A Complete Unknown

The Bob Dylan Biopic

I saw the new Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” this evening. Let me start by saying I enjoyed the film. I’m in my 60s so I’m very familiar with Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and the many other stars depicted in this much anticipated film, but the film has massive shortcomings. The film’s focus is on Bob Dylan’s need to record his own songs, and then the need not to actually perform them. In one scene Dylan is on stage with Joan Baez, and the crowd demands he sing Blowin in The Wind. He berates the crowd suggesting that it’s a concert not a bar, the audience doesn’t get to make requests. Dylan was quickly all done with his early folk songs that made him rich and famous. He wanted to move on and never play them again. His audience felt differently. If this film achieved anything, it was to show us Bob Dylan was a rather obnoxious fellow. It didn’t do much to demonstrate his greatness, either as a song writer, or a performer. The film assumes the audience is familiar with the music and the folk music scene of the 1960s. Most of America is not familiar, which is why few people under the age of 55 are going to appreciate this film.