A complete unknown — A movie review

The cost of being yourself.

Image Source: Bedford Playhouse

Bob Dylan — The only song I really knew of him for the longest time was “ Mr. Tambourine Man “ and it got me hooked. I knew of the “Rolling Stone” but it was later that I came to know that the words also were his. It was in 2016 this man got a Nobel Prize in Literature. There were a lot of debates around it as he was a song writer and never before someone, who had nothing literary published in his name, was awarded such. I started going through the rabbit hole of his music and lyrics and then I heard “ Blowin’ in the wind “. At that moment I had my answer.

This movie was on my watchlist for quite a while, yearning was obvious, Timothee Chalamet was a definite cherry on the top. His story is indeed remarkable. A man coming from nowhere, with no past, just emerged on the scene based on his talent. He had heard the works of Woody Guthrie and just knew Guthrie is someone who understands his own language, so maybe he will finally be able to have a conversation. That’s what precisely happens, through Guthrie he meets people who are trying to establish country music and Bob Dylan eventually becomes the loudest voice of it. Though when he is right at the verge of bringing glory to country music, he chose to explore other kinds of music, hence hurting the whole movement.

Who exactly owns the artist?

Those who first supported him when he was trying to find his footing? The people who became fans and now command what they want to hear? The record label who knows just the right strategy to maximize revenue from him? His friends or family who stood by him through thick or thin? As per the film, or Bob Dylan too, an artist is owned by his art. He is just an instrument to what inspires him. He need not follow the prescribed rules, he is meant to just be. In one of the scenes Bob Dylan says, “Everyone asks where these songs come from, Sylvie. But then you watch their faces, and they’re not asking where the songs come from. They’re asking why the songs didn’t come to them.”

With fame comes the weight of expectations from everyone around you. Everyone wants to reap their share in it. Bob Dylan chose to be himself and was ready to pay whatever the cost comes with.

How many times does a man oblige before he becomes debt free?

Art has to be created just for the sake of it, just because you are stuck by inspiration. You can’t bend it, to meet your needs. If you do, that’s not art.

It also reminds me of J D Salinger, who chose to live and write in anonymity. After his first success, he kept writing but never published any of his subsequent works. Just because he figured he is becoming a phoney , he himself warned against ‘ Catcher in the Rye’.

On that note:

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist

Before it is washed to the sea?

Yes, and how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, and how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind