Summer Concert Series: 65 Revisited (2006)

I am sure many of my readers are very familiar with the excellent Bob Dylan documentary directed by D.A. Pennebaker, Don't Look Back (1965). Well more was filmed for that great movie than was used in the final film. Much more. Because of Pennebaker released a whole feature film, mostly made of unused footage from Don't Look Back four decades later. If you want to see this film, it does appear as a bonus feature on the Don't Look Back Criterion DVDs and Blu-rays.

The major difference between 65 Revisited and Don't Look Back is that in this film the focus is more on the music. With Don't Look Back Pennebaker explained that he did not want to make a film about Bob Dylan as a musician but rather as who the poet was behind his poetry. Because of this in that film, clips of Bob performing songs were used but rarely whole songs. 65 Revisited lets the songs play from beginning to end, including some we just got clips of in Don't Look Back. These performances show Bob at his best. Not only are the songs he is performing, some of his best songs of the era, but he performs they with such joy. He just looks so comfortable (something rare to see Bob being on camera) on the stage and is putting his full heart and soul into these songs. In Don't Look Back Bob stated that people went to his shows for entertainment not because they were great art. This concert footage could be the perfect argument for that. While the songs he is performing are great works of art, these performances show that he is as great of an entertainer as he is an artist. Dylan fans like myself will eat this footage up as it is truly indispensable. Not all the music is concert footage though. There is plenty of great footage of Bob and Joan Beaz singing songs together for themselves between shows. These songs are just pure fun.

The non-music footage is equally indispensable. Bob gets one of his best wisecracks in this film as he tells a reporter that asks him "Where do you see yourself in the future," "Sleeping." I also love his interactions with some young fans. I especially love some young girls chasing the train Bob is in waving to him. These scenes seem like the opposite of the Bob Dylan we see in Festival (1967), who hides from the crowds. It is just as nice to see this side of Bob.

It is hard to believe a movie comprised of outtakes from another movie could possible be this good. However this is not only a great companion piece to Don't Look Back, but a fantastic film in its own right, that can be considered a work of cinematic art on its own terms.

-Michael J. Ruhland