed being hoodwinked by him.

 

Don't forget--you only tell the truth when you wear a mask. Bob, do you really believe your own horse$hit?

Halfway through--this thing is like manna. Amazing footage. Wonder if that Woody Guthrie story was true?

 

I came into this innocent. The tanner stuff went right over my head, but I knew there were playful aspects of the film.

I know a guy who swears that his brother was wearing whiteface in the front row of a show in 1974 and Dylan got it from him. I'm relieved that his claim is still live.

Anyway what about Joni Mitchell?: having the affair, writing the tune about it, playing it live without her hits, solo for Bobs crowd; and then this Don't Look Back in reverse scene where she just unwinds this masterpiece. I don't think Bob even knew how to listen to that song. That was my favorite moment. Bob Dylan in discomfort. There are a lot of dylan faces we have never seen before in this movie.

 

I don’t think it would even be possible for Bob to listen to this song in comfort as one is trying to play along with something he’s not familiar with and Joni’s unusual tuning and voicing.

 

I think he looked like Donovan in that scene.

 

Thoroughly confused - with this fake BS...
Anyway - some moments where interesting - Dylan turning at CBS HQ and getting ushered up to the Execs when they realize who he is....
Baez saying - you could have told me - when he went off and married Sara..
Baez dressing up as Dylan...kinda looked a lot like him..

What's the point of it all though.... this fake BS is just trying to weave more mystery into a mysterious character already.....remember Dylan started out telling stories about running away and joining a circus - so guess he's full circle now - who knows which way the wind blows....

 

Is the concert footage available alone in any form? It looks like it would be an excellent concert film.

I was 14 when the Revue came through my town. I was just getting into the Beatles and would not go to my first concert for a couple years. By the time I may have first gotten interested Dylan was born again and there was no way that was going to get me on board. If I had seen the 1975 Dylan though, I may have gotten on board much earlier than I finally did.

I took everything at face value. I didn’t know that parts were fiction until I saw comments here. What do I know?

I wonder how the tour actually did financially. Joe Cocker kind of/sort of did a similar thing 5 years earlier which did terrible financially (unless his documentary is fiction also).

 

Hart to tell how much of this "creativity" is Dylan, I think most of it is Scorsese. This time period is exactly when he was breaking through as a director with Taxi Driver being the parallel. The Sharon Stone part seems to be suspiciously similar to Cybill Shepherd's character in Taxi Driver. He may have trying to crowbar some of himself as a filmmaker into the project more than doing another version of No Direction Home, Shine a Light or Last Waltz.

Perhaps the idea was to take the content and themes of Renaldo and Clara, do a remake and use the format of a documentary?

After watching it a second time yesterday and knowing the farce, I did find I enjoyed the scripted content more. A bit like piecing together a puzzle and figuring out the "tell" of the bluff. For example, the opening scene of the movie, the magic trick from an old silent movie. You can see that it's just a crudely edited gag to fool the audience into thinking a woman disappeared. That same "jump" in editing is repeated in the the Dylan interview, Scorsese can certainly a better job editing, it had to be intentional. The statement from Dylan where he says something to the effect of "Don't ask me about Rolling Thunder, I have no idea, that was 40 years ago" seems like foreshadowing on a second viewing.

The Sharon Stone stuff was hard to watch to begin with but once you know she was acting, it's horrendous. She isn't acting she is just lying and it's lame. There is a picture of her with Dylan while wearing that Kiss Shirt. That is either some expert Photoshop work or it happened and when Scorsese found it, he created the gimmick. If so, I'll give him some credit for the effort.

 

What was the point of including all of Bob's tour dates at the back end of the film? What did it achieve? It just felt completely pointless & just tacked on at the end because they could.

 

Yes, this made no sense whatsoever. Pretty much found that whole credits sequence surprisingly hacky for a guy like Scorsese.

 

I didn't find it to be pointless. I thought it illustrated Rolling Thunder was just one of many years of being on tour, fairly extraordinary to see how many shows he has played since 1975 and how much of his life has been consumed by doing live performances. Perhaps the point was that for Bob it was just another year of touring and that''s why he can't remember a tour that 44 years ago. The other thought I had while looking at those years was, "what would this movie look like if it had been filmed in any of those subsequent years?" We really just had a look into about 17 of the thousands of shows listed in those credits, it's fairly remarkable what he has done if you think about it along those terms.

I liked reading the dates and looking for concerts I was there for.

 

The road never ends for him

 

I saw this on Thursday night at our wonderful TIFF Lightbox Theatre with a cool little group of Dylan diehards!
We all loved it!
It was cool to see all those pictures you've seen for years come to life with actual footage!

I really enjoyed it and it made me wish that I had been able to see the tour when it came to Toronto. That was the night that the footage at Lightfoot's house was shot (after the Maple Leaf Gardens show)

Wonderful!

 

Debunking the Four Big Lies at the Heart of Martin Scorsese’s ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’

 

He's just a Song and Dance man........ so just goes to show most of the year for all those years that's exactly what he has been doing... what a guy.... "it's all ashes".....

 

I took this as meant to directly accompany Ginsberg's final quote about going forth and spreading your creativity to the world for all your days, or whatever it was. In that context, it was very affecting for me.

 

I watched this last night with my wife, who is (or was) not a Dylan fan. She was transfixed by his live performances, especially Oh, Sister and Hurricane. I've always loved this material and greatly wished I had seen this tour live (though I was only 11 years old at the time).

My wife and I had a spirited conversation this morning about why Dylan has always been so remarkable. How he always does everything against his own blueprint and can quickly reinvent himself with shining results. And the stories, which are poetry first. She never really recognized that the songs are a common thread of chronicles, regardless of the style.

 

The live Hattie Caroll was wild, a foreshadowing of Bob's 1976 vocals. I thought he was slightly tentative on Hurricane, he always stayed at the mike, lots of checking the players.
Favorite moment has to be when he tries to play his mind games with Joan and she gives him the needle.

I think the last time I saw Dylan actually make eye contact with anyone was the shrug in The Last Waltz.

 

That's a great bit with Joan. Hurricane is all about the story. I loved how the film brought that to the forefront. Was it here that Dylan looks like he almost winks at the camera?

 

yea, I think so.

 

Great points. Exactly what I took away from it. I knew it was coming but it actually drew me in and I didn't want it to end. I've read Ratso's book which helps and the fabricated bits didn't bother me. He's always been a trickster and that tour was wholly unique and a true medicine show. Worth it just for the onstage bits alone. Couldn't agree more about Bob and Joan singing together. It's real in so many ways and I love when he says "We could sing together in our sleep." A great watch and I will revisit it for sure. Nothing bad about it. It was like unwrapping a present. He was a force of nature onstage in that era. The reworking of Hard Rain was amazing.

 

"Who wants to go get whipped? You know. And if you do wanna go get whipped, aren't you really being entertained?"

 

Finally got to see this and noticed that right in the opening titles Scorsese, Dylan, & Co. give a nice hint at what they are up to, as the title morphs from "Conjuring a Rolling Thunder Revue" to "... Re-Vue".

 

I agree! Exactly!! I always find watching him amazing I felt the same way when he said that about them singing together in our sleep That was so cool I always love the deep connection easiness and beautiful sound she brings to them together just makes it so cool. You can see the connection is so deep. It was super late when I watched but couldn't stop ha ha I am looking forward to watching it again too!