My 47-year-old long-haired musician-adventurist son, James T, asked me to take him to “A Complete Unknown” on Christmas Day. Dylan represents my generation, but James claims him too. Four days prior, his band was rockin’ out with the crowd joining in, “Any day now, any day now, I shall be released!” (1)
Did he see the film the same way I did, and did he like it?
Interspersed with over 70 songs on the soundtrack, “A Complete Unknown” is a mix of biographical interpretation and American nuance in a backdrop true to its time.
“I’m out here a thousand miles from my home” (2)
“A Complete Unknown” begins with Dylan in January, 1961 at age 19 arriving literally completely unknown in New York City. He has a newspaper article that tells him Woody Guthrie is in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. He hitch-hikes there to meet his most revered musician. In the room a devoted Pete Seeger is with Guthrie, who is suffering from Huntington’s Disease. Dylan is kindly allowed in. Soon Woody insists that Dylan sing, so Dylan pulls out his guitar and sings his homage, “Song to Woody.”
Seeger realizes Dylan has no place to stay and invites him to his own house. This was the beginning. Dylan starts out alone, “without a home… like a rolling stone,” (3) but he is befriended by a famous stranger.
“Girl from the North Country” (4)
Writer-director James Mangold had some sessions with Bob Dylan, who annotated his script and added at least one fictitious scene. Mangold’s script, co-written with Jay Cocks, skillfully shows the interactions others had with Dylan. The most important might have been his girlfriend from 1961-64. She was from a communist family up in socialist-thinking Vermont.
Perhaps it is from knowing her that Dylan’s lyrics transition to more explicitly social critiques. Sylvie Russo (Dylan requested his girlfriend’s real name, Suze Rotolo, not be used in the film), was a civil rights activist and worked as an illustrator.
They moved in together in early 1962. During their time together (and apart) he wrote “Blowin in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Going to Fall,” and “I Shall be Free.” Fame quickly came and his words both inspired and encouraged my generation to a personal self-examination as well as support for civil rights.
“And how many years can some people exist/Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head/And pretend that he just doesn’t see?” (5)
“Maggie’s Farm” (6)
Dylan initially got a recording contract with Columbia Records at the grand Paramount Building in Times Square, NYC in October, 1961. He only got to record two of his own songs, the rest were covers. This isn’t exactly the creative music situation he was planning.
He soon realized that others wanted to dictate what he sang and how he sang it. Even Pete Seeger, played to beloved perfection by Edward Norton, pleads with him to perform a certain type of music a certain way – acoustically, when it is the thrilling electric sounds that beckon Dylan.
With his own irrepressible free-wheeling nature and the support of his girlfriend, played by sweet Elle Channing, he veers away from handlers. He insists, even when scheduled at a concert with Baez, beautifully characterized with perfectly beautiful singing by Monica Barbaro, who demands he sing what the audience has come to hear, that he will only perform what he wants, his new songs. She commands otherwise. So, he leaves the stage.
“They sing while they slave/ And they just get bored/
I ain’t gonna work on, nah/ I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm, no more” ibid
“Like a Rolling Stone” (7)
Mangold and co-writer Cocks did a masterful job of distilling what they wanted from Elijah Wald’s book, “Dylan Goes Electric.” Originally titling the film “Going Electric,” a double entendre, Mangold and Cocks switched the focus to something more personal.
Dylan is so distracted with songwriting that being an attentive, thoughtful boyfriend is an act he can’t muster. Mangold has him portrayed as obsessive-compulsive, dangling a cigarette and scratching paper with a busy pen.
Dylan experienced constant rejection – people simply had expectations, beginning with his parents, then Columbia Records producers, his girlfriend, Joan Baez, and then, unfortunately, Pete Seeger, that he would not fulfill.
He was detached and Timothée Chalamet caught that and everything else. I was shocked when I learned I wasn’t hearing Dylan singing – but Chalamet! The entire cast was pitch-perfect in their personification of their characters, both emotionally and musically. Though they each become eventual obstacles for Dylan, Mangold has us still love and appreciate them.
Referring to the title, I assume Dylan was freer and happier back in 1961 when he first arrived in NYC. He could go to a bar and listen to music. He could walk down a street. He could rely on people’s honest reactions to him. How much of a curse and crippler did fame and riches quickly become?
“Aw, how does it feel?/To be on your own/With no direction home
Like a complete unknown/Like a rolling stone?” ibid
Freedom, Loneliness, and Exhilaration
When we came out of the theater my son and I asked each other, “How did you like it?”
“Oh, it was good,” James laughed and added, “even though it was more about everyone else.”
I responded, “Yeah, other film critics are writing the same thing.”
But I didn’t agree. I learned a little more about the admittingly elusive Dylan. His work captured America’s core essential value: freedom. And, in the extreme, its corollary: loneliness. On his path to musical greatness in 1961-65, he became famous and eventually gained some professional autonomy. But did he end up happy?
In that sense, I felt a sadness in “A Complete Unknown,” while my songwriting son felt an exhilaration – inspired by a film that showed someone who chose freedom and loved what he was doing. Despite our different perspectives, we both agreed that the film is a 10/10.
Footnotes to song titles and lyrics from Dylan’s songs:
1. “I Shall be Released,” written in 1967.
2. “Song to Woody,” released on Dylan’s debut album, “Bob Dylan,” in 1962.
3. “Like a Rolling Stone,” written in June, 1965
4. “Girl from the North Country,” written in December, 1962
5. “Blowin’ in the Wind,” written in 1962
6. Maggie’s Farm, recorded on January 15, 1965.
7. “Like a Rolling Stone,” written in June, 1965
Credits
Director: James Mangold
Writers: James Mangold, Jay Cocks – Based on the book by Elijah Wald, “Dylan Goes Electric”
Producers: Fred Berger, Alex Heineman, Bob Bookman, Peter Jaysen, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen, Timothée Chalamet, James Mangold
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elie Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Eriko Hatsune, and Scoot McNairy
Editors: Andrew Buckland and Scott Morris
Casting: Yesi Ramirez
Director of Photography: Phedon Papamichael
Released: Dec. 25, 2024
Official Website and how to see: https://www.searchlightpictures.com/a-complete-unknown
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