I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

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Product Description
Inspired by the life and songs of Bob Dylan I'm Not There is "a profoundly personal and passionate film" (A.O. Scott The New York Times) that captures the essence of this elusive genius. Six different actors - including Heath Ledger Christian Bale Richard Gere and Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett in a "soon-to-be-legendary performance" (Peter Travers Rolling Stone) - each embody part of the Dylan legend: from Greenwich Village folk singer to electric guitar trailblazer to born-again preacher. Directed by Academy Award nominated writer/director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) I'm Not There is "unquestionably the year's most original American movie" (Thelma Adams US Weekly).System Requirements:Running Time: 135 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY Rating: R UPC: 796019810906 Manufacturer No: 81090

Amazon.com
Unapologetically audacious, I'm Not There is more post-modern puzzle than by-the-numbers biopic. A title card sets the scene: "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan." Yet the film features no figure by that name. Instead, writer/director Todd Haynes presents six characters, each incarnating different stages in the artist's career. Perfume's Ben Whishaw, a black-clad poet, serves as a slippery sort of narrator. The action begins with the wanderings of an 11-year-old black runaway named "Woody Guthrie" (Marcus Carl Franklin)--his raucous duet with Richie Havens on "Tombstone Blues" is a highlight--and ends with a silver-haired Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) watching the Old West die before his eyes. In the interim, there's the folk singer-turned-preacher (Christian Bale), the actor (Heath Ledger), and the rock star (Cate Blanchett, who has Don't Look Back Dylan down to a science). The chronology is purposefully non-linear, and editor Jay Rabinowitz cuts rapidly, Jean-Luc Godard-style, between cinema verite black-and-white and saturated color, Richard Lester-like slapstick and Fellini-inspired surrealism (Ed Lachman served as cinematographer).

What makes the picture fun for Dylan fans--and potentially frustrating for neophytes--is that every album and movie bears an alternate title. Ledger's Robbie, for instance, stars in "Grain of Sand," actually a reference to the Pete Seeger song. As in Haynes' glam rock reverie Velvet Goldmine, the trickery involves the entire cast. While Julianne Moore plays former lover Alice, a dead ringer for Joan Baez; Michelle Williams embodies elusive scenester Coco, i.e. Edie Sedgwick. If I'm Not There is less affecting than Control, the year's other big music film, it rewards repeat viewings like few biographical features. The soundtrack mixes originals with covers, like Jim James's heartfelt "Goin' to Acapulco." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews: Read 86 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A Successful Exploration and Cinematic Investigation of an Artist May 7, 2008
126 out of 135 found this review helpful

I'M NOT THERE is clearly not a movie for everyone. The concept of the film is experimental, the execution of the 'documentary' is actually an amalgam of the aura and influence of one man in the music world instead of a linear history of a famous singer/poet, and the goal seems more to find the effect of Bob Dylan's chameleon persona on those people with whom he came into contact than it is to relate the story of a fascinating and important American artist.

Writer (with Oren Moverman) and Director Todd Haynes ('Far from Heaven', 'Velvet Goldmine') has gathered images, memorabilia, fragments of interviews, and responses from acquaintances and from these he has pieced together a quilt-like panorama of the enigmatic, elusive, ever-changing Bob Dylan. The result is not meant to be a precise history, but instead a 'feeling' for the man who so profoundly influenced American music in the 1960s. Haynes selected several top actors to inhabit various aspects of Dylan's life and times. The Narrator for this both black and white and color film is symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Winshaw) who through a series of comments opens the vignettes that reflect Dylan. Eleven-year-old Marcus Carl Franklin radiates the energy of Woody Guthrie when he is suggesting the early formative influences of Dylan. Christian Bale becomes 'Jack Rollins', among the closest of the actors to impersonate the performing Dylan. Heath Ledger embodies the love-life side of Dylan's character with the Claire of Charlotte Gainsbourg while Cate Blanchett comes closest to showing us the inverted personality as Jude Quinn - the name assigned to the character who most resemble Dylan's appearance and talk and physical reactions to the public, the press, and the audience. And as an homage to Dylan's preoccupation with history, the final version of Dylan becomes Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) in the surreal town of Riddle. Other important characters pass through this musical melange - Julianne Moore comments as Alice Fabian, a Joan Baez-type figure, Michelle Williams becomes Coco for a moment, and Bruce Greenwood has double roles suggesting influences from the height of Dylan's career to his old age.

