User reviews

A look at the life and works of the great Bob Dylan as told through interviews with people who worked with him. A very candid look at what goes on behind the scenes in the life of a forever-changing, hard-to-define genius. Covers several periods in his life, from the early-1960s to the 2000s.

I wasn't expecting much from this. The production seemed lo-fi, there's no narration or even an apparent narrative and the interviewees largely unknowns. It feels like a bunch of home movies strung together with people describing events. The fact that some of the music couldn't even be played, meaning the producers couldn't get the rights to play it, also made this seem a bit poor.

Yet, in spite of all this, and possibly because of all this, it works. The lo-fi, home movie-like production gives the film a rawness and honesty that you don't get with polished production. The interviewees may be unknowns but they worked with Dylan and have some interesting stories to tell, stories that provide insights into the works and character of Dylan. They're also not stories you'd likely to have heard elsewhere. Plus, being unknowns they're happy to speak their mind, which you probably wouldn't get from famous people, looking to protect their reputation and simply lavish Dylan with praise.

The lack of music in some segments is unfortunate but there's also some rare audio and video too.

Don't expect a comprehensive "This is the definitive Dylan" documentary - it's not meant to be that. This documentary largely assumes your already know a lot about Dylan and have already watched or read the definitive take on him. This is there to fill in some of the many missing pieces.

Bob Dylan Revealed (2011)

** (out of 4)

Here's another Bob Dylan documentary from director Joel Gilbert and this one here was clearly put together to try and cash-in on Dylan's 70th birthday since it did get quite a bit of media attention. I've been quite positive on Gilbert's previous Dylan documentaries because they featured interviews with people that sometime get overlooked or not questioned at all. The problem with BOB Dylan REVEALED is that for the most part it just features interviews from these previous discs thrown together. We get several periods of Dylan's career covered including his rise to fame, going electric, his brief retirement to Woodstock, the comeback, the religious period and then the Never Ending Tour. Mickey Jones, Rob Stoner, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Barry Feinstein, Scarlet Rivera, Winston Watson, Joel Selvin, Jerry Wexler and A.J. Webberman are among the people interviewed. If you haven't seen any of the previous films then you might be more entertained by this thing but once you've seen the complete films it's hard to get too excited or interested in this cut down footage that was just thrown together. There are a few new interview clips that I'm guessing were just outtakes from the earlier movies and we at least get some archival interviews with Dylan thrown in but in the end it really doesn't matter. This certainly isn't a horrid film but it's just rather pointless if you've already seen it.