Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2021

It’s kind of interesting to note (no pun intended) that two titans of contemporary American cinema had at least tangential connections to musicals relatively early in their careers. Francis Ford Coppola was the unlikely director of the film adaptation of the 1940s Broadway smash Finian’s Rainbow, which took an extraordinarily long time to gestate and did not reach screens until 1968. Two years later, Martin Scorsese served in a number of crew roles as part of the team documenting Woodstock. Coppola’s love for the musical idiom continued with at least one other offering, the ill fated One From the Heart, while Scorsese’s interest in musical documentaries also continued unabated with several further efforts including The Last Waltz, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, some Michael Jackson adjacent material, and an American Masters piece on Bob Dylan. Dylan of course had been part of The Last Waltz, at least as a sidebar, but Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese plants the enigmatic and at times irascible poet-prophet front and center in both archival footage of the 1975-76 tour cum carnival show called Rolling Thunder Revue, as well as contemporary interview segments. Even Scorsese, who appears in an appealing supplemental interview included on this Blu-ray disc, seems a bit hesitant to overtly state what kind of “Bob Dylan Story” he’s creating with this film, and if the result isn’t always completely revelatory, due at least in part to Dylan’s legendary “descriptive” (some might say obfuscatory) powers, it is a fascinating deconstruction of what it’s like to live life on the road, the interrelationships that are both forged and tested in such situations, as well as the not always rosy glow of hindsight that then takes over in subsequent years and/or decades.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese makes copious use of documentary footage captured by Stefan Van Dorp at the time of the actual tour, and along with some other footage Van Dorp shot, including a patently hilarious snippet from what looks like a piece on the Animatronic Hall of Presidents at either Disneyland or Disney World, along with a lot of footage showing preparations for and celebrations of the United States’ bicentennial in 1976, it is patently obvious that Van Dorp had a sociopolitical subtext in mind for his documentary that never materialized. Van Dorp is on hand in this entry in contemporary interviews, which help to contextualize things, but his involvement in particular gives this film a decidedly “meta” aspect which is quite fascinating a lot of the time.

As Dylan admits in the first contemporary interview seen in this “story”, he has little to no memory of the actual events, and in fact he jokes that it happened so long ago that he hadn’t even been born yet (this comment in particular is kind of skewered by Scorsese in the supplemental interview with the director). But luckily the vintage footage proves that Dylan was an inimitable presence during the festivities, even when they could occasionally turn rancorous. While there’s a bit of backstage drama, it’s actually the performances that make looking back on things so ingratiating, if often intentionally outré. Odd presentational aspects like the white makeup that Dylan and others don tends to make them look like ghostly mummers or initiates in something like some of the Aboriginal tribes that have been seen in various films or even photographs by anthropologists.

There’s also a rather interesting historical aspect to this particular tour and one of Dylan’s better remembered singles from this era, “Hurricane”, with regard to Ruben “Hurricane” Carter’s incarceration. Another “meta” aspect, and an arguably not all that helpful one, is part of this tangent in the form of Michael Murphy portraying Tanner. There’s also the patently (intentionally?) gonzo “anecdotes” from Sharon Stone, which are evidently the stuff of legend in the most literal sense of that phrase. Another whiff of artificiality might be gleaned in the “character names” assigned to all of the iconic performers featured throughout this piece, with, for example, Allen Ginsburg being proclaimed the Oracle of Delphi, and Joni Mitchell going by the simpler but perhaps more effective The Artist.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1 (for the archival footage) and 1.78:1 (for the contemporary footage). Criterion's insert booklet contains the following information on the master:

In addition to newly shot interviews, filmed and edited in a digital workflow, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Sotry by Martin Scorsese was assembled from 16 mm footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue. The film is presnted in its original aspect ratios, which are predominatly 1.33:1 (for the 1975 tour footage) and 1.78:1 (for the newly shot interviews). Despite years of searching for the original negative of the tour footage, it was never found, making it all the more important to create a pristine transfer from the available lements. A 16 mm workprint of the tour footage was scanned and restored in 4K resolution at Cineric in New York using the facility's wet gate film scanner. The footage was then organized and transferred to high definition dailies to begin the editing process.

The two inch multitrack analog tapes from the 1975 tour were remastered for the 5.1 surround soundtrack, along with the digital audio files for the newly shot interviews.

Even the couple of minutes shown in the restoration featurette included on the disc as a supplement detail the pretty appalling shape the archival footage was in since the only available element was a workprint, and so if there are some perceived deficits at times in the image quality, it's largely forgivable since the improvement is really pretty extraordinary, all things considered. There are still blemishes that intrude now and again despite the restoration gauntlet, while contrast can be variable (with some noticeably milky blacks at times), and the palette occasionally ebbs and flows, but, again, just looking at the condition of the source element shows how much better things look now. The contemporary footage is sharp and appealing, with nice detail levels throughout, offering a refreshingly natural look at some now aged faces.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese features a great sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The tour footage does have a few spikes and valleys in amplitude, but on the whole fidelity is excellent, and the archival soundtrack seems to have weathered the vagaries of time and tide a bit better than the visual side of things did. Prioritization is generally very good in the musical moments, and the fact that there are some charmingly smaller venues featured means that crowd sounds are largely manageable. The contemporary interview segments all sound fine. Optional English subtitles are available.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Martin Scorsese (HD; 16:59) is an enjoyable interview done in 2019 where he kind of jokingly dismisses some of Dylan's "eccentricities".


• David Tedeschi (HD; 11:39) is a very interesting piece with editor David Tedeschi done in 2020 that details the Herculean effort undertaken to shape both the archival and contemporary footage into an organic whole.


• Larry "Ratso" Sloman (HD; 18:46) is another great 2020 interview documenting Sloman's book about the Rolling Thunder Review and his interesting nickname.


• Additional Performances (HD; 13:48) include:

  "Tonight I'll be Staying Here With You"
  Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  December 4, 1975

  
  
  

  "Romance Indurango"
  Harvard Square Theater, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  November 20, 1975

  
  
  

  "Tangled Up in Blue"
  Boston Music Hall, Boston
  November 21, 1975

• Restoration Demonstration (HD; 2:36) shows even more Herculean efforts involved in this project, and includes Scorsese's own comments about the condition of the archival source elements and the techniques undertaken to improve things.


• Trailer (HD; 2:26)

Additionally, this is a very handsomely packaged release from Criterion, with a beautifully oversized booklet which includes a variety of writing from Dan Spiotta, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, along with credits and an "about the master" page. A number of great stills are also included in the booklet.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is almost unavoidably "meta", given Bob Dylan's reputation as a modern prophet and all. It's clear from the interview with Martin Scorsese included on this disc that the venerated director both loves but is perhaps also slightly bemused by Dylan, and that attitude comes through loudly and clearly in this incredibly appealing piece. Criterion has provided another handsomely packaged Blu-ray with solid technical merits and great supplements. Highly recommended.