Goose Egg Marathon Film #10
I'm Not There
(2007, Todd Haynes)
“I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me”To me, this line, uttered by Ben Whishaw’s character sums up the core of what is at once awe-inspiring and completely frustrating about Todd Hayne’s 2007 “I’m Not There” – a glorified and slickly presented biopic highlighting the life and events of Bob Dylan.
It’s a line actually attributed to the man, Bob Dylan, and underscores the main theme of this film –Dylan as a an artist whose complexity and social detachment makes him pretty difficult to nail down for a fortune cookie one-liner or the cover of a cereal box, but he’s surrounded by those who want to label and corral his personas as if to herd a field full of tomcats.
Todd Haynes take a unique…no
BRILLIANT method to investigate the many faces and personas of this classic folk singer, casting six different actors to portray different times of his life. The technique is particularly effective at forcing the audience to see the constant conflicts between his own life and the life thrust upon him. Hayne gives particular credit to his audience – expecting them to keep track of constantly intercutting representations of Dylan’s life, unexpected casting and portrayals, oblique imagery and lots of jump cuts between eras are characters – sometimes overlapping in a meta kinda way. It has at once a Coen Brother’s feel and the mind of a Fellini film. And for this I really appreciate being made to work to follow the narrative. When you overlay the gorgeous and often overwhelmingly profound music, there is a quite a bit to keep track of.
However like Dylan’s life portrayed in this film, this “chaos” line sounds deep and clever – until you start to deconstruct it and realize how empty it is...
There are strange areas where we are spoonfed – in some cases it’s almost head-slapping. Case in point: early on the younger Dylan, named Woodie Guthrie, carries a guitar with “This Machine Kills Fascists” scribbled on its case. It’s a great device – especially if left subtle. But it’s quickly followed by this exchange:
“You have a weapon in there?”“No, well not in the traditional sense”We didn’t need that.
And for 20 minutes we’re presented with the entire conflict that arose from Dylan’s first foray into electric guitar and the backlash of fans and critics. Rather than let us emphasize with Dylan’s plight for ourselves, we’re given the line “You just want me to say what you want me to say”. Yeah you mentioned that. And you will again like four more times.
Later we several scenes scattered around the film that are nice subtle overtures to Fellini’s
8 ½ - which I take as a nice symbol for the meta difficulties of art and celebrity. But the symbolism gets beat over our head when we see Dylan floating tethered to string.
But back to positives! Because there are many!I will say I particularly appreciated the conflict between Cate Blanchett’s Dylan and the reporter Keenan Jones (played by Bruce Greenwood). In particular, there is an exchange in the back of a limo in which Dylan rebukes the line of questioning – it later comes to roost in a TV expose (much in keeping with real events in a 1963 Newsweek article) criticizing his disingenuousness and façade. These exchanges open up a pretty unique theme – can you separate the message of an artist with the beliefs of the artist? It the Cat Stevens problem: can you separate “Morning has Broken” from his spiritual choices years later?
I often have this thought when you see a elected official or spiritual leader get in trouble because acts of their personal life conflict with their messages from the bully pulpit. At that point do you really throw out the baby with the bath water? Is the problem of abusive priests enough to disparage the entire religion? Does a president’s one-off affair make him a good candidate for impeachment?
This film raises great questions about the cult of celebrity and to what extent an artist is expected to live up to his public persona. It highlights the issue of the constant barrage of questions that are usually more about the reporter or fan than about this subject himself. Questions weights around the ankles carried place to place. Even a relatively harmless comment about Lee Harvey Oswald becomes a national stir. (An aside you have to love John Lennon’s attitude about this in this song “God” – taking his critics head on for the flap about his “more popular than Jesus” comment years earlier)
However, if I do have one problem with the film is, we are given no hooks into Dylan that make him a sympathetic figure. His has risen on a wave of popularity and media attention that gave him a place of prominence in the culture of the 60s. He has the largest voice of this generation, but when asked to take responsibility for his perceived abandonment of the cause and the folk music that so characterized it, Dylan’s response is one of reproach. “You think you know who I am, but you don’t know”. This have-it-both-ways attitude is a tough sell. Even the most indie of films and artists are marketing in a gift box with a red bow – this is the dilemma of needing your work seen and appreciated by others but not wanting to get stuck in your little box.
However Todd Haynes does take this criticism head-on! There’s this scene with Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at the foot of a huge crucifix when Dylan shouts at Jesus: "Why don't you do your early stuff?"
Man I’ve gone on so long and I didn’t even get into the music and performances. Let me just say they are rich and magnificent as the reputation that proceeded it. Yes Kate Blanchet was much deserving of the praise she received.
The music is well – fantastic of course. But much more the production, arrangements and vocals where very nice – never overreaching, very respectful to the source material, and quite simply a pleasure to the ears.
There is a lot to love here. So I almost hate to levy the criticizisms I’ve raised here. But in the end, this 2:15 movie could have packed a far better punch at perhaps 1:50. In fact, this could have been all-time great. And that’s what makes this frustrating. I would have loved to see an edit where the music did most of the talking. Let us soak in the magnificent cinematography by Edward Lachman and the enigma of three decades of Dylan’s evolving lyrics.
Verdict:
Had very high aspirations and accomplished a lot, but perhaps in the end promised a lot more than it could deliver on. Great soundtrack!
Grade: B