8 Bob Dylan Movies to Remember on His 70th Birthday
4. Renaldo and Clara (1978)
Dylan's one and only dramatic directing credit, an epic (four hours!) exercise in concert-tour surrealism featuring himself and wife Sara in the title roles, with Joan Baez and blues-rock legend Ronnie Hawkins appearing in support. It's also unreleased on DVD and exists only in bootleg format. You can pretty much glean Dylan's unconventional auteurist taste from this clip, featuring Baez's anonymous character covering -- perhaps ironically -- the Leonard Cohen ballad "Suzanne":
What did make it into circulation from Renaldo and Clara was a variety of perfomance footage filmed during Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour; the most indelible remains "Tangled Up in Blue" (and apologies in advance for the commercial at the front of this official clip):
5. Hearts of Fire (1987)
It's difficult to overstate how misguided and terrible Dylan's next screen effort would be: From the minds of Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand and Showgirls writer Joe Eszterhas came this very, very '80s rock drama, featuring the WTF cast of Dylan, mononamed then-pop star Fiona, and Rupert Everett in a triangle of conflicting creative and romantic relationships. Here are the first 10 minutes; I'd advise wearing headphones (until it's just unbearable, anyway):
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Comments
Renaldo and Clara was unwatchable, and I didn't like I'm Not There, but Don't Look Back's a classic, and No Direction Home the best documentary of a cultural icon available.
I actually liked I'm Not There. I thought Cate Blanchett was great and just thought it was an interesting concept for a film.
does anyone remember the 1970 movie featuring dylan and the james gang ?
it was billed as the first psychodelic western. it also had several other recording stars. driving me crazy for a year now trying to find out the title so I get obtain a copy. hope to hear from someone
thanks
1973 pat garrett and billy the kid
I do. I remember it. Most recently I remember it being included in the same article in which you left this comment.
I sat through the entire 4 hours of Renaldo and Clara and I didn't even get a lousy t shirt!