Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
Our Price: $14.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $6.79 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Bob Dylan, Martin ScorseseBrand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 208 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
DVD Review: A fantastic look into the life of Bob Dylan!
Summary: 5 Stars
For you Bob Dylan fans this is a must have. This DVD tells the whole story & then some. I was impressed with the history of music & how Dylan was inspired by the past. His musical genius is incredible and inspiring.DVD Review: Electrifying!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not a music connoisseur so I can't offer any pithy comments about his musicianship or knowledgeable comments about Bob Dylan's place within the broader context of American music. But I well remember the first time I heard his voice over a car radio. It was "Positively 4th Street". I had never heard those kinds of words before, sung by that kind of voice, and in that tone of voice! I didn't know why or to whom he was flinging those bitter, condemning phrases, but I knew in my heart that he was absolutely justified. Bob Dylan(though I didn't know this or anything else about him at the time)was eight years older than me, and in 1965 he seemed like some kind of disembodied messiah to my rebellious teenage mind. I listened religiously to see if I could hear that voice again, for in that time and place there was no such thing as a personal music collection for kids. Soon, I heard "Like a Rolling Stone", another song of renunciation and distancing from conformity and cliques that seemed to me to contain a wisdom and righteous anger that fitted my own mood perfectly. These songs became anthems for me during the mid-sixties, even though they were played but seldom on the local radio station in that rural farm community. Dylan was so little known in that area that the radio announcer always pronounced his name Di-lan, with a long "I". Now, after all these decades, with my memories of that voice and its message receded into the past, I decided to check out this documentary "No Direction Home" just out of curiosity. I'll admit I expected to be disappointed. My God! What an amazing discovery to find that the reality of the phenomenon of Bob Dylan that I encountered in this film even exceeded those long-ago idealizations that I had formed. Not that I indulge in hero-worship any more or think Dylan is some kind of saint. He is certainly not that, as I think the documentary reveals. He was simply an amazing song-writer who had an uncanny knack for wedding his poetry to a perfectly matched musical presentation. It seems obvious from his own comments that he didn't set out to capture the spirit of an age, but he did obviously intend to write songs that contained something real and meaningful. This he did in a unique and masterful way. It is truly astonishing to see the early footage of Dylan looking so very, very young and innocent, but producing this awesome music with such assurance and in a voice of such authority. Of course there are those who don't see it this way, and think he is vastly overrated. These people might as well save themselves the trouble of watching "No Direction Home". Others of us who watch the film will be even more convinced that there was a spiritual element to this music because of the way it made us feel, and that Dylan was a bit of a messiah after all, albeit an unwilling and mocking one.DVD Review: Best Documentary I've seen
Summary: 5 Stars
This was not just a 2 DVD set focusing on Bob Dylan. This was an overview of the music that shaped his life and music. They cover many different sounds and genres, and show how it affected Dylan's changing sound throughout the years.
Don't expect a 2 hour concert of Dylan. Expect something amazing, a musical history lesson.
DVD Review: His Direction Home
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the past several months or so I have spent some time going over the musical influences back in the early 1960's that had an effect on my political development as I was growing up, or that just caught my ear. Not surprisingly many of those same musical influences still resonate today. Of those early 1960's influences none probably was greater than that of Bob Dylan, no only because he had a different sound but because his super-charged protest-oriented lyrics `spoke' to me. That Dylan could only go a very short distance along that political protest route that others, including myself, had to travel does not negate the important of that influence.
As this very well-done almost four hour in-depth Martin Scorsese documentary makes abundantly clear I was not alone in feeling that influence. Others also felt that Dylan `spoke' to them, if not as the voice of the "Generation of `68" then for a moment. I have previously reviewed a number of Bob Dylan's early albums ("The Free-Wheelin' Bob Dylan", "The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Bringing It All Back Home", etc.) in this space as I believe that those albums reflect both the prime period of his musical influence and, when future generations begin to ask their versions of the social questions posed by the 1960's, will be the music they will be pressing to learn 100 years from now.
