Wednesday, September 28, 2005

No Direction Home - Part 2

How did he find the narrative in the voluminous raw footage given to him, Charlie Rose asked Martin Scorsese, after Part 2 of the film aired last night. Scorsese replied by talking about spending three-and-a-half years on assembling, editing and shaping the film, while he was making Gangs of New York and The Aviator and shooting his new film in Boston. After all, this is the same man who once "stole" studio equipment to shoot "The Last Waltz".

After seeing Part 2 of the film, the narrative became clearer. The film is as much about the artist's pursuit of discovering his "true voice" as it is about the artist. Dylan, ever the cryptic Zen monk, says an artist should never feel he has finally arrived some place. Rather, he should accept that he is always in the "process of becoming".

Hence the (double) significance of the title, "No Direction Home".

Goddamn sweet punk moment in the film: Dylan instructing the band to "play it fucking loud" as the audience begins to boo the band.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a great story. Waiting for more. »