Throughout the film the music of Bob Dylan pervades the soundtrack, the tunes as important as the timely poetry of his lyrical output. The film is as strange as the man who inspired it, and Todd Haynes and his amazing cast of actors give us an impressive slice of our history as well as an appreciation of the aura of the strangely haunting Bob Dylan. In extended featurettes on the CD the director and cast give wonderful insights both into the character of Dylan as well as the concept of creating this amazing film. For some, watching these introductions BEFORE watching the actual movie may enhance appreciation of this art piece. Highly recommended - but the audience must understand this is not a routine movie! Grady Harp, May 08

4 out of 5 stars

Dylan Mosaic Blends and Clashes December 26, 2007
32 out of 38 found this review helpful

After `Don't Look Back' and Martin Scorsese's `No Direction Home' Bob Dylan - No Direction Home what's left? With a subject as complex and multi-faceted as Dylan, it only makes sense to do more. Just look at Dylan's memoir/autobiography, `Chronicles'. We were given so much in Volume 1, but we know there's much more to come. And that's just from him. To capture all aspects of Dylan, there's `I'm Not There'. With portrayals by six actors, each representing an aspect of his life, we get a Dylan mosaic that both blends and clashes.

This is partly true because of Dylan himself, but it's also true because of the nature of the project. At its best the movie is an effectively surreal portraiture. At its worst it becomes a lingering still life that quickly needs the next piece in the gallery or provides some substandard reflections. More than half of the songs are Dylan's originals, but some of the covers are fairly effective, too. I was personally glad to have so many songs from his (subjectively greatest) masterpiece, ' Blonde on Blonde', but there is a wealth of material they use throughout. Their selection is nearly flawless.

One thing's for sure it's comprehensive. Having read the first `Chronicles,' having seen the aforementioned films, and owning several of his recordings, most of the time director, Todd Haynes, is right on the money. Not having read Dylan's own thoughts in 'Tarantula' or seen his portrayal in 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid' there are gaps that inevitably are provided for us. Still, the mosaic of Dylan effectiveness depends on the actor as well as the scene.

How does each actor do? Marcus Carl Franklin is Woody, the young, aspiring Dylan. It makes sense to have an African-American play the boy Dylan because in 'Chronicles' Chronicles: Volume One (Chronicles) his blues influences are amply noted, and we certainly know where the name came from. Remembering Robert Shelton's reflections of among his first interviews, I thought the circus vagabond aspect of his life was pure folklore, but maybe even that fits. Ben Whisham is Arthur Rimbaud, the rebel Dylan, facing a parole board before he's famous. So far it's a good blend.

Heath Ledger is Robbie Clark or Dylan, the lover and movie star. This is the Dylan whose underbelly is shown to be chauvinistic at times, but also someone who yearns for a stable family life. Picking Ledger makes sense. Christian Bale is sometimes the stage Dylan (Jack Rollins), and, well...sometimes the born-again Christian (Pastor John). Kate Blanchett is Jude Quinn, the incredulous rebel interviewee who refuses to be pigeon-holed or answer questions based on the elders' self-centered assumptions. Comparing 'Don't Look Back' Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (Single Disc Remastered Edition) she's dead on. Both Jack Rollins and Jude Quinn represent the controversial period when Dylan went electric, and some of the best scenes are found during this era.

I came shocked and surprised coming into the movie noting there was a woman playing the part. I gave myself a pep talk to keep an open mind, and found her the most convincing Dylan. Ledger and Bale have their moments, but my biggest problem is that I kept thinking of Heath Ledger and Christian Bale more often than I thought of Dylan. Richard Gere plays the Dylan role in the movie `Pat Garrett...' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Two-Disc Special Edition). Here he's Billy the Kid. He looked like Dylan, but reminded me the least of him.

This biopic blends more than not. Their methods seem better than the random hop-scotch 'La Vie en Rose' La Vie en Rose (Extended Version) tends to do. Especially when we're at a chic cocktail party, and we see all kinds of images projected fully on the walls; it's very well done. Jerry Rabinowicz's editing does much for the flow of scenes, except when the 'Pat Garrett' scenes lingered too long, and when the criss-cross of time frames and aspects of his life were distracting and lacked focus.

The supporting players are essential. Julianne Moore is one of the best in the show as Alice Fabian (Joan Baez). Matching her is Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire (Sarah) his wife. The playful vignettes with The Beatles and Alan Ginsberg are a joy to watch. Dylan's manager, Morris Bernstein (Albert Grossman), is represented as every bit as protective, resourceful, and demanding as one would expect. One of the best scenes is with needling newspaper man, Keenan Jones (or "Mr. Jones" if you will) played by Bruce Greenwood.

