For those unaware, A Complete Unknown is a 2024 film based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald. They both focus on the events leading up to the evening of July 25, 1965, when Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival backed by an electric band.
If you don’t know why that seems worthy of an entire movie or book, then it’s likely you are under the age of 50. The good news is that, like the book, the movie does a great job setting up the context of why Dylan’s set that evening is such a momentous occasion for music and an infamous one for the folk revival.
This is, at its heart, a music biopic. In that vein, it is important to note just how authentic this film is to the music. All of the cast sing their characters’ songs, and all clearly have the talent to do so authentically, not like caricatures of the singers they are portraying, but as the singers would be portrayed.
Musically, this film should be a spotlight for a Sixties folk music revival. New audiences are discovering, as old audiences remember; Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan. If nothing else it should at least increase the number of people searching “who is Al Kooper” on the internet.
But if you’re paying even a little attention to the context of the film, it will explain just how far we’ve come in as far as artists and the music industry go. Dylan going electric allowed his generation and those that followed to choose their own musical path instead of just treading upon the one that made them famous, which was probably the one that the label wanted them to stay on.
The music industry before Dylan went electric wasn’t so much about growth as it was about sales. Many decades later, growth (or at least change) isn’t always a hindrance to sales, but back then, it was seen as just that.
In an era where there are bands on classic rock radio like REM, U2, Weezer, Metallica – bands that have chosen to change their sound from album to album, and on occasion change their sound every album – it’s a film like A Complete Unknown that explains how Dylan may not have been the first to change his tune. He did, however, do it in the loudest possible and most sacrosanct way, and that was at Newport ‘65, in front of the fans who “knew him when” who thought he was theirs.
This film illustrates just how incredible it was for Dylan to get up and do what he did. Other bands simply do what they do now, perhaps because Dylan gave them the permission to not need to ask for permission.
In the film, Ed Norton is a revelation as Pete Seeger, Fanboys alum Dan Fogler (who will always be Hutch to me) is great as music industry man Albert Grossman, and Timothée Chalamet really does feel like the embodiment of Dylan at that time.
Is this film the most accurate portrayal of the events leading up to and including that momentous night in Newport 1965? Absolutely not. If you desire accuracy, read Wald’s book. It does convey the message well of the shift that happened that night, but the details are in print.
Truth is, this is a movie and not a documentary. There are plenty of those about Dylan if that’s what you are looking for. This is an entertaining movie based on true events. It should not be treated as the absolute truth, no matter how much the filmmakers do it justice.
Moreover, if you want even more about Dylan’s arrival in New York City, you can pick up Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan, but you won’t get more about Newport than you do in Wald’s telling.
This is definitely a film music fans will enjoy. The underlying message is to be the artist you want to be, not the artist they want you to be. Is that a spoiler alert for an event that happened more than six decades ago? Yes, but it is worth revisiting the point.