Is Bob Dylan Still a ‘Complete Unknown’?

“O.K., and I’m going to begin now.” “See, I’m already thinking, why is it useful to have us both clapping at the same time? Intro — now.” “I’m Gilbert Cruz, editor of ‘The New York Times Book Review.’ And this is ‘The Book Review Podcast.’ I’m talking to some of the people behind this year’s Oscar-nominated films. James has had a truly wide-ranging career, directing westerns like ‘3:10 to Yuma’—” “Got to be 30, 40 more guns out there now.” “— superhero films such as ‘The Wolverine’ and ‘Logan’—” “And I am not taking —” “— classical sports dramas like ‘Ford v. Ferrari’—” “You just shut your mouth and let me do my thing.” “— and action adventures like ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.’” “In 2005, he released ‘Walk the Line,’ a film about the life of musician Johnny Cash.” “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” “And this year, he tackles another American master.” “ Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?” “His film, ‘A Complete Unknown,’ which looks at Bob Dylan in his formative years in early 1960s New York City, received nominations for, among many others, best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay.” “ It’s a hard Oh, it’s a hard —” “James Mangold, welcome to the podcast.” “Thank you. And what I think we had to do in putting that on the screen was to make it feel unimportant and let the words and the power of the music and Timmy’s performance make it important in the moment, but to try — I tried not to hit each song with a highlighter pen visually so that it felt like ‘important moment in rock history here,’ because I think that the songs do that work on their own.” “One of the most entertaining parts of the movie, for me at least, honestly was the relationship between Pete Seeger, who’s played by Edward Norton, and Timmy’s Bob Dylan.” “ This dusty old dust It’s a-gettin’ my home And I’ve gotta be drifting along” “Pete Seeger, a major figure in the American folk movement, he sees in Dylan someone who he could shape into an avatar, the one that’s going to go out and help popularize this movement. If anything, the secret of the movie that I think many people miss because they’re looking for a more conventional Freudian one is that Bob Dylan’s burden is his intellect, his ability, or maybe his oddness, but that part of what he has to live life with is that he processes the world, questions, crowds, music, words themselves differently than we do.” “I think it is interesting and somewhat surprising to some people to walk into a movie that they think is going to be a regular biographical film and walk out feeling as if they still don’t understand this man, that they are used to having the psychology of famous people explained to them through movies.