Despite its flaws, 'I'm Not There' is a brave and magnetic portraiture of Bob Dylan. As a bold experiment it mostly succeeds and satisfies. The very fact that the 2:15 movie makes as few demands as it does on its audience shows that the results are a labor of love that mostly ring true.

3 out of 5 stars

Todd Hayne's White Album December 3, 2007
24 out of 36 found this review helpful

Less a biopic and more an exploration of postmod identity, Haynes attempts to bring both Dylan (all six of him) and pomo into the American consciousness (once again) but really only ends up making Dylan look like a bratty, self-centered, and pretensious put-on artist. I think the film makes it seem as though Dylan was only interested in myth-making, namely his own, but Dylan was/is poplar not because he is a celebrity but because of what he says about American life. The most fascinating and most enigmatic Dylan-- the crafter of arch lyrics-- is really what is missing from the film.

Cate Blanchett:

The most alluring sequence is the long Fellini-inspired London "trip". Even though a lot of Dylan lore is poured into this sequence it feels so self-consciously artsy that we wonder just what Haynes' real intentions are. This sequence, as so much of the film, attempts to let us know how all of the Dylan-mania (the positive and negative) felt from the inside of Dylan's head but just ends up feeling like a generic bad trip---complete with Alice in Wonderland references. Its funny as pomo pastiche but redundant as the film Don't Look Back captures the look and feel of this whole period (including run-ins with nasty and brutish reporters who seemed only interested in deflating the pop stars self-sustaining mythos) so well already. Granted, Blanchett is riveting to watch and its interesting to see this mercurial "Dylan" haunted and ultimately repulsed by his doppelganger: the equally mercurial "Edie Sedgewick" who shows him what he fears most, himself.

Heath Ledger:

Ledger looks like he's channeling Steve McQueen and Charlotte Gainsborough looks she is channeling Ali McGraw. Very little, if any, of Dylan in this particular scenario. Basically this thread is a generic break-up film. Haynes seems more interested in getting the period interiors perfect (so maybe somewhere inside his own artistic wonderland he does believe in historical accuracy)than in exploring Dylan the homemaker and breaker.

Christian Bale:

This is a Dylan lookin' for sincerity (a quality the reporter in London said he didn't have) and authenticity within folk and then within the pages of a bible. Haynes seems more interested in getting the 1960's and 1970's fashions correct than seeing what this period meant to Dylan creatively.

Eleven year old front porch bluesman:

The funniest of the Dylan's but the joke wears pretty thin pretty quick as you can't understand most of what the kid is sayin'.

Richard Gere:

The rock star film formula is an easy one to identify (even if the rock stars themselves remain elusive). Every rock film deals with a figure who spends the first half of his life searching for fame and the second half (if he makes it that far) despising it. This sequence reproduces Dylan at his most removed from the "scene" but what it misses is that these reclusive periods ( as this is really a conflation of two periods: the Basement Tapes period--1968-- and the Rolling Thunder Revue period--1974) were also Dylan at his most creative. If Dylan's rock mystique was increased by each role change (or each disappearance) then the arrival of punk avatar and rock deflater David Bowie on the scene in 1972 stole a lot of Dylan's thunder. (Not too surprisingly Haynes other major rock project -- The Velvet Goldmine-- is about the glam scene).

A Series of Dreams:

The Rimbaud Dylan is the most appealing because this one is the most artfully self-aware and so speaks the most truths about fame, art, and why people feel the need to craft and persecute heroes (but Dylan should have played this one himself as its closest to his current incarnation).

These visions of Dylan are really also visions of the sixties. The chaos and confusion of one was mirrored in the chaos and confusion of the other and neither,according to Haynes' film, amounted to much. But this point has been made. In her own pomo chronicle of the sixties, The White Album, Joan Didion made the now infamous claim "disorder was its own point." A fitting epithet for this film.

5 out of 5 stars

Extras-Packed Collector's Edition! May 2, 2008
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

Director Todd Haynes has reinvented the musician biopic by manipulating its conventions to suit its subject instead of the other way around which is what has always been done in the past. I'm Not There invites us into Bob Dylan's brain and has look at the world through his eyes. We also see how Dylan is perceived by the media and his fans. Because Haynes is pushing the genre to its extremes the film is quite hard to follow at times as we jump all over the place in time and are confronted by various takes on Dylan. However, I think it is a film that will only improves on subsequent viewings as what Haynes is doing becomes more apparent and understood.

