A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 29, 2025

It's almost incredible in a way to think of a show business icon like Bob Dylan lasting as long as he has in a roiling industry without amassing the veritable "baggage" many stars of Dylan's general stature manage to rack up in terms of accruing scandals. Yes, there was an ultimately dropped accusation of supposed sexual abuse of a minor that ostensibly took place in 1965, though it's notable that even that controversy didn't start being litigated until 2021 (it was over by 2022). In just the first of two unintended ironies with that obviously troubling situation, the accuser was identified in court documents with the acronym J.C., which may somewhat hilariously remind fans of Dylan of his "conversion" to Christianity in the late seventies, something that at least for some, um, followers seemed perhaps a little "scandalous", or at least artistically questionable. But the second irony of the sexual abuse accusation is the year of its assumed occurrence, namely the above mentioned 1965. It's at least arguable that the single biggest "scandal" of Dylan's long and legendary life and career was his decision that year to forgo the pleasant blandishments of acoustic folk music instrumentation to start experimenting with (the horror!) electric guitars, something that (also probably more than merely slightly hilariously) made him a pariah for a rather large swath of music lovers, at least for a little while.

A 19 year old still known as Robert Zimmerman (Timothée Chalamet, Academy Award nominated for this performance) hitchhikes into New York City in search of his idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy). Guthrie is actually mortally ill and close to death, and Zimmerman (soon of course to be officially renamed Bob Dylan in 1962) finds him in a New Jersey hospital where he's being kept company by Pete Seeger (Edward Norton, Academy Award nominated for this performance). Dylan (as I'll refer to him for the rest of this review) plays a tune of his for the vaunted pair, and Seeger almost immediately becomes a mentor of sorts for the younger singer-songwriter. That relationship soon leads to introductions to other nascent stars like Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro, Academy Award nominated for this performance), along with a manager named Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler).

The evolution of popular music in the post World War II era probably deserves its own film, or at least its own documentary, but it may be salient to acknowledge how things morphed from the Big Band Era of the thirties and forties to solo vocalists (still typically backed up by large orchestras) in the fifties, which by the end of that decade had given way to fledgling rock 'n' roll, which could be offered either by putative solo artists (a la Elvis) or leaders with bands (a la Buddy Holly and the Crickets or Bill Haley and the Comets). Throughout these changes, so called "folk music" had been bubbling in the background the whole time, as evidenced at the very least by Guthrie's own life and career, but things really started to explode around what might be called the change from the Eisenhower to the Kennedy era. Part of that change may have been the added "message" element that folk music often offered, something that may have especially appealed to the generation the veritable torch had been passed to in the verbiage of JFK.

If the "message" might therefore be seen to subsume any ostensible "medium" (to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan), that might seem to make Dylan's decision to play an electric guitar positively irrelevant, which may provide some unexpected humor in the film courtesy of jaded hindsight. In terms of the zeitgeist of 1965 vis a vis the use of electric guitars (and/or other instruments) in "folk" music, though, it's interesting to note that Dylan actually had his first Top 40 single (if only barely) with Subeterranean Homesick Blues in April of that year, with electric guitar accompaniment (if not by him personally), some three months before his Newport performance that is an ostensible climax of this film. It's also absolutely fascinating to me, inveterate "chart geek" that I am, that according to one of Joel Whitburn's indispensable aggregations of Billboard data, Dylan actually hit the number 2 position with Like a Rolling Stone on July 24, 1965, the very day he first appeared at Newport, which would suggest that any "controversy" may not have pervaded to the general public. In a wider sense, though, it's also notable that within just a couple more months, a band virtually synonymous with "electric folk (rock)", The Byrds, would hit number 1 with their version of Turn Turn Turn, with a lyric famously adapted by none other than Pete Seeger. This is all to suggest that whatever intermittent roiling quality there may have been, as had already happened several times before as described above, popular music, in this case folk giving way to rock, was once again changing, probably inevitably.

Those very facts may hint at a certain slack that has to be granted the film, at least insofar as it offers some kind of conflict or suspense. Putting that aside, though (which is actually ultimately rather easy to do), the film is a really lovingly performed document of a soon to be legendary artist and a coterie of equally iconic "supporting" characters making their way through both personal and professional challenges. Kind of weirdly, though evidently at the real life Dylan's request, his "major squeeze" of the time is given the fictional name of Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), based on Suze Rotolo.

A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc in this package.

A Complete Unknown is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Searchlight Pictures and Disney / Buena Vista with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Though this was captured with Sony CineAlta cameras, it has been given a look much more reminiscent of film with a frequently pretty gritty looking digital grain field, something that is probably only more noticeable at the increased resolution of this format than it already is in the 1080 version of the film. Some may quibble with how "natural" that aspect looks, but putting that aside, detail levels are remarkably strong and consistent throughout, and this disc's Dolby Vision / HDR can aid at least subtly in delivering detail in some of the less fulsomely lit material, as in several of the performance scenes. Fine detail is typically excellent in everything from midrange to close up framings, and I'd argue even in a lot of the wider framings, including some of the outdoor material. The palette is beautifully suffused if kind of autumnal a lot of the time. Some of the yellow grading choices in particular see some additional highlights in this version.

A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As they frequently do, Disney / Buena Vista offers different codecs on its 1080 and 4K UHD discs. This disc has a Dolby Atmos track that takes all of the positives of the 1080 disc's excellent sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and, yes, elevates them, especially in terms of some of the music that is such an important part of the story. The spaciousness of the live performances in particular has even more venue ambience on the Atmos track, and some of the more raucous moments, as in the film's putative climax, offer impressive immersion and consistent engagement of all of the surround channels for ambient environmental effects in addition to the actual music. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K UHD Disc

• Audio Commentary by James Mangold

1080 Disc

• The Making of A Complete Unknown (HD; 23:50) is a good set of EPK featurettes with some interesting interviews and candid footage. James Mangold serves as a veritable tour guide.


• Audio Commentary by James Mangold

A digital copy is also included. We have this listed as featuring a slipcover, but the review copy sent to me did not have one.

A Complete Unknown 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It may be that A Complete Unknown will inevitably call up memories in some viewers of Bound for Glory, and in that regard, it sure seems to me that the life and career of Pete Seeger is certainly deserving of a film biography as much as Dylan and/or Woody, though there is a really good documentary about him called Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. Pete was a longtime friend of my late uncle, a guy who had fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Much later in life my uncle achieved a great deal of success in real estate, so much so that after he died his foundation funded a traveling exhibit of Abraham Lincoln Brigade artifacts that Pete actually accompanied, in both senses of the word, touring with the exhibit and playing for people who came to see it. For those interested, Smithsonian Folkways has released a number of Pete's Spanish Civil War related performances (like this one), but one of the other Smithsonian Folkways albums documenting the songs of the Spanish Civil War, in this case songs actually sung by ALB vets being held as prisoners of war in Spain, has a wonderful cover photo including my uncle cutting a rakish profile standing in his white trenchcoat on the right. The political aspect of the music of both Seeger and Guthrie at least suffuses this film, though it's kind of fascinating to see how that "critique" approach morphed under the influence of Dylan's muse. The actual "McGuffin" of this film may frankly be almost hilarious to really think about, but putting the "shocking" (pun intended) use of electric guitar aside, A Complete Unknown serves as a really winning document not just of an artist's early development, but also as a chronicle of a radically changing landscape, not necessarily limited to the world of music. Technical merits are solid, and the two supplements appealing. Highly recommended.