If you have a similar taste in music to me, you will know as soon as you see the opening credits that this movie is going to be a pure musical treat. Performers in this film include Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Peter Paul and Mary, Buffy Sainte Marie, Michael Bloomfield, Mississippi John Hurt and Paul Butterfield. If I had one complaint about the music it would be that we only see and hear Johnny Cash perform a brief snippet of I Walk the Line and other than that he is largely absent from the film. However there is no other complaint about the music in this film, it is near perfect as music can be. One of the highlights of the film is Bob Dylan's incredible performance of Mr. Tambourine Man. Though many with more traditionally great voices than Bob Dylan have performed this song no one sings it quite like Bob. This is a mysterious and magically unexplainable song and Bob's rough voice just heightens this quality perfectly. We also are treated to one of Bob Dylan's earliest pure rock and roll performances. At a festival that was all about folk music, Bob performers the radical Maggie's Farm. This is not only a rock and roll song but a proud and defiant announcement that Dylan was leaving the folk scene for rock and roll. The performance of this song is pretty darn hard rocking for its time and one can only imagine how the audience at this festival felt hearing this from some one who was know as one of the top folk singers of his day. Though this performance has found its way onto various rock and roll documentaries, it is still incredible every time I see it. Though Bob had abounded political protest songs at this time and all of his performances here have no political overtones at all, Peter, Paul and Mary perform some of Bob's past protest songs including The Times They Are A Changing and Blowing in the Wind. Peter, Paul and Mary seem to be favorites of director Murray Lerner, as we get a lot of songs from them. Luckily they sound extremely good here. Joan Baez is certainly also in top form here as her voice has never sounded better and her song choices are perfect. Paul Butterfield and Mississippi John Hurt show us what the blues are all about in their magnificent performances, while Michael Bloomfield gives us a new style of white blues-rock. All this shows that the blues can never be defined or understood they are just a part of the people who play the music.
This movie also brings up some very thought-provoking moments. It discusses how while folk music is a genre of music for and by the people, how the iconography of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez contradicts that. This movie discusses whether this iconography is good or bad from various positions. There are some audience members, who feel that the worship of them takes away from the relatability and realness of their music. Despite that many other audience members go insane when Bob takes the stage and hound Joan for her autograph. It is interesting to the contrasting ways the two deal with this bigger than life status. Joan finds it sweet and healthy (although she feels a bath wouldn't hurt some of those kids), and she jokes while signing autographs that the only affect this has on her is "a bloated ego." Bob on the other hand is obviously uncomfortable with this. He rushes to his car and hides from the people. I get the feeling this isn't out of rudeness, but rather that the situation and the crowds make him so uncomfortable that like a scared little child he rushes to safety. Then again I have social anxiety so maybe I am imparting who I am on to who Bob Dylan is. Another thought provoking part of the movie comes from Son House discussing the blues and how he feels this new rocking electric type blues goes against what the music is all about. Masterful editing (editors on this film include Alan Heim, Michael Marantz and Gordon Quinn) and great direction intercut this with blues-rock musician Michael Bloomfield talking about his type of blues music to create an intelligent and thought provoking debate between two great musicians. This movie also calls into question the counter-culture movement and whether these college kids truly understood what they were talking about. Unlike on the previous issues this film seems to give a distinct answer to that question. A middle-age man states that he approves of the young people questioning his generation, because it shows they are thinking. Joan Baez says that she believes the kids know what the singers and songwriters are talking about. Pete Seager has the best comment on this stating that this festival is where "Everyone gathers together to be a non-conformist."
Unfortunately this incredible film did not and still doesn't receive the attention it deserves. One reason sometimes given for this is that the justifiably famous D.A. Pennybaker documentary about Bob Dylan (also featuring Joan Baez) was released a month before this film. Hopefully more people will discover the excellent movie this is and enjoy it as much as I did.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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