Film Review: "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese" (2019).

From Netflix, Martin Scorsese and Bob Dylan comes Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. This pseudo-documentary film directed by Scorsese. The film captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, 'Rolling Thunder' is a one of a kind experience, from Scorsese. It is composed of both fictional and non-fictional material, covering Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour.

The film is Scorsese's second film on Bob Dylan, following 2005's No Direction Home. The bulk of Rolling Thunder Revue is compiled of outtakes from Dylan's 1978 film Renaldo and Clara, which was filmed in conjunction with the tour. The documentary features contemporary interviews with prominent figures of the tour such as Dylan, Joan Baez, Sam Shepard, Ronee Blakley, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Roger McGuinn, Ronnie Hawkins, Larry Sloman, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, as well as archival interviews with Scarlet Rivera and Allen Ginsberg. According to The New York Times, the film also features fictional interviews of actors portraying characters who were not actually involved in the tour, including Martin Von Haselberg portraying the fictional filmmaker Stefan Van Dorp, Sharon Stone playing a fictionalized version of herself, and Michael Murphy reprising his role as Jack Tanner from the 1988 miniseries Tanner '88. Stefan van Dorp is a fictional character and does not exist in real life. He was created for this move, and was played by Bette Midler's husband, Martin Von Haselberg. The film does not differentiate between the fictional and factual accounts, and even Dylan himself refers to the fictional characters in his interviews, leaving the audience to guess which parts of the film are authentic and which are fabricated.

Scorsese has finally gotten around to doing another one for Dylan what he did for the man back in 2005. Fans of Dylan and others ambitious enough to sit through Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese will discover early on that it yields no revelatory light to speak of on its subject. But it's as good as it gets in pseudo-music-documentaries. It creates a portrait that is unique and yet finally leaves Dylan shrouded in mystery, which is where he properly lives. It's a document that will satiate Dylan fans over repeated viewings and should bring naysayers into the Dylan fold. Framed by tons of rare footage, the film penetrates the soul of one of modern music's greatest icons - at least as much as Dylan will let us. Anyone with more than a superficial interest in rock music and its possibilities should either see this film or own it. Scorsese's superbly researched pseudo-documentary brings it all back home, confirming Dylan as the troubadour genius of sixties and seventies rock 'n' roll. To narrate selected details from this journey from the Greenwich Village coffee houses to New England to parts of Canada we get generous, attention-span respecting clips of Dylan performances and reminiscences from carefully selected talking heads.

Simon says Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese receives:

Also, see my review for Silence.