Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of a Legend
Review: When film-maker D. A. Pennebaker set out to document a rare glimpse of the then-young Dylan both on-stage and off, perhaps he couldn't have known what kind of a historical masterpiece he would produce. Using unobtrusive instruments--basically a shoulder mounted black and white camera--Pennebaker and his crew were able to follow Dylan into such areas as "The Green Room" backstage at one of his performances and document some of the personal moments of young Bob. While we are allowed to glimpse, even, a moment of his humanity (when he nearly gets physical with someone who had thrown glass out of the window of the hotel in which the group was staying), Pennebaker captures Dylan on stage with clarity and purity. Offstage, the viewer is able to enter the Dylan microcosm, listening in to the now infamous interviewing session with the young science correspondent--a most lopsided battle of wits as Dylan cooly strums on his guitar with Bob Neuwirth and Alan Grossman chuckling in the background. Dont Look Back, indeed, reveals a Dylan bordering almost on nihilism, proclaiming at one point that he certainly wouldn't "put his faith in anything". Because he refuses to be labelled, the documentary fittingly trails off with Grossman declaring the newspapers have started calling him a communist. Certainly Don't Look Back allows for the viewer to feel as if he is a comrade in the Dylan clan, a friend of Baez, Neuwirth, Donovan, even Ginsberg, even Dylan himself. One feels empathy for the mislabeled Dylan but feels his strength and ability to treat the world, as most geniuses do, as an arbitrary illusion which one musn't take too seriously on some levels, while on others (political/social consciousness) he must maintain the utmost gravity. Don't Look Back is a masterful work, but particularly has its stand-out moments. The footage reveals, perhaps, the strained relationship between Dylan and Baez, with Dylan rarely paying any attention to her throughout. She does deliver a powerful and beautiful rendition of one of Bob's versions of "Percy's Song." (It is also interesting to note that at one point when Bob Neuwirth comments about Baez's appearance, she accepts the comment with a smile. Off camera, it has later been revealed, she was in tears.) Certainly there existed tensions between some of the members of the entourage and one can even get a sense from this film that Grossman and Dylan, while partners in business and two men with a mutual respect for each other, perhaps did not have much of a friendship in the traditional sense of the term. Again, Don't Look Back is remarkably revealing for its brevity and short-sequence nature, but it is a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the idiosyncracies of a legend. No Dylan fan should be without this piece. Five stars, perfect ten, no doubt. Perhaps you will be left, at the end, echoing the words of Dylan, "I feel like I've been through something..." You might not be able to delineate it in words--even Dylan couldn't...but you will know..that you have just seen a personal glimpse of the man who did more to change the thought of the later half of the 20th century than perhaps any single individual did...and he did it with six strings and a vision.
Rating:
Summary: A document of an important area
Review: When we look back at the sixties, we understand that the important things that happened in that decade had very little to do with music. It was the artists who were important. The effectiveness of mass media, television and movies made it possible for artists to reach a whole world of fans - not only with their music, but with their attitudes and thoughts. Bob Dylan new this, and he was one of the first artist to really take the full advantage of it. His arrogant attitude, his clothes, his style, his songs which he knew that millions of fans were listening to - all that were instruments or weapons he could use to express his opinions in a time of political scandals and cheap entertainment. - This move is one of the most interesting documents from the sixties, and also an entertaining study of the most important artist in the sixties: Dylan. As a bonus, there are in fact a couple of great musical performances by Dylan here, too. I just love the man and his music! [...]
Rating:
Summary: A look back
Review: I started listening to Bob Dylan when I was in 11th grade. I was instantly hooked on how poetic he was. I have attended two of his concerts and will be going to my third in Nov. of 2001. As soon as I heard about this dvd I bought it. It has given me a chance to be able to look back at Dylan in his younger years when he was first starting out as a musician. He was cocky and loud at times but at others very quiet and solemn as he wrote his lyrics and practiced his music. I recommend this dvd to all fans of Bob Dylan. Don't let the grainy black and white film turn you off, it only turns this movie into the vintage masterpiece that it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Dylan's personality a real turn-off
Review: Most people who come to see this are those who are fans of Bob Dylan's music. After seeing this, i still like his music, but one finds it difficult to admire the man behind the songs afterward. Aside from the gripping performances (and the amusing "Subterrarean Homesick Blues"), we see Dylan rudely and arrogantly treating almost everyone around him with gross contempt. He's really hard to like after seeing this. However, Joan Baez brightens things up by allowing us to see her lighter side. She makes wild faces into the camera and does an amusing belly-dance parody.
Rating:
Summary: Snot-nosed kid Dylan a must for fans
Review: Sure, the young Bob Dylan is a snot-nosed kid in this video. He's rude. He's aloof. He tries to start a fight with a drunk guy at a party. But it's a must for any Dylanologist! I feel differently about Dylan now that I've seen it. He wasn't perfect. Nobody is. But I'm glad I did see it. If you're not sure about it, rent it first. For some people, one viewing may be enough.
Rating:
Summary: The scratchy and tender underside of being backstage
Review: This poet is sensitive and sassy. He makes you comfortable then catches you off guard. His genius shines behind his very human texture. It's full of history and great music. You're going to learn a few new things about Dylan, no matter how well you think you know him. He cuts and heals in the same sentence. He takes you on a journey that not only amazes the viewer but, also, this young man still wobbling and finding his footing. He has a sophisticated coarseness with a wry and dry sense of humor. The film is not high tech, which adds to the storyline, remember, filming this behind the scenes event was long before our digital lenses and technology had more imput than the director. The commentary is excellent. The added footage is excellent. If you like Dylan this is a must, even if you don't have a DVD player yet, store in away until you do.
