Bob Dylan as Elvis Presley

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2008)

I will avoid any comments on the cinematography, acting and so on. Let's say I understand nothing of these. I will just share with whoever cares to read what I got from the movie. I got the following: First/ Bob Dylan wanted to be Elvis Presley. He wanted to sing songs in front of many people. He knew very well he could not be exactly Elvis, since his abilities were of completely different kind, yet his ambition was just that: to become famous, sell records and stage shows. And because he was smart, he targeted a particular audience, actually two audiences at the same time: the working-class people who felt abused and needed an outlet of their anger, and the lovers of poetry, of all social stands, who were looking for what Elvis (or the Beatles) could not offer: lyrics rich in content, difficult to be interpreted and offering a lot to the imagination. Second/ Bob Dylan's "treason" of the mid-60s was a normal thing to do for an artist looking for new grounds to explore and new listeners to win. Especially when, in addition to being smart and ambitious, he was concerned - much more than the other pop stars of the day - with his ability to re-create himself and run away from the clutches of critics obsessed with plain and clear-cut categories. "Mr. Jones" who transcends the accusing BBC journalist and is retransfigured in the lovely, imaginary, artistic and politically minded French wife is the real focus of the movie - a matrix that gave shape to the six Dylans. Dylan spent long time running away from the Mr Joneses and because of them he tried to never "be there". Which explains why he was practically absent from a movie dedicated to him - a great choice and one that Dylan himself understandably approved. But Dylan is not there for a more general reason as well. The same conflict between the Elvis who wants fame and success and the true artist who wants freedom of expression is one valid for practically every creator - writer, musician, painter, etc. Thus, this is a movie about any really substantial artist of the last five hundred years with just the records of one Bob Dylan in the background. So if this is what the movie was all about, then I like it a lot.