This documentary is also formatted to reflect fully on that above-mentioned shared underlying understanding of Dylan's career and place in the folk/rock pantheon. The structure of the film also reflects the now standard method of doing a film documentary. Plenty of clips of Dylan's childhood, youth, the early days in the burgeoning folk scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960's and plenty of clips of early performances up until that decisive period in 1965 when Dylan decided to move in another direction combining his still thoughtful but by then more personal lyrics with an electric guitar (and band to back that sound up). That changeover gets full attention by having clips of the breakthrough Royal Hall concert interspersed through the film. The film thus has its central focus on this switch-over that is a part of what made Dylan so controversial and upsetting to traditional folkies back in the day.
Additionally, this film also has something that is not always the case with biographic documentaries; the subject himself holding forth on the meaning of it all. Most times that would not necessarily be a revelation as such efforts are usually unproductive. Here, however, the notoriously private and generally unresponsive (to interview questions, at least) Dylan contributes his take on what is bound to be used as a primary source for "the first draft" of his effect on popular music in the late 20th century. Although Dylan generally responded to the interviewers questions here I would argue that for whatever purposes he told no more than we already knew or what he wanted told. Not unusual in the famous but a little maddening here for those, like this reviewer, who happen to be serious looking at the question of "the meaning of the 1960's. But, so be it.
Fortunately another feature of theses types of documentaries helped out on that question. The film is heavily seeded with comments, performances and anecdotes by many of the performers still standing and other interested parties of the early 1960's who personally knew Dylan or had something of interest to say about the times. The list of "talking heads" (to the good here, I usually use this phrase with a little tongue-in cheek") brought into this production formed a veritable who's who of those in or around that folk scene at the time.
Most informative of this crowd, not surprisingly, were the late folk historian, Dave Van Ronk, and the, as of this writing, very much alive Pete Seeger who not only performed music but made it their business to know and keep the folk tradition alive. Van Ronk was especially informative about the competitiveness of the early folkies mainly the male ones, as Joan Baez was conceded on the female side to be the "queen of the hill", to see who would become "king of folk". He also had interesting comments about the commercialization of folk music and the dreaded "selling out to mainstream culture". By Van Ronk's account backed up by other sources I have run across as well, Dylan was intensely interested in that battle. Seeger was strongest on the transition, of which he was a seminal figure, of the folk tradition from the older 1930's Great Depression `lefties' like Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Cisco Houston and Lead Belly to the new kids on the block.
Others of note along the way include the afore-mentioned Joan Baez, at one time also Dylan's girlfriend, with some very insightful comments giving us the "skinny' of what it was like actually living with such a whirlwind and about the strains on their relationship (and her psyche) of her direction toward more political involvement, and his away from such activity. Liam Clancy (of Tommy Makem and The Clancy Brothers) and Maria Muldaur (most noted then for her key role as singer in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band) add some spice to the conversation. There are many others who have something to say about particular events but of that crowd I would select John Cohen (of "The New Lost City Ramblers") as most informative about the history of what was going in those times and the schism between the `purists' and those who wanted to `sell out' for filthy lucre. Again, Cohen is not a surprising choice, as "Lost City" spent much time on tracing the folk traditions (and it included Mike Seeger, Pete's half- brother so you know they were interested in history).
Others have, endlessly, gone on about Bob Dylan's role as the voice of his generation (and mine), his lyrics and what they do or do not mean and his place in the rock or folk pantheons, or both. After viewing this documentary it still seems hard to believe now both as to the performer as well as to what was being attempted that anyone would take umbrage at a performer using an electric guitar to tell a folk story (or any story for that matter). The well-known English Royal Hall performance or that equally well-known three song folk/rock set at Newport in 1965 hardly seem worth getting steamed up about now. It is not necessary to go into all the details of what or what did not happen with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 (although this incident gets a full airing by all parties) to know that one should be glad, glad as hell, that Bob Dylan continued to listen to his own drummer and carry on a career based on electronic music.
