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Film: Dont Look Back
Director: D. A. Pennebaker
Country: USA
Released: May 1967
Runtime: 96 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Leacock-Pennebaker
Influenced: Albert & David Maysles, Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Rob Reiner, Penelope Spheeris
Bob Dylan's famous tour of England in May 1965 has been forever memorialised thanks to D. A. Pennebaker's documentary Dont Look Back. The film captures the mid-60s zeitgeist and the sense of how everything was evolving so fast, especially in the realm of popular culture. Dont Look Back is a unique amalgamation of pop music and film, somehow blurring the two art forms together to create something entirely new, the "rockumentary". You really don't have to be a Dylan fan (like me) to appreciate how influential this movie has been, with every major music documentary from Scorsese's The Last Waltz (1979) to Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense (1984) owing it a great debt. Pennebaker's mix of live concert footage with behind-the-scenes material has been mimicked widely.
Dont Look Back also captures a cultural moment, a time when pop and rock musicians were beginning to be treated like gods, and it shows the start of Dylan's shenanigans and cat-and-mouse games with the press. On arrival, his first interview for the tour is in the VIP lounge of London Airport, where he holds up a large lightbulb in answer to a question about his "message", replying: "Keep a good head and always carry a lightbulb". Dont Look Back opens with Dylan performing his iconic song Subterranean Homesick Blues in an alleyway, with the lyrics flashing on cue cards behind him. It's an early, proto form of the music video. This sequence is now widely regarded as one of the most memorable moments in music film history and perfectly encapsulates Dylan's subversive, irreverent approach to both music and the media.
Shot in black & white, the film doesn't feature much concert footage, and by his own admission Dylan's live performances had grown a little stale by this time. Not long after his return home from England, he would jettison his acoustic style and embrace rock & roll. In fact, on his return to the USA, Dylan would go straight into the studio to record one of his all-time classic albums, Highway 61 Revisited. The film also features a number of other notable figures from the 1960s music scene, including Joan Baez, Eric Burdon – of The Animals – and Donovan ("who's this Donovan?", yells Dylan, before overshadowing him with an incredible rendition of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue). Baez, Dylan's former lover and musical collaborator, makes several appearances and their performances together provide some of the film's most electrifying moments.
As the film progresses, we see Dylan in a variety of contexts, from performing for adoring crowds to engaging in contentious interviews with journalists. Throughout, he comes across as mercurial and fiercely independent, refusing to conform to anyone's expectations and relentlessly pursuing his own artistic vision. Pennebaker employs a handheld camera to create a sense of intimacy and immediacy, capturing Dylan in a spontaneous, unguarded state. The handheld camera also allows Pennebaker to be more flexible in his shooting, following Dylan as he moves through different spaces and interacts with various people. This gives the film a sense of dynamic energy, and makes the viewer feel as though they are right there in the room with him. Dont Look Back is such a gift for Dylan and non-Dylan fans alike – and if you enjoyed it, I recommend seeking out a bootleg of Pennebaker's Eat The Document.
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