DON'T LOOK BACK (1967)

I recently went to see a new print of DONT LOOK BACK, DA Pennebaker's documentary film of Bob Dylan's arrival in England back in the mid sixties. I'd never seen it before, but as a fan of documentaries I thought I should take the opportunity. I should say before I go any further that I'm not a huge fan of Dylan - as a singer/performer he just doesn't really do it for me, though as a songwriter he's certainly in a league of his own. Or to put it another way, I like a lot of Dylan songs, I just tend to prefer other people's versions of them.

Nor am I particularly knowledgeable of the man or his history. Consequently the recent kind-of-biopic-but-not-really I'M NOT THERE left me cold. I had no idea what a lot of it was about and while I appreciated the Garrett/Guthrie segments for their cinematic qualities and quite liked Bale's turn, most of the film annoyed me, especially the Blanchett sections.

But I was supposed to be talking about DONT LOOK BACK...

I loved this movie, for numerous reasons. For one thing, like so many good documentaries, it's a valuable time capsule - not only for its look at the people of mid-sixties England, but the place itself. The dark, grainy black and white photography seems like it was invented for the sole purpose of filming working class England (see also RADIO ON) and many of my favourite scenes were simply of Dylan and friends either travelling across the country or walking the streets of urban England.

As someone who doesn't know much about Bob Dylan, I found the picture painted here of the artist at the height of his power an interesting one. His repeated refusal to be the smiling popstar answering questions with easy answers seems at time to show great wisdom and at others to just be obnoxious; there's a certain joy to be had watching him play mind-games with journalists and yet at the same time his rant against the qualities of Time magazine seemed to this viewer to be bordering on childish.

As for the structure of the documentary itself? There are plenty of great examples of documentaries that follow a character from A to B to C through a particular series of events that will end up shaping the film into a story with a narrative not unlike that chosen by any good fiction piece; DONT LOOK BACK, for me, is not one of them.

What I liked about this film was that rather than watching Dylan develop as a person or see him following some kind of journey, the film is more like a "best of" compilation from the period it covers. Scene after scene offers another highlight which can exist totally separate from any that have gone before or after.

Seeing the otherwise calm Dylan losing the rag over a thrown glass and the ensuing encounter with some drunks (and a performance by Donovan); Dylan stirring up a music journalist in a dressing room; the awkwardness as a kindly old lady tells Dylan what a wonderful role model he is and invites him to stay next time he's in England; manager Albert Grossman abusing a hotel manager; the Dylan-less scene in which Grossman negotiates a fee for a BBC show; these and many more held me totally transfixed. And yes, I even enjoyed some of the musical numbers.

I'm still not likely to be buying any Dylan albums in the future, but I can certainly foresee me watching this film again.