Bob Dyland: No Direction Home

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No Direction Home, the title of a Martin Scorsese documentary about the early career of Bob Dylan, is taken from a lyric in Dylan’s song “Like a Rolling Stone.” The film opens with Bob Dylan in 2005 explaining the feeling of being born away from “home.” For an unexplainable reason, Dylan, from as early as he can remember, was trying to find home, and he knew it was not in Minnesota. The film is divided in two parts: the first tells the story of Dylan’s influences and how he developed into a musician, and the second reveals how Dylan, as a figure in the public eye, influenced others with his artistic ways of incorporating his political and moral views into his work. Live concert footage is abundant in the first part, and it is interesting to see as the film progresses how the crowds grow and fan interaction increases. Scorsese’s use of Dylan’s personal concerns and views is unique to No Direction Home. Even some of the most brilliant music documentaries solely focus on the artists career and their rise as music icons, but this documentary also emphasizes Dylan as a voice for political injustices of the time as well. “The reverence was for Bobby, but also what he created,” says Peter Yarrow of Dylan’s activity in both the Civil Rights and Free Speech movements. Footage of Bob Dylan’s presence in these major moments in history really convey how much more he was to his fans than a pop star. Dylan had so much to say and share, and he wrote music his fans loved and were able to relate to in the early 60s. He represented the youthful population desiring change, and being that these were simpler times, fame was not denoted by a dollar amount, but by a fan base, which Bob Dylan created on various levels. We can clearly see Bob’s fame start to grow in part two through footage of him playing television shows and music festivals. His appearance on the Steve Allen

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