A Complete Unknown

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Poet and musician Bob Dylan is one of the most famous figures of the 20th century. By employing the mindset of Woody Guthrie, Jack Kerouac and Walt Whitman as well as his own existential perspective, Dylan created a world as rambling as it was unique, able to define our selfish demons and deliver music to the people. With steady and tireless dedication, Dylan wrote of his impassioned concerns. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, and he was the first musician to achieve the award. The film “A Complete Unknown” by James Mangold (Walk the Line) dramatizes Dylan’s early days.

Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in New York from Minnesota in the manner of a vagabond. He writes poetry on notepads and napkins, wherever he can manage. Dylan is determined to meet his hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) at Greystone Hospital. He also meets Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). He proceeds to play a tribute to them and a friendship begins.

Dylan performs here and there a little at a time usually at coffee shops and slowly builds a name for himself. The young man catches the eye of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) already a celebrity in her own right. Baez is smitten by the seemingly self-deprecating Dylan.

Through the word of Pete Seeger, Dylan cuts an album, a modest success. He then performs with Martin Luther King against segregation. His following grows. After the hit “Blowin’ in the Wind” as well as his touring with Baez, Dylan becomes a sensation.
He starts to cringe and resent notoriety. In the way of Warhol, he dons dark glasses and becomes evasive with questions.

Timothée Chalamet is excellent in capturing Bob Dylan’s hunched gait and his dry yet pointed humor. Chalamet also does well encapsulating the artist’s seriousness. The film does not spend much time highlighting Dylan’s intimate feelings or turmoil. While the film is a bit light in its emotion and detail, Chalamet carries the story forward in gesture and sound with a voice of worry and wistfulness.

Edward Norton is terrific as the direct yet earnest Seeger: well meaning, fiercely benevolent and full of soft fire.

Fans rebelled against Dylan at his insistence in playing an electric guitar rockabilly tune at the Newport Folk Festival, and it is this segment of the film that is the most vivid.

Many refused to accept the young man not only as a catalyst for social change but also as a statement of Nature herself as a magnetic force: mercurial, frenetic, and unstable, without names or labels. The human artifacts of cans and refuse are thrown at him in anger only to have Dylan exit in a gust of wind.

The film is compelling for blurring the line between actor and subject. Where does Timothée Chalamet begin and Bob Dylan end? Are they both Pop art figures in dark Warhol sunglasses retreating from prying eyes? Each of them is a portal to their Other.

Though the film is breezy, it is solid in portraying young Dylan as a transmitter of great energy, only to become a solitary spaceman in pursuit of his next message.

Bob Dylan would alienate his fans yet again with a Gospel album “Slow Train Comin’” (1979). The work is one of the most eccentric yet passionate Christian albums in the 20th century, with Nick Cave calling it a favorite for its “mean-spirited spirituality.”

To be disappointed, let down or confused is to miss the point. As a conduit of Nature, Dylan exists in various worlds without conditions or constraints. The man remains a portrait artist of our national mood and in 2024, he still spins forward in three-dimensional metal sculpture and in voice.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com