Hard Vision |
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Bob Dylan I have no interest in Bob Dylan or his music and I had no interest in spending 240 minutes watching a documentary on an artist that I could care less about...especially since this is an unauthorized documentary. Usually, when you see the word "unauthorized" on a product, it's usually crap. So, I sat down to watch this release, figured I would go through it with my finger on the fast forward button as soon as it started to bore me...and the unexpected happened...I ended up sitting through the entire program...even going so far as to watch the special features. The only thing I didn't check out was the photo gallery because I'm not into looking at pictures on the television. Anyway...the question is...why would I sit through something that I had no interest in watching in the first place? Well, director/producer Joel Gilbert actually made a program that was worth watching. He made it interesting enough to hold my attention for the entire program. Actually, maybe all the credit shouldn't go to him because it's the people who tell the story that actually held my attention. As you can tell by the title of this release, it's focused on a specific period in Bob Dylan's career. We start off with the tale of wrongly convicted boxer, Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter, who's story was the subject of a 1999 movie starring Denzel Washington, which I haven't seen. But here, we get to hear from Rubin himself and how his story eventually came to include Bob Dylan. Then we have Ramblin' Jack Elliott, violinist Scarlet Rivera, bassist Rob Stoner and Ms. Jacques Levy tell the story of the "Desire" album, Joey Gallo, The Rolling Thunder Review and a tour film, "Renaldo & Clara," all of which are subjects I could care less about...but...these people were so entertaining to watch...I wanted to hear what they had to say. The subject of the second part of this release is, of course, The Gospel Years. Bob Dylan found God, made a few gospel albums...and that's the focus of this section. Once again, it's the people who tell the story that kept me watching. Producer Jerry Wexler, backround singer Regina McCrary, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, songwriter Al Kasha, Joel Selvin and AJ Weberman are who you get to hear from. The most interesting person on this release is Bob Dylan's Bible class teacher, Pastor Bill Dwyer...this is his first ever interview and, if you're a Bob Dylan fan, this might very well be the Holy Grail of Dylan related interviews. I usually wouldn't recommend checking out an unauthorized documentary. But, this was was done rather well. After all, I'm not a fan...but...it held my attention and, believe me, that's saying something. I think even Bob Dylan himself would be happy to view this release. It's certainly a fitting tribute to those six years of his career. |