Like many of my generation, I found my way to a movie theater on Christmas day to see the opening of the new Dylan film, A Complete Unknown. I'd read many of the reviews and seen the interviews with the actors, so I expected that the performances would be first rate, and the music would be worthy of its objectives. It was. We're going to see a few Oscars here before all the reactions die down. I knew that this film only represented some critical years in the rise of Bob Dylan and was glad that it didn't attempt to be a complete biography. I knew, too, that Dylan, himself had given his blessing to the film and wasn't critical of anything.
When history becomes a movie, many liberties are taken and facts altered for various reasons. Fortunately that didn't happen here. Yes, there were some changes made, and poetic license was taken here and there. But at its core, the film is sound and solid. For someone my age it can't help but be sentimental. It was such a heady time when the country was about to enter a full-time war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement was full swing.
To hear those topical songs, sung with the authenticity of acoustic instruments, was powerful. We suddenly went from novelty songs, early rock and roll, and teen idols to something so serious and true that the impact was revolutionary. Transformative, to be sure. Going electric was not that big disappointment for me and many of my friends. We loved Al Cooper's organ sound on Like a Rolling Stone.
So many of us picked up harmonicas and guitars and joined the movement. Our ethos had a sound tract now. We had new idols and most of all, the world was changing right in front of our eyes.
For me, the controversy of Dylan going electric was overblown. He still wrote and performed his music and that was all that mattered. Yes, there were purists who wanted folk festivals to remain acoustic and unsullied, but the times demanded much more. The film's color pallet is as warm and inviting as many of those small clubs and coffeehouses I recall from those days. I'm overjoyed that new generations will now be introduced to Bob Dylan and his music.
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