This is Martin Scorsese's new documentary about Bob Dylan, focusing on Dylan's career between 1963 and 1966. Those four years include his emergence from rural obscurity in Hibbing, MN -- good segment on early musical influences, some of them surprising -- to folk stardom in New York Town, to the rift with folk traditionalists like Pete Seeger when he went electric, to global celebrity, through the contentious 1966 UK tour. ("You're Judas!" an audience member yells). Scorsese stays in the background here, to his credit, but he has chosen his focus wisely. This is a study of a gifted artist at the moment of fame and then through what follows. And along the way there are some little musical ditties, gosh, let me try to remember the names of some of the songs he wrote in that period -- "Blowin' in the Wind", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Masters of War", "Highway 61", "Hard Rain". Watch for his pithy response to a clueless interviewer's question about "Hard Rain".

I suspect you will enjoy this even if you don't consider yourself a Dylan fan. Even as a long-time fan it opened my eyes. The modern day Dylan is a surprisingly sympathetic figure. He plays a few mind games with Scorsese (or whoever the hidden interviewer is) but IMO that is only an artifact of 40 years of the degree of celebrity you can't escape. It surprised me a bit to discover him as a basically decent guy, as complex and flawed and elusive as he is. Maybe he has reached the age where he no longer feels the need to shroud himself in enigma.

Highly, highly recommended.

Mike