Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

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.

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.

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.

I am a huge Bob Dylan fan. All of it. This era in particular. The choice of songs and variety of musicians was so unique and brilliant. The glaring omission of Mick Ronson is unforgivable. They don't even mention his name a single time! His guitar work during this tour provides a constant swirling tapestry of melody, solos, and originality that deserves a documentary on its own. Shame on Bob. RIP Mick!

The music and footage is great and could stand on its own. The rest as many have mentioned is pretentious drivel.

Documentaries are usually not my cup of tea. And Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019) is sadly one of them, with an annoying alternance of live performances of Bob Dylan (yes!!!) on the first hand, and monologues or conversations as superficial as pointless (no, no and no!) on the second hand. This is probably reserved for hardcore and unconditional fans of « Bob Dylan + Martin Scorsese », no matter what. For instance, we learn that Bob Dylan smokes with, I quote, an « European style », thanks to a John Doe. Really ?!!? Just missing a scene during which Bob Dylan reads an antique phone book, with a female blonde carefully listening and concluding with « that's interesting ». In fact, this scene almost exists: Bob Dylan discusses about mental marriage with a woman who obviously wants something more than this discussion. Thus, I gave up after 30 minutes and I left this documentary in background music despite the appalling blah-blah-blah. As a synthesis: not for me, and, a posteriori, a cd or a live Blu-Ray of Bob Dylan would have been undoubtedly a better choice.