“You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand,” Bob Dylan sang on “Ballad of a Thin Man” in 1965, pitying and condemning journalists who know when one thing is going on, however “don’t know what it is.” As such, A Complete Unknown director James Mangold could also be able to scoff at all the pieces beneath this paragraph: A author getting misplaced in notes and information may miss the story he’s making an attempt to inform along with his new film about younger Dylan, which was made with the approval of the mercurial recording artist and Nobel Prize winner.
Of course a fictionalized model of an individual’s life goes to take some liberties. But for Bob Dylan, taking liberties is the entire concept. (What’s the identify of the film once more?) Separating fantasy from man is one among Mangold’s main themes: At one level, Elle Fanning’s character, Sylvie Russo, confronts Timothée Chalamet’s Dylan for by no means speaking about his previous and even confirming that his actual identify is Robert Zimmerman. Naturally, Russo herself is simply partially actual; she’s based mostly on Suze Rotolo, who really did date Dylan throughout his rise to fame.
But not like Todd Haynes in his extra fantastical Dylan rumination, I’m Not There, Mangold maintains a sensible model, specializing in Dylan’s evolution from wide-eyed folkie to electrified rock pioneer. As such, it’s not unreasonable to finish the movie by hitting the web to see what’s actual, and what Mangold made up. Rather than make you waste an entire afternoon (and to do one thing with all my ineffective Dylan information), listed here are all of your doubtless questions answered in a single spot.
Did Bob Dylan actually sneak into Woody Guthrie’s hospital room at nighttime and play him “Song to Woody”?
No. But assembly Woody Guthrie was on the high of Dylan’s agenda when he got here to New York, a lot in order that he confirmed up on the Guthrie house. He later met his idol in New Jersey, at a personal house the place Guthrie usually spent weekends throughout his sickness. That encounter impressed “Song to Woody.” Pete Seeger was not at that assembly, and it appears the one precise harmonica Woody Guthrie gave to Dylan was a metaphorical one.
Was Pete Seeger actually placed on trial for singing a tune?
The timeline is fudged a bit within the movie, however Seeger really was questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. He didn’t plead the Fifth Amendment, which might have protected him, and as a substitute refused to cooperate. This led to a contempt of Congress cost and an eventual jury trial. Seeger was discovered responsible and given a jail sentence, which was later overturned. To say, as Edward Norton does within the movie, that he was arrested for singing is perhaps a stretch, however his actions as an activist folks singer had been what obtained the federal government’s consideration within the first place—so there’s actually some logic to it. Years later, Seeger was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Bill Clinton.
How did a person as younger as Bob Dylan churn out so many good songs?
This is a query for the ages, and one which puzzles Dylan himself (see the embedded video beneath). But there’s one factor A Complete Unknown very purposely ignores: Much has been written and mentioned about Dylan’s alleged use of amphetamines at this era of his life. The film, nonetheless, reveals no substance use apart from alcohol, cigarettes, and, to comedian impact, espresso.
Is there the rest main the film leaves out?
For many, and this may occasionally embrace Bob Dylan, somewhat pleasant competitors generally is a nice motivator. A Complete Unknown does an excellent job of inserting folk-revival Easter eggs into the body; look sharp, and also you’ll see actors meant to symbolize Dave Van Ronk, Odetta, and Paul Stookey from Peter, Paul, and Mary. But one essential individual, Phil Ochs, is absent from Mangold’s movie.
Ochs was maybe essentially the most influential “finger-pointing” activist folks artist of the period, who maintained a critical love-hate relationship with Dylan. The two admired each other, however later clashed as Dylan’s work grew to become much less political. Many imagine Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street” is basically a diss observe towards Ochs. Though we’ll by no means know for certain, Ochs did do a bizarre cowl model of it, and later name-dropped his admiration of, particularly, “the young Bobby Dylan,” throughout a talk-up on a reside album.
There’s loads occurring in A Complete Unknown, and Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger character is sufficient to symbolize “the purity of the folk scene” making an attempt to carry Dylan again. As a wink, although, we do see Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez singing Phil Ochs’s beautiful tune “There but for Fortune” at Newport. Baez did have this tune in her repertoire, nevertheless it doesn’t seem like she really performed it there. As such, it is a good li’l nod to Ochs by James Mangold.
What’s the cope with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan?
Obviously, Joan Baez is an actual individual, and she or he actually was an enormous star on the people scene when Dylan started his climb. Her presentation of Dylan’s early music did loads to prep the runway for his arrival, as did Peter, Paul, and Mary, who get very transient shout-outs in A Complete Unknown. (The film makes it seem to be all folkies instantly embraced Dylan. This isn’t precisely true. One eyewitness to historical past, my mom, likes to speak about seeing Joan Baez in Boston within the early Sixties, keen to listen to her “clear as a bell” vocal model. When some bizarre child who appeared like a frog got here out, many jeered, and Baez jokingly scolded the group to say, “he’s gonna be big one day.”) Baez and Dylan did have romantic entanglements in these early days, and she or he joined Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue” in 1975. Also, within the late Eighties the 2 shared a invoice on a number of dates, nevertheless it didn’t go so effectively.