Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

Being a child of the 60's and having an older sister and brother who sang/played in folk groups, of course I was a Bob Dylan fan. Obviously, I followed his career through the 60's and 70's as he was one of the biggest stars in the world at the time. But, for whatever reason (most likely financial), I never had the chance to see him perform until a couple of years ago here in Vegas, and even for chameleon Bob, it was a rather un-Dylan like show - if there is such a thing. In any case, I have been a fan of the recordings and footage I have seen/heard of the Rolling Thunder Revue, so naturally I wanted to see this film.

The concept for the Revue was to bring together a number of Dylan's friends to put on a three hour extravaganza and that seemed to grow and take on a life of its own as time went on. Different people came and went and various folks changed their roles throughout the tour. This film purports to be an explanation of the phenomenon but it seems to simply be creating its own myth within a myth.

Along with current interviews with a number of the stars, including Dylan, Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and more, there is lots of great footage from the time - rehearsals, partying, random wacky conversations and all kinds of amazing songs and actual performances. The movie does not appear to be particularly linear and it doesn't always explain the situation it is showing. For example, there is a terrific scene of Patti Smith doing her thing - a mix of poetry and rock'n'roll (even without Lenny Kaye) - but I still don't know where this was or why it happened - maybe a kind of tour announcement party? I love a behind-the-scenes moment with Patti referencing Superman comix in a wild conversation/performance with a bemused Dylan.

No matter what or where, there are always multitudes of hangers-on, reminiscent of the Don't Look Back movie and it appears that people are camping it up for the film at times. Other times a performer is highlighted - for example, the exotic violinist is prominent as well as quite talented - and looks incredible. Mick Ronson surprisingly is not singled out, although he was a well known rock star at the time and he is fantastic and weirdly out of place simultaneously. Joan Baez is one of the folks who plays to the camera, even to the point of dressing up like Bob - which she did surprisingly well - or maybe not surprisingly, considering their history.

Dylan himself looks completely, wonderfully mad and/or violently pissed off during most of the concert footage, and there is a weird scene of someone f'king with him on stage during a song, although you can never see who. He drives the RV himself a lot of the time, which I found surprising for some reason. Of course, he never really opens up, but there is some neat, candid footage of him from the time as well as the cryptic, current interviews.

There are some odd bits'n'pieces that are fascinating, like footage of the Shocking Blue which was supposedly done by the filmmaker previous to this tour and interviews with Sharon Stone, who claims to have seen the Revue with her mom while wearing a Kiss t-shirt and says that's where Bob got the idea for his white-face makeup. But then I come to find out that much of the modern parts of the movie are complete fiction - here is a great article that supposedly debunks some of the film's claims, which kinda makes the movie all that much more entertaining, and all that much more Dylan-esque.

The concert footage is really what anyone will want to watch this for, but as I say, I kinda dig the "mocumentary" aspect of the film, as well. Definitely fun stuff and well worth watching!