I'm Not There - Capturing an Unknowable Artist

Bob Dylan is the greatest artist to ever live. I will not accept contrary opinions on this. For more than sixty years he has continuously reinvented himself, writing songs that have been covered by hundreds of artists (some of these covers even jumpstarting these artists careers) and influencing numerous artists across almost every genre of music.

So, when presented with the idea of a biopic that tries to accurately portray the spirit of such a powerful and mysterious individual, I scoffed (I still scoff at the idea of the proposed Dylan film starring Timothée Chalamet). Dylan is otherworldly, esoteric, and larger than life. He best described himself on his most recent album when he quoted Walt Witman in saying, "I Contain Multitudes." On top of this, he is one of the most notorious liars in all of popular culture. Even those who have spent their lives following and studying his art and life cannot truly claim to know the man, because it is almost never clear what is true, and what is a clever lie that was probably conjured to spite a nosey journalist.

So, how would someone portray someone so unnatural? Well, the answer is actually quite simple: cast six people to play him.

It only seems fitting that a being so fantastical would need Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Marcus Carl Franklin (who was only 13 years old at the time of the films release) to play him. Each actor shows a different era of his life or aspect of his persona in a narrative that is only partially linear. These range from Ledger's Hollywood icon, to Franklin's eleven year old folk singer, all the way to Richard Gere playing a character that is somehow Bob Dylan and Billy the Kid. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this creative choice is that none of the six characters are called Bob Dylan. In fact, his name is not spoken once in the entire film.

Yet it is so clearly a Dylan movie. Every frame oozes the same abstract poetry that Dylan is so renowned for. Aesthetically, the film feels like it could be a hundred and thirty-five minute Bob Dylan song. The film is, of course, loaded wall-to-wall with Dylan's songs. Both his own recordings, and covers made for the film. The clear stand out of his music is right in the middle, when everything stops for a few minutes and the viewer is show a full length music video for "Ballad of a Thin Man."

This is not a film made to educate the uninformed on who Bob Dylan is. It is a love letter to the man, and to those who already have a deep appreciation for his work. It has moments with very heavy handed symbolism, like the "Dylan Goes Electric" scene, where Cate Blanchett and her band pull submachine guns on a the audience of the Newport Folk Festival. Moments like these perfectly capture what the world felt at the height of Bob Dylan's popularity.

The film is nothing like any other biopic to hit the screen. It is a defiant, revolutionary, irrevocable masterpiece that is truly and so unobjectionably Bob Dylan.