"Listen man, he's a really important person nowadays..."
The DVD opens: with a nice '3D photo' (don't know a better way to describe it) for the backdrop of the menu with the choices to view the movie, the photo gallery, bonus features and the chapter index.
The Movie: Things start off with the interviewer (who is a Dylan lookalike and singer of the Dylan tribute band, Highway 61 Revisited, Joel Gilbert) driving up to Woodstock, NY, to meet Feinstein to interview him. It would be beyond the scope of this review to tell you all the stuff that Feinstein tells and shows, but it's all very interesting. Mind you, it's not all about Bob. Feinstein tells about his career and photographing techniques. Barry Feinstein shows pictures and tells the stories behind them, most of them are fascinating, I liked it a lot. The background music is very Dylan like (no wonder it's by the Dylan tribute band) and fits the pictures well. By the way, the scenes where Gilbert reenacts Dylan's motorcycle accident are pretty funny. The movie clocks in at almost 2 hrs, but it never gets boring.
In between the interview with Feinstein, we get interviews with other people who tell something about Dylan, like Mary Lou Pastural, who tells about the time in Woodstock around 1963, and Dylan's relationship with Joan Baez. Gilbert also meets up with D.A. Pennebaker who created the film, Don't Look Back (1965) and also filmed on the 1966 tour. They talk about the film he made of that tour, Eat the Document, that was never officially released. Even AJ Weberman makes an appearance.
The Photo Galleries: You can pick Early Dylan, 1966 tour, 1971 Bangladesh and 1974 tour. The photos are presented as a slide show. I have not seen a lot of these before, so especially the 1966 (as I am a big fan of this tour, I assume most Dylan fans are) photos are very welcome. Early Dylan and Bangladesh are just a few pictures, while the other two galleries take over 10 mins (66) and 8 mins (74) to view!
The Bonus Features: are 2 interviews, one with Bruce Langhorne, who played on Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and Izzy Young who founded the folklore center in 1957, which was ground zero for the West Village folk scene. Dylan spent much time there playing instruments, listening to albums, meeting other musicians, and writing songs on Young's typewriter. Especially the Young interview is very interesting, he tells about Dylan coming over to the center and Dylan's influence on folk music at the time.
All in all, a great DVD for Dylan fans, the photos alone are worth it, and the documentary is fascinating. What more can you ask for? |
