No Direction Home
The director of Raging Bull and Goodfellas now brings us a two part documentary on music icon Bob Dylan. The documentary features concert footage and rare interviews with the enigmatic Dylan himself. More often, however, we hear the words of Dylan's contemporaries. I certainly enjoyed watching this because I am a Dylan fan, but the documentary was a bit frenetic. It seemed to flit from scene to scene, forward and backward in time, cutting in and out of interviews and concerts without much in the way of context; there was no continuity to it; no overarching organization either of theme or chronology. If you are a Dylan fan, you will probably like this documentary; if you’re not, you’ll probably be a bit bored and maybe even a bit confused at times. Certain aspects of Dylan's career and persona are hinted at but not fully developed. As a biographical documentary, the production is somewhat lacking; nor does it particularly stand out as a work of art. It seemed to me a rather typical music documentary: decent, but nothing phenomenal. The DVD allows the viewer to select "performances" by Dylan, but these amount to nothing more than clips from concerts embedded in the documentary itself. The DVD would come more highly recommended if only it included these full performances. No Direction Home aired on PBS September 26th and 27th
(2005) and is available for purchase from Amazon using the link above. [ Website Table of Contents | Literary Resources | Bob Dylan ] |
