by rogerco on Sun 26th Jan 2025 Carlton Okehampton

Fantasticly Good

Summary

Rings true in all areas, even if the truth might have been bent a little.

Full review

For anyone older than late 60s you will remember some of these events and the music and this'll take you right back and put you there (where you almost certainly weren't, but were in spirit)

For anyone over 40 you will know some, or many, of the songs and have heard of some of the events - this will give you a real context for the music and a feel for how it was, and just maybe help you realise that not much has changed and that those 'protest' songs still have real resonance today.

For anyone under 40 you might think he is just some old singer your grandparents were into - you show definitely see this film in the same spirit as in the open scenes Dylan pays a visit to the dying Woody Guthrie (an even older american folk protest singer). Go to the movie to get inspired by the continuity of history - you are facing the same stuff they were in 61, find your voice and tell the old generation to get out of the way  if they can't lend a hand to change the times. You have the potential power - please rise up and use it.

The film is excellent as a piece of film making - first class performances, direction, lighting and camerawork, sound, set design - everything seems true.  And then the story is compelling, but not in the starry eyed usual bio-pic way. It moves rapidly through the period 1961 to 1965 and then stops - these are the very years and songs you need to know about to understand why Dylan is so important