Perth Voice Interactive

BOB DYLAN in the mid-1960s personified the political commitments and feelings of his generation. 

That now-grey-haired generation flocked to the Luna on SX special preview screening to see Timothée Chalamet star in the project that took him, as producer, more than five years to get to the screen. 

Chalamet does not disappoint. 

He has Dylan’s hunched walking style and enigmatic style of speech down pat. 

He can also play the guitar and sing the songs well. 

He communicates the earthquake that Bob Dylan was.

There is no miming of performances in this movie and the producers went to extraordinary efforts in researching exactly what microphones were used in the original performances and recordings. 

Guitar manufacturer Gibson even produced replica instruments faithful to the era.

This creates an aura of authenticity.

The script was developed with Dylan’s participation, so the movie comes with the great man’s imprimatur.

The film covers two distinct periods of Dylan’s life: his early rambling period as an aspiring folk singer rising through the ranks in New York’s Greenwich Village (1961-1963) and then jumps to 1965 when he controversially left folk music behind and started moving into what was called folk-rock.

Dylan first made his mark as a politically engaged protest singer, but in the film the political milieu gets short shrift. 

We see important contemporary events on TV scenes, but people’s left-wing analyses, which created the entire environment that thrust Dylan forward are not forthcoming.

Passomg 

In passing we see Greenwich Village folk stars like Dave Van Ronk and Maria Muldaur. 

Dylan’s first New York girlfriend, Suze Rotolo (called Sylvie Russo in the film, at Dylan’s request) in her memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time, says that Van Ronk’s apartment was “the living room of a new generation of Bohemians”.

Van Ronk had significant socialist political commitments in both the Young Socialist League and the International Workers of the World but here we just see him drunkenly roaring in arguments about folk versus country music.

Rotolo also had serious left-wing involvement but in the film that is mentioned once in passing. 

In fact, it was her influence that opened Dylan’s eyes to the civil rights movement and the political struggle unfolding in the USA. 

Instead, A Complete Unknown centres on Dylan’s tumultuous love life, in particular his relationship with Rotolo and his competing relationship with Joan Baez. 

Rotolo’s 1963 abortion, which marked the end of her time with Dylan is not mentioned. 

Dylan’s final, awful falling out with Rotolo, self-pityingly described in his song Ballard in Plain D is nowhere in sight.

Another thing absent is Dylan’s use of drugs. 

Dylan was heavily stoned for many of his concerts and used heroin to relieve his inner demons, but there’s no sign of that here.

Dylan has been labelled for years as inscrutable and A Complete Unknown reinforces that mystique. 

We see him squirming as his fame grows and he rebels against the youthful scene that was itself rebelling. 

Why he finds it so difficult to express his feelings while being able to write eloquent songs is not explored.

The film’s climax comes at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, bringing to life all the stories that have grown up about that event. 

We see Dylan snarling out the lyrics of Like a Rolling Stone, which includes the line that gives the movie its title.

We also see the crowd booing and Pete Seeger and other folk scene luminaries fighting to shut down the music amid general mayhem. 

Nearly all of that is mythical but makes for exciting cinema.

Timothée Chalamet and director James Mangold have created a fascinating film in A Complete Unknown. 

However, ultimately Bob Dylan escapes understanding. 

After two hours the audience has no insight into why he can’t commit to the women in his life. 

He is as completely unknown at the end as he was at the beginning.

by BARRY HEALY