Note: Although I do not usually spend much time looking through special features sections of DVDs here there are several extras well worth looking at. They include some early performances by Dylan both highlighted in the documentary and others that did not make the cut. Additionally, a number of the "talking heads' that are heard in the documentary , including Liam Clancy and Maria Muldaur, do renditions of some Dylan's songs.
DVD Review: Are All Documentaries Mere Propaganda?
Summary: 3 Stars
Way back in high school, I had a History teacher, Mr. Bailey, whose pet peeve was documentaries. He said that although the most interesting documentaries cover subjects that are controversial that there really isn't any such thing as objective reporting since bias is unavoidable and inevitable. He said further that you can usually determine the prejudice of the filmmaker within seconds of the start.
I think of this argument whenever I watch a documentary and found it to be generally true with a few notable exceptions. There is for example a film called, `Jesus Camp' that has no introduction, conclusions, or incidental music in the movie with the effect that, if you read the customer reviews, you will see that there are some five star reviews that are glad to see it as an expose' of the Christian brainwash society and other five star reviewers who see it as a celebration of the Lord. If there is a disagreement among viewers about the conclusions a film draws then it usually follows the bias of the filmmaker. For example, in this film, No Direction Home, some see it as the best Dylan documentary ever and some disagree, depending upon what you think of the last 44 years of Dylan's career. If you believe that his talent died with his abandonment of the folk music scene, then you may think this is the best Dylan documentary ever.
I have watched this film many times and I enjoy it every time, but there are two other things that, in my opinion, keep this film from being the greatest Dylan documentary. First is the editing. Chronological order is essential in objective biographical documentaries since that is how we all live, trapped in a timeline. Flashbacks and reveries may be good dramatic devices in works of fiction that imply an autobiographical illusion, but events transpire as they transpire and when unfolding a factual report or a documentary, inclusion of dreams and fantasies about how things could have been drags the work down into the world of opinionated emotional propaganda. Mr. Scorsese had the good fortune to have Mr. Dylan (and others) sit in front of the camera and talk about the phenomenon of his personal career starting in 1961, and Mr Scorsese tastefully and professionally interspersed that interview into the new and previously unseen fascinating historical footage of those long past times talked about. But for some amateurish reason he continually interrupts his documentary with footage from Bob Dylan's 1966 tour wherein so-called fans jeered and booed him on stage for performing with an electric rock band. This jarring and distracting footage continues spontaneously interrupting throughout the documentary implying some sort of ultimate climax as the unfolding chronological events in the story move closer to that moment, but the only thing that happens when the documentary eventually reaches that point is that the documentary itself abruptly ends, and that brings me to the second point of what holds this movie back, premature ejection.
Dylan's decision in 1965 to abandon the den of dusty beatniks and yesterday's folk songs marked not only the end of the road for fans of that genre but `No Direction Home' implies that that was the end of Dylan and that there isn't any story worth relating past that point. It was by no means the end of Dylan's genius nor of his career which continues today, forty-four years later. Mr. Scorsese apparently was one of those who never wanted Dylan to `go electric' since that is where his documentary stops, in 1966, with Dylan on stage amidst the sea of hecklers. I have bought every one of Dylan's records from 1963 to today. Some were disappointing but all were interesting in some way or another.
Where is the rest of the story of Dylan's brilliance that spans from Blonde On Blonde 1966 to Modern Times 2006 and beyond? The end? I don't think so.
Description of Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
The two-part film includes never-seen performance footage and interviews with artists and musicians whose lives intertwined with Dylan's during that time. For the first time on camera, Dylan talks openly and extensively about this critical period in his career.It's virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn't have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese's achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative. There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art's self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans' complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths. All of these threads reinforce each other, together weaving the film's intricate texture.