On the first disc there is "An Introduction" featuring four text essays that help one get a handle on the film. "Who's Not There: Six Faces of Dylan" explains who each of the six Dylans the actors are playing and what they represent. "Tangled Up in Clues" claims that Haynes' film is "an homage to 1960s art films." It does an excellent job of breaking the film down to its basic elements. "Decoding an Entertaining Enigma" examines each incarnation of Dylan in the film. "Notes on I'm Not There" is written by noted critic Greil Marcus and features a solid analysis of the film.

There is an audio commentary by co-writer/director Todd Haynes. He talks about how he rediscovered Bob Dylan's music and his life via biographies. Haynes talks about how he pitched the project to Dylan and how he was inspired by the cinema of the 1960s because that was the time period where most of the film was set. Haynes certainly knows his Dylan history and does a great job analyzing his film and talking about the changes he made while shooting it. This is an engaging and informative track.

There is also an option to have the lyrics to the songs that appear on-screen.

The second disc features two theatrical trailers and an unreleased flash card trailer done in the style of the famous "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video with the cast.

There are "Audition Tapes" for Marcus Carl Franklin and Ben Whishaw. They both do a good job embodying the character they would eventually play.

Also included are two deleted scenes with Blanchett as Dylan messed up on drugs and another with Gere as Dylan during his western phase.

There are four alternate/extended scenes that provide an interesting, different take on these scenes.

An "Outtakes" gag reel features the cast and crew goofing around.

"A Tribute to Heath Ledger" features a montage of clips of the late actor in character and on the set. It is a sobering reminder of what a great talent has been lost with his tragic death.

"The Red Carpet Premiere" in November 2007 features footage of Haynes and his cast walking the red carpet and interacting with the press.

"Making the Soundtrack" examines how they mixed covers of Dylan's songs with original versions by the man himself. Haynes enlisted Sonic Youth's Lee Ronaldo to supervise some of the music and musicians like John Doe recorded their versions of key songs in the film. Assembling the soundtrack was as unconventional as the film itself.

"Conversation with Todd Haynes" features the director going in detail about his film explaining the title, the origins of the project, and so on. It's a nice compliment to his commentary track even if there is some overlap.

"Dylanography" includes the one-page proposal Haynes sent Dylan in order to get his approval for the film. There is also a chronology of the musician's life, a discography of his extensive output, books he's written, pages from the director's notebook, and stills of the various characters.

3 out of 5 stars

I'm Not Here Either November 22, 2007
14 out of 23 found this review helpful

The biggest flaw of "I'm Not There" is that it offers no insight into Bob Dylan. It seems to simply assert that he is a man of many masks, a rather common observation. However, the film comes to no great understanding of Bob Dylan as artist. In fact, too much centers on his personal life. Heath Ledger's character seems to exist in the film only to depict the married life of Dylan.

Another flaw is that the film, for all of its pretensions to challenge the traditional biopic, does not escape the mimesis of most biopics. Many of the scenes recreate events in Dylan's life, many of which already exist on film. So what is the point? Why not just watch "Eat the Document" or "Don't Look Back" or "No Direction Home" and get Dylan firsthand instead of watching it secondhand here?

It seems that Haynes is simply offering a two-hour introduction to the many aspects of Dylan. But one could gain all the insight this film offers by listening to Dylan, reading books about him, watching his films.

As a cinematic experience, "I'm Not There" is not a complete failure. Some of the ideas are interesting, but they are never fully realized. The notion, evident in Ledger's character, that Dylan is an actor playing himself is interesting but not explored. The Poet/Arthur Rimbaud figure is interesting as well, and is really the only part of the film that fully explores Dylan as artist in a profound way.

Furthermore, several scenes are clumsily done, especially in the Cate Blanchett sequences - giggling with the Beatles, firing machine guns, the obvious Fellini stylizations - all of these are cringe-inducing in their own way - either silly or pretentious.

There are so many sequences that just don't work or don't add anything to the film as a whole (eg, all of those involving Richard Gere). It is all rather stiff and self-important. In the end, then, "I'm Not There" offers no new insight into Dylan as artist, and seems to fall victim to its own pretensions.

The biggest problem being that the film can only look at Dylan from the outside, and the 7 Dylan roles are really just 7 Dylan stereotypes: The folk-troubadour, the hipster, the poet, the outlaw, the born-again Christian, etc. So in the end the film's greatest failure is that it only compiles 7 ways that the public views Dylan, but makes no attempt to penetrate through these superficial perspectives and truly examine Dylan as artist. In fact, "I'm Not There" only presents Dylan as chameleon, which is nothing new and a rather worn-out notion at that.

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