Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
starring: Bob Dylan, Martin Scorsese
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Product Description:
Songwriter. Rocker. Rebel. Legend.He is one of the most influential inspiring and ground-breaking musicians of our time. Now Academy Award®-nominated director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas 1990) brings us the extraordinary story of Bob Dylan's journey from roots in Minnesota to his early days in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village to his tumultuous ascent to pop stardom in 1966. Joan Baez Allen Ginsberg and others share their thoughts and feelings about the young singer who would change popular music forever. With never-before-seen footage exclusive interviews and rare concert performances it's the definitive portrait fans the world over have been anticipating for decades; the untold story of a living American legend.System Requirements:Running Time 207 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 097360310542 Manufacturer No: 031054
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
Songwriter. Rocker. Rebel. Legend.He is one of the most influential inspiring and ground-breaking musicians of our time. Now Academy Award®-nominated director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas 1990) brings us the extraordinary story of Bob Dylan's journey from roots in Minnesota to his early days in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village to his tumultuous ascent to pop stardom in 1966. Joan Baez Allen Ginsberg and others share their thoughts and feelings about the young singer who would change popular music forever. With never-before-seen footage exclusive interviews and rare concert performances it's the definitive portrait fans the world over have been anticipating for decades; the untold story of a living American legend.System Requirements:Running Time 207 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 097360310542 Manufacturer No: 031054
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: 
- A fantastic look into the life of Bob Dylan!
For you Bob Dylan fans this is a must have. This DVD tells the whole story & then some. I was impressed with the history of music & how Dylan was inspired by the past. His musical genius is incredible and inspiring.
Rating: - Electrifying!
I'm not a music connoisseur so I can't offer any pithy comments about his musicianship or knowledgeable comments about Bob Dylan's place within the broader context of American music. But I well remember the first time I heard his voice over a car radio. It was "Positively 4th Street". I had never heard those kinds of words before, sung by that kind of voice, and in that tone of voice! I didn't know why or to whom he was flinging those bitter, condemning phrases, but I knew in my heart that he was ... Read More
Rating: - Best Documentary I've seen
This was not just a 2 DVD set focusing on Bob Dylan.This was an overview of the music that shaped his life and music.They cover many different sounds and genres, and show how it affected Dylan's changing sound throughout the years.
Don't expect a 2 hour concert of Dylan. Expect something amazing, a musical history lesson.
Rating: - His Direction Home
Over the past several months or so I have spent some time going over the musical influences back in the early 1960's that had an effect onmy political development as I was growing up, or that just caught my ear. Not surprisingly many of those same musical influences still resonate today. Of those early 1960's influences none probably was greater than that of Bob Dylan, no only because he had a different sound but because his super-charged protest-oriented lyrics `spoke' to me. That Dylan could only ... Read More
Rating: 
- Are All Documentaries Mere Propaganda?
Way back in high school, I had a History teacher, Mr. Bailey, whose pet peeve was documentaries. He said that although the most interesting documentaries cover subjects that are controversial that there really isn't any such thing as objective reporting since bias is unavoidable and inevitable. He said further that you can usually determine the prejudice of the filmmaker within seconds of the start.
I think of this argument whenever I watch a documentary and found it to be generally true with ... Read More
- A fantastic look into the life of Bob Dylan!For you Bob Dylan fans this is a must have. This DVD tells the whole story & then some. I was impressed with the history of music & how Dylan was inspired by the past. His musical genius is incredible and inspiring.
- Electrifying!I'm not a music connoisseur so I can't offer any pithy comments about his musicianship or knowledgeable comments about Bob Dylan's place within the broader context of American music. But I well remember the first time I heard his voice over a car radio. It was "Positively 4th Street". I had never heard those kinds of words before, sung by that kind of voice, and in that tone of voice! I didn't know why or to whom he was flinging those bitter, condemning phrases, but I knew in my heart that he was ... Read More
- Best Documentary I've seenThis was not just a 2 DVD set focusing on Bob Dylan.This was an overview of the music that shaped his life and music.They cover many different sounds and genres, and show how it affected Dylan's changing sound throughout the years.
Don't expect a 2 hour concert of Dylan. Expect something amazing, a musical history lesson.
- His Direction HomeOver the past several months or so I have spent some time going over the musical influences back in the early 1960's that had an effect onmy political development as I was growing up, or that just caught my ear. Not surprisingly many of those same musical influences still resonate today. Of those early 1960's influences none probably was greater than that of Bob Dylan, no only because he had a different sound but because his super-charged protest-oriented lyrics `spoke' to me. That Dylan could only ... Read More
- Are All Documentaries Mere Propaganda?Way back in high school, I had a History teacher, Mr. Bailey, whose pet peeve was documentaries. He said that although the most interesting documentaries cover subjects that are controversial that there really isn't any such thing as objective reporting since bias is unavoidable and inevitable. He said further that you can usually determine the prejudice of the filmmaker within seconds of the start.
I think of this argument whenever I watch a documentary and found it to be generally true with ... Read More
