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| No Direction Home | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Starring | Bob Dylan |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Susan Lacy Jeff Rosen Martin Scorsese Nigel Sinclair Anthony Wall |
| Cinematography | Mustapha Barat |
| Editor | David Tedeschi |
| Running time | 208 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Release | September 27, 2005 (2005-09-27) |
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is a 2005documentary film directed byMartin Scorsese that traces the life ofBob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his "retirement" from touring following his motorcycle accident in July 1966. This period encapsulates Dylan's rise to fame as afolk singer and songwriter where he became the center of a cultural and musical upheaval, and continues through theelectric controversy surrounding his move to arock style of music.
The title of the film is taken from the lyrics of Dylan's 1965single "Like a Rolling Stone".
The film was first broadcast ontelevision in both the United States (as part of theAmerican Masters series onPBS) and the United Kingdom (as part of theArena series onBBC Two) on September 26–27, 2005.[1] ADVD version of the film and accompanyingsoundtrack album (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack) were released that same month.
The project began to take shape in 1995 when Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, began scheduling interviews with Dylan's friends and associates. Among those interviewed were poetAllen Ginsberg and folk musicianDave Van Ronk, both of whom died before the film was completed. Dylan's old girlfriendSuze Rotolo also granted a rare interview, and she later toldRolling Stone that she was very pleased with the project's results. Dylan himself also sat for ten hours in a relaxed and open conversation with Rosen in 2000. Other interviews with those who knew him at the time includeJoan Baez,Pete Seeger,Liam Clancy,Maria Muldaur,Peter Yarrow,John Cohen, singerMavis Staples, artistBob Neuwirth, guitarist/organistAl Kooper, promoters such asHarold Leventhal[2] and Tom Nelson, record industry A&R reps, promoters and executivesIzzy Young,Mitch Miller,John Hammond, Artie Mogul, and filmmakerD. A. Pennebaker.
According toRolling Stone, an unnamed source close to the project claimed that Dylan had no involvement with the project apart from the interview, saying that "[Dylan] has no interest in this . . . Bob truly does not look back." However, work on the first installment of Dylan's autobiography,Chronicles: Volume One, did overlap production of the project, though it is unclear how much, if any, influenceChronicles may have had onNo Direction Home.
Though raw material was being gathered for the project, Rosen needed someone to edit and shape it into a quality motion picture, and celebrated filmmakerMartin Scorsese was approached to direct the documentary planned from the project. Scorsese eventually agreed and came aboard in 2001.
In the meantime, Dylan's offices gathered hundreds of hours of historical film footage dating from the time covered inNo Direction Home. These included a scratchy recording of Dylan's high school rock band, his 1965screen test forAndy Warhol, and newly discovered footage of the famousManchester Free Trade Hall concert from May 17, 1966, whenan angry fan called out "Judas!" just before Dylan andthe Hawks performed "Like a Rolling Stone". Shot by D. A. Pennebaker, the onstage color footage was found in 2004 in a pile of water-damaged film recovered from Dylan's vault.
The cover photo on the DVD package, byBarry Feinstein, shows Dylan standing in front of theAust Ferry terminal inGloucestershire, England, in May 1966, shortly before the opening of theSevern Bridge which replaced the ferry.
The film received positive reviews from film critics, as review aggregate websiteRotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 14 reviews.[3]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of a possible four stars, stating that it "creates a portrait that is deep, sympathetic, perceptive and yet finally leaves Dylan shrouded in mystery, which is where he properly lives".[2]
InThe Guardian, Sam Wollaston wrote: "It's wonderful, a remarkable knitting together of a lot of tangled strands into a thing of sense and beauty. Maybe it will help to convert the unconvinced. Dylanites meanwhile will treasure it, while singing along."[4]
On December 19, 2024,Screen Rant released an article describing the documentary as, "Dylan’s unmatched place in 20th-century American popular music into perspective [that’s] digestible to a newcomer." The article later added that the film "painted a vivid portrait of the artist while still maintaining his mysterious appeal."[5]
The film received aPeabody Award in April 2006[6] and aColumbia-duPont Award in January 2007,[7] and Martin Scorsese received aGrammy Award in direction for best long-form video.
The documentary, describing the 1960 New York folk scene, served as an inspiration toJustin Timberlake for his part in theCoen brothers' related dramaInside Llewyn Davis (2013).[8]
Scorsese would make a second documentary on Dylan fourteen years later,Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019), this time chronicling his 1975Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour.
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