Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese

Director: Martin Scorsese
Year Released: 2019
Rating: 3.0

Cozy revisit of Dylan's 1975-1976 tour as he, along with Joan Baez, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith (clearly on acid), Joni Mitchell and countless others go around the States acting like a band of merry misfits playing to small crowds and irritating their handlers/promoters.  Anyone that's a fan of that era of music - and Bob's evolution as an artist - should consider it a must-watch (just like No Direction Home), but the question remains: what, exactly, was Marty's role in all of this?  The majority of the footage is outtakes from Dylan's film Renaldo & Clara and patched together archival interviews and a lot of it is just 'made up,' from the stuff with Sharon Stone to Michael Murphy (!?) playing a fictitious politician ... so it could be the case of Scorsese just goofing around and 'playing' at making an 'actual' documentary (I couldn't imagine having to sit down and edit all of that material into a cohesive project, but David Tedeschi and Damian Rodriguez do just that).  For the record, Dylan has been on the road since 1988 as part of what's been called the "Never Ending Tour" - having seen him play in my own home town (he had his Oscar on stage!), I can say it's definitely an ... eccentric experience.