Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
starring: Bob Dylan, Martin Scorsese
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Product Description:
Studio: Paramount Home VideoRelease Date: 08/12/2008
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.
More for the Dylanologist
Studio: Paramount Home VideoRelease Date: 08/12/2008
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.
More for the Dylanologist
 No Direction Home: The Soundtrack |  Chronicles: Volume One (paperback edition) |  Bob Dylan Scrapbook |
 Don't Look Back |  The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series |  The Last Waltz |
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- I Am Not Even A Big Dylan Fan
I like Bob Dylan's music somewhat, but I would be far from being a real fan.I also understand his general place in pop culture and the history of music.So I decided to watch this.
I am so happy I did, it is an incredible movie down by Scorsese.Many things I did not know (though fans may have already known) and it was put together beautifully.
An engaging look at the man and the legend surrounding him during a time I did not know much about.
Highly recommended ... Read More
Rating: - rEVIEW OFMartin Scorsese film on Bob Dylan
This disc was purchased by me for my daughter who grew up in the Dylan
age.It has received numerous awards and is one of the best that Martin
Scorsese has ever produced.She is very pleased with it and will watch it for years to come - this is what she and I call a "keeper".
Rating: - No Direction Home
I enjoyed this sometimes long but very entertaining documentary on Bob Dylan. If, like me, you are interested in his early days, up to the time of his motorcycle accident, then you will find it, as I did, riveting. It covers his best albums, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61, Blond on Blond and the early folk stuff. The interviews with Dylan and his contemporaries are very revealing.
A must for the Dylan fans.
Rating: 
- Interesting and Informative
I only ever knew a few of his songs but knew little about him or his actual impact on music in america and the world back in the 60's. Very talented man and some great music too.
Rating: - What a great film
I loved this movie! So much information, put together in such an interesting way.Martin Scorsese really gathered, and made, the perfect footage to tell about Bob Dylan's amazing life. And Dylan is a great interviewee. I was so entertained, I am just glad that it had two parts.
- I Am Not Even A Big Dylan FanI like Bob Dylan's music somewhat, but I would be far from being a real fan.I also understand his general place in pop culture and the history of music.So I decided to watch this.
I am so happy I did, it is an incredible movie down by Scorsese.Many things I did not know (though fans may have already known) and it was put together beautifully.
An engaging look at the man and the legend surrounding him during a time I did not know much about.
Highly recommended ... Read More
- rEVIEW OFMartin Scorsese film on Bob DylanThis disc was purchased by me for my daughter who grew up in the Dylan
age.It has received numerous awards and is one of the best that Martin
Scorsese has ever produced.She is very pleased with it and will watch it for years to come - this is what she and I call a "keeper".
- No Direction HomeI enjoyed this sometimes long but very entertaining documentary on Bob Dylan. If, like me, you are interested in his early days, up to the time of his motorcycle accident, then you will find it, as I did, riveting. It covers his best albums, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61, Blond on Blond and the early folk stuff. The interviews with Dylan and his contemporaries are very revealing.
A must for the Dylan fans.
- Interesting and InformativeI only ever knew a few of his songs but knew little about him or his actual impact on music in america and the world back in the 60's. Very talented man and some great music too.
- What a great filmI loved this movie! So much information, put together in such an interesting way.Martin Scorsese really gathered, and made, the perfect footage to tell about Bob Dylan's amazing life. And Dylan is a great interviewee. I was so entertained, I am just glad that it had two parts.