Rating:
Summary: Dylan- Behind the Music (ho-hum)
Review: After watching this, you will never want to see another English hotel room again. Most of the film consists of Dylan playing odd bars of music while his hangers-on laugh at everything he says. You will not find out a whole lot more about him. A little dull and disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: The Mystery Behind the Enigma
Review: Don't Look Back is the best documentary about a musician on tour that I've ever seen. I can't say enough good things about it, and it is all I can do to imagine how D. A. Pennebaker simultaneously made himself so ubiquitous and so unnoticed as to capture the remarkable footage that he got on Dylan's British tour. From the incredible sequence of Joan Baez warbling the then-unreleased "Percy's Song" even as Dylan is pounding out the lyrics on his typewriter, to the revealing moments where Dylan manager Albert Grossman quite literally strong-arms the BBC into a high-paying deal for a tv appearance, to Dylan himself, at the most accessible he would ever be in his long career, alternately jousting and jesting with the British press, most of whom seem completely ignorant as to which is the jest and which is the joust. Dylan again, talking with a fan who doesn't like "Subterranean Homesick Blues" because "it just doesn't sound like you," (which was the whole point of the song), and Dylan's gritted-teeth reply: "Oh, I see what kind of person you are right away." Dylan yet again, in an astonishingly unguarded moment, bawling out everyone in his hotel room over a wineglass Alan Price dropped out of the window, acting like the only responsible adult in a kindergarten class...and when a drunken Price admits the deed, Dylan lets him have it with both barrels and finally kicks him out, despite Price having been Dylan's best friend in England throughout the entire film. In fact, a lot of this movie is about Dylan shedding elements of his persona, entourage, and his music. Bringing it All Back Home had just been released when Don't Look Back was being filmed, and the album served as a harbinger of the rock and roll shift Dylan's music was about to take. It's far more noticeable in hindsight, of course, but in this film you see Dylan breaking his ties with his folkie past. "Subterranean Homesick Blues" being shown right up front is a dead giveaway, but you may miss some of the more subtle signs: His growing disenchantment with being pegged as a folkie, evidenced by both the abovementioned reaction to his fans and his jests/jousts with the press, both harbingers of the surreal "anti-interviews" Dylan would give over the next few years. Then there is the slow disintegration of his relationship with Baez -- there is a moment about midway or 2/3 of the way through Don't Look Back where Joan walks out of Dylan's hotel room...and though she appears later in the film through the judicious use of editing, Baez has since admitted that that was the moment she walked out of Dylan's life. Another folk-music tie broken, as much by Dylan as by Baez (his near-indifference to her through much of the film is chilling...). There is also Dylan's discomfort with the "Donovan issue", both in being compared to Donovan and in meeting the guy. You can see the uncertainty all over Bob's face during this sequence, and the nicer he tries to be to Donovan -- who quite honestly sholdn't even be in the same room with Dylan -- the funnier the whole thing gets. Then there is Dylan's meeting with the President of Dylan's British fan club -- the bespectacled weedy fellow who looks like he just stepped whole and breathing out of the nightclub scene in A Hard Day's Night. Dylan's conversation with this guy is polite on the surface, but again, there are undertones of discomfort, even dislike, so palpable that they make you want to cringe. Dylan is so clearly disenchanted with some aspects of his career, even though he puts on a game face and acts satisfied with what he's doing, that it's a wonder he didn't completely telegraph his shift to electric music. (Actually, he did -- it's just that most people were too blind to see it coming at the time.)As I said above, the footage in this film is incredibly revealing. Never again would Dylan be so accessible, so honest and forthright, as he was in Don't Look Back -- and even here, as I've said, you can sense his withdrawal from that accessibility begin. How Pennebaker managed to capture all this intense, remarkable, human footage of Dylan and co., without his subjects noticing or caring about how they came across, is beyond me. Few music documentaries, before or since, have had such verve, or such nerve, as to show their subjects in such a potentially-unflattering light (the only two I can think of that come anywhere close are Gimme Shelter, the Maysles Brothers' astonishing Stones/Altamont document, and Let It Be, the Beatles' on-film disintegration (and final live performance) which stupidly remains out of print). Don't Look Back does all that and more, never cheating, never prevaricating or retreating, always telling the truth. It was a rare achievement for its time, and a film that could never be made today. (FINAL NOTE: All right, Messrs. Dylan and Pennebaker -- now that Don't Look Back has been remastered and rereleased, how about doing the same with the long-missing and much-missed 1966 followup, Eat the Document? It's no less raw, revealing, and astonishing than its predecessor, and is richly deserving of a rerelease. Here's hoping!)
Rating:
Summary: PURE GENIUS
Review: The tender soul of Dylan shown to an unsuspected audience. The film is a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Video Shows the REAL Dylan
Review: Ok, if you are a Dylan fan you may not appreciate this but even though this is a vital portrait of the artist near his peak, it also presents a side of Dylan that goes against the 'humans being' persona we expect. I think Dylan was an important force in his time, but what I saw here was an egocentric man who believes he knows everything. I felt Dylan was really secretly intimidated by Donovan and Joan Baez,although an excellent singer appeared more like a groupie than a girlfriend. Buy the dvd and see for yourself...It is entertaining and informative if not self-absorbing and although you get to see Dylan up close and (more or less) personal, he comes across as untouchable as ever.
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