Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

While I was watching 'Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese' I couldn't help but think: Hey, this live footage is outstanding; it sounds incredible and I'm not even a huge Dylan fan! But darn-it if all this backstory isn't boring as crap.

**two months pass**

When I sat down to write this short, relatively negative review in advance of recording a podcast about how this should have just been released as a concert movie, and the documentary aspects didn't work at all, I stumbled upon the information that nearly all the documentary elements were fiction. The director who shot the original footage? Just an actor playing a character named Stefan Van Dorp, a European filmmaker who claims to have directed the original footage (in reality, Dylan and a crew shot the footage for Dylan's own project, the 1978 feature 'Renaldo and Clara'). Sharon Stone? Digitally inserted into photos; never met Dylan on tour as a 17 or 19 year old or however old she was supposed to be in a past that never happened. There's no word on whether Dylan being inspired by the band KISS to paint his face white is a real factoid or not, and what does it matter? An entire fiction concocted by two elderly men that couldn't even be a fraction as interesting as what actually transpired in reality... now that is truly an artistic statement! +1 for effort, and by effort I mean: genuinely fooling me. Now and then, there's a fool such as I, bored and ready, willing and able to click the next thing I see featured on Netlifx that even remotely intrigues me at all.

My ex and I saw Bob Dylan perform in 1984, a superb concert. My ex was and is a huge fan of his and as he doesn't own a TV (yes really!) I invited him to pop over and watch this on Netflix. The music is of course fabulous, Desire is my favourite Dylan album so it was a treat to hear so much from it. On the whole we both really enjoyed this. For me, the highlights were Bob and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac's graveside. his interactions with Joan Baez (where they are talking about each marrying other people - wow), Scarlet Rivera (so talented) and the section about Ruben 'Hurricane' Carter. However, I wasn't too impressed with the fake present-day interviews. I felt they were distracting from the main event which for me was the footage from 1975 and the real interviews. This made my ex-husbands Father's Day mind, I'm sure he went home to listen to some of his vast Dylan music collection.

I found this Martin Scorsese 'story on film' as a Criterion Collection DVD at my public library. It apparently originated as a Netflix production.

I am pretty close to contemporary of the musicians profiled here, I am just 4 years younger than Dylan. I of course remember him well but I never really cared for his music. I was not, and am not, a fan.

Still, I really enjoyed this documentary. In 1975 Bob Dylan, his musicians, and some of his friends embarked on what they named the 'Rolling Thunder Review.' Why that name? Someone had described a series of thunder sounds during a storm as rolling thunder and Dylan just liked that name, nothing more significant than that, they explain.

The participants, in the end, thought the tour was very successful, it was fun and it allowed them to share their poetry and music with many. But financially, it was not. They played in mostly smaller venues and often receipts were not sufficient to cover the expenses.

Bob Dylan always drove the bus from site to site, at least that is what is depicted. He and Joan Baez were in their mid-30s and had a very close relationship, and loved to harmonize in song.

My favorite was Scarlet Rivera who, on the tour, was called The Queen of Swords. She was a marvelous violinist and was part of the band, often standing adjacent to Dylan as she played her accompaniment.

There are several fictional stories included, the most interesting involves Sharon Stone meeting Dylan when she was still a teenager, and joined the tour. Not as a musician but she just did odd jobs, all this before she started her acting career. And we find out, it was all fiction. Dylan and Stone never met back then.

I admit, I used the fast-forward through most of the Dylan performances, his singing just grates on my nerves. But that didn't take away from the overall impact of the film, really enjoyable to "peek behind the curtain" during those years that I was starting my own career and my children were being born in 1969 through 1976.

Stories told about Bob Dylan are almost as old as the man himself and it will not be me who claims to unravel the real from the unreal or the interesting from the uninteresting. In the same way there will be many arguing for what is so or not so in this wondrous extravaganza, but it will not be me. The original footage included here is of far higher quality, both technically and artistically, than we had any right to expect and if it is woven imaginatively, so much the better. I don't recall Dylan ever looking as animated as here on stage, nor perhaps as consistently happy but more importantly knocking out the songs so very well. This is a fantastic (even if possibly fantastical) film which I enjoyed from beginning to end and if someone wants to pick apart the Sharon Stone or Hurricane sequences, let them I don't care. No fan of Bob Dylan will not want to see this. No fan of Bob Dylan will (or at least should) be disappointed with this extremely well made tribute to the man and record of a certain time.

Some people say that Dylan was at his very best when he did the RTR tour, and it's probably true; his four-hour movie ,"Renaldo and Clara" featured numerous live performances but there was too much in it that should have been edited : thus it was a flop at the box office and one dreamed of a compilation of the songs performed by Dylan and his first -class cast.Some sequences (Jack Kerouac's grave, the Indians ) were already included in Dylan-directed work,but Martin Scorcese made them aborbing and we are treated of the delight of incredible live performance (Dylan in close shot seems possessed ,almost frightening); "the lonesome death of Hattie Caroll ",notably ,is given hard-rocking treatment which makes the version on "the times they are a changin" look like a demo ;and to sing it along with "Hurricane" connects the links of the chain .There are interventions (Dylan ,Baez, Scarlet Rivera , david Mansfield) filmed some forty years after the event .Like in "Renaldo and Clara" , (remember the title and "the woman in white" ) ,all the artists have pseuds :for instance Joni Mitchell is "the musician" and they laude her courage to perform unreleased material -"coyote" is performed in a hotel room with support from Dylan and McGuinn.All the movie is absorbing and there's an interesting parallel with the political events of those years ;the only moments I could do without are Sharon Stone 's sequences which are a little off the subject ;on the other hand , all that concerns the boxer is proof positive that music can right a few wrongs.