hardercore

I'm surprised a search returned no results for this! As a huge Bob Dylan fan, I really enjoyed this concept film (The term "experiment" is too harsh and unfair a word to be used here), an astounding transcendence of the biopic genre and a witty, intelligent, ambitious character study that feels more complete than any number of linear, point-to-point biographical films that have come out in recent years. If for nothing else, see it for Cate Blanchett's mesmerising performance as Jude, the "Don't Look Back", "No Direction Home" Dylan of 1965/66. Has anybody else seen it, and care to share their take?

JPRaup

Really liked it when I saw in theaters. Then I watched No Direction Home and then watched I'm Not There again at home, and I loved it. Love the entire style of the film, really well done.

wendersfan

I saw it several weeks ago, and it's the best film released in 2007 I've seen so far. Really just outstanding in every conceivable way.

hardercore

Thought the little boy, Marcus Carl Franklin, was also exceptional. I wonder ... did he do his own singing?

Zodiac_Speaking

I thought it was good, but I didn't care for the Heath Ledger scenes. Blanchett was amazing as was Franklin, but I'm not a huge Dylan fan, so maybe it works better for those die hards. As is, it was good. Enjoyed the try of "experimenting" more than a normal pic.

Brain Stew

I found Gere to be the most boring. Blanchett did a great job, but I feel like so much of that was lifted from Don't Look Back and the Live 65/66 period is so overexposed I grew tired of it after awhile.

For me, Heath Ledger's was the most entertaining period. Dylan's 70s albums are my favorite, with Blood On the Tracks being the best. I was fascinated watching his marriage fall apart. I felt like this was the closest we came to the "real" Bob Dylan.

hardercore

The Gere/Billy The Kid scenes were the slowest moving of the film for sure, but the "Going To Acapulco" sequence was amazing and, for me, paid off the time spent with that particular character.

And I really enjoyed the Ledger segments -- as the emotional core of the movie, and the most grounded in humanity.

Joe Molotov

I'm not really a Dylan fan and I'm only vaguely aware of his history, but I still found this movie to be very impressive. I loved the scenes with Blanchett and I though the rest of it was very good too.

The Antipodean

Has it opened in NZ yet hardercore? I'm really dying to see it make it down here. The soundtrack is fantastic.

hardercore

I don't think it goes wide 'til February, but try some of your smaller, arthouse cinemas.

movieking

Saw this and really enjoyed it, but there is one part that I couldn't quite hear:

The Nature Boy

I really think that in ten years, this will be the only film remembered from 2007, which was actually a pretty good year for films. Marvelous stuff.

Jay G.

From wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan

PopcornTreeCt

I thought this thread would've gotten a bump with the DVD release. Well, here I am to do that. I really enjoyed the film. I didn't/still don't know much about Bob Dylan but the film worked for me. I think Haynes was pretty bold with what he was trying to do and accomplished it. This is just another reason why 2007 was so great for films.

JMcCraw

Are you serious? The ONLY film remembered? I really don't think so.

The Antipodean

The kind of movie I want to watch soon as I see it for a second time. Got the DVD and really want to watch it with the commentary soon.

Anyone else feel like perhaps the "other" Dylans were all reveries floating through the mind of Blanchett's Dylan as he/she was slowly falling apart before the crash? I know there's no real "structure" to the shifting stories, but toward the end I really got the feeling they might all be linked that way.

Either way, amazing work. How Haynes didn't get nominated for Best Director is beyond me.

Tracer Bullet

Well, uh, I didn't like it very much. I just thought it didn't have much to say and used Dylan's music to paper over that fact. It was pretty and some of the performances were amazing, but overall it left me feeling cold.

sevenarts

I absolutely loved this as well, and it was among my favorite films of last year. A lot of people seemed thrown off by focusing on Dylan exclusively and complaining that it's not much of a Dylan bio, but then it was never intended to be that. There's a lot going on here, not least a pastiche of cinematic and musical references, all riffing on the nature of art and its relationship to the artist who makes it. Haynes confirmed his genius with this film, if it hadn't been cemented already with the brilliantly understated suburban body horror of Safe

Jack Straw

Saw his last night. I'm very familiar with much of dylan's music, but not much about his life. So the movie was a mixed bag of great music and characters switching back and forth some of whom I could identify as being related to the movie's subject and other stories that didn't seem connected or resonate. This will have to be viewed more times to better understand and appreciate the characters and meaning of their circumstances. After reading Ebert's review, I get the sense we aren't supposed to know that much more after the film's viewing.

NoirFan

I thought it was excellent, a film that really benefits from repeat viewings. There's just way too much to absorb in a single sitting. I've seen it four times, and each viewing uncovers new layers and references to savor. The only sequence that struck the wrong chord for me was the embarrassing "Mr. Jones" scene, which was laughably literal, something Dylan almost never is. A rare misstep in an otherwise spellbinding film. The double disc soundtrack is worth picking up as well, the crowning jewel of which is Jim James and Calexico's stirring "Goin' to Acapulco".

auto

That song is absolutely fantastic.