Scorsese's 200-plus-minute focus on Dylan's earliest years allows for a portrayal of unprecedented depth, with multiple angles: a rich composite photo is the result. The main narrative has an epic quality: it moves from Dylan growing up in cold-war Minnesota through Greenwich Village coffeehouses and the Newport Folk Festival, climaxing in the controversial 1966 U.K. tour that crowned a period of unbridled and explosive creativity. In his transition from Robert Allen Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, we observe him concocting his impossible-to-describe, unique combination of the topical with the archaic, like an ancient oracle. Scorsese was able to access previously unseen footage from the Dylan archives, including performances, press conferences, and recording sessions. He also uses interviews with Dylan's friends, ex-friends, and fellow artists, and, intriguingly, with the notoriously reclusive Dylan himself (who looks back to provide glosses on the early years), fusing what could have turned into a tiresome series of digressions and tangents into a powerful whole as enlightening, eccentric, contradictory, and ultimately irreducible as its subject.
Some of the deeply personal bits remain unrevealed, but Dylan's preternatural self-assurance acquires a slightly self-deprecating, even comic edge via some of his reflective comments. Alongside the arrogance, we see touching moments of the young artist's reverence for Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash. Joan Baez, in a poignant confessional mood, comes off well, and the late Allen Ginsberg is so seraphically charming he almost steals the show a few times. A crucial throughline is Dylan's hunger for recognition and ability to shape perceptions so that would be singled out as not just another dime-a-dozen folk singer. It's illuminating--particularly for those familiar with the artist's latter-day aloofness on stage--to see his reactions to audience booing in the wake of his "betrayal" in this fuller context. No Direction Home also makes clear--in a way that wasn't possible in D.A. Pennebaker's iconic Don't Look Back--how Dylan's ability to manipulate his persona always, at its core, protects the urge for expression: Dylan's ultimate mandate, as an artist, is never to be pinned down. As Scorsese masterfully shows, the myth around Dylan only grows bigger the more we discover about him. --Thomas May
DVD features: This two-disc set of Scorsese's full two-part documentary includes treats such as Dylan working on a song at his hotel during the UK tour as well as performing several songs as in concert or on TV.
More for the Dylanologist
 No Direction Home: The Soundtrack |  Chronicles: Volume One (paperback edition) |  Bob Dylan Scrapbook |
 Don't Look Back |  The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series |  The Last Waltz |
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Man on WireRelease date: 2008-12-09; DVD
Best price: $13.37
Price in other shops:
Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $17.59
Price in other shops:
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedRelease date: 2008-10-21; DVD
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth & The Blue Planet Seas of Life (Special Collector's Edition)Planet; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $52.97
Price in other shops:
The Beales of Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
A Haunting in ConnecticutRelease date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $25.20
Price in other shops:
ReligulousLions Gate; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
The BBC Natural History Collection featuring Planet Earth (Planet Earth/ The Blue Planet: Seas of Life Special Edition/ Life of Mammals/ Life of Birds)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $85.99
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $19.49
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Dylan Speaks: The Legendary 1965 Press Conference in San FranciscoRED DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2006-10-31; DVD
Best price: $5.51
Price in other shops:
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 RevisitedRelease date: 2004-06-01; Music CD
Best price: $5.32
Price in other shops:
Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8Release date: 2008-10-07; Music CD
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Shine a LightParamount; Release date: 2008-07-29; DVD
Best price: $12.72
Price in other shops:
Bob Dylan - No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7)Release date: 2005-08-30; Music CD
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops:
Chronicles: Volume Oneby Bob Dylan
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.27
Price in other shops:
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965Sony; Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $10.24
Price in other shops:
I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)WELLSPRING/GENIUS; Release date: 2008-05-06; DVD
Best price: $7.94
Price in other shops:
The Last WaltzTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2002-05-07; DVD
Best price: $6.02
Price in other shops:
Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition)NEW VIDEO GROUP INC; Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $22.99
Price in other shops: