Masked and Anonymous - a review (long)
Michael G Smith
popcorn and horror shows."
- Bob Dylan
"What's so bad about being misunderstood?"
- Bob Dylan
You would probably have to go back to early Godard to find a movie as
audacious, shockingly funny and brilliantly incisive in its analysis
of the uneasy alliance between art and commerce as Masked and
Anonymous, the new movie from Bob Dylan and Larry Charles. As with
some Godard, I can't say whether it's a comedy or a tragedy - but it's
definitely a masterpiece.
The very idea of Masked and Anonymous has always seemed farfetched and
unreal, even as a hypothesis: early reports suggested that Dylan would
play the ridiculously named "Jack Fate", a jailed musician sprung from
prison to play a benefit concert whose aim was to "save the world".
The curiosity and confusion aroused by the concept has only been
exacerbated by the secrecy surrounding the film's production and, for
a while, the almost daily updates of an increasingly long list of
Hollywood stars who agreed to work for scale for a chance to share the
screen with Dylan.
When the news first broke that the legendary singer/songwriter might
return to the big screen after a fifteen year hiatus, it was couched
in the disingenious terms that Dylan was "in negotioations" to star in
a new film. We now know that Dylan was, in fact, responsible for the
film's conception (the notion of anyone else playing Jack Fate is
preposterous) and it's also worth noting that this story broke the day
after the Grammy awards; it was as if Dylan, knowing the world of
"entertainment news" would have bigger fish to fry, had decided to
strategically minimalize the publicity of his latest project.
Now, less than a year after news of the film was first announced,
Masked and Anonymous has arrived. Shot on digital video in just 20
days and apparently made in the same freewheeling spirit that Bob
Dylan likes to record albums, the end result is a wonder to behold: a
dense collage of sound and image that threatens to overwhelm the
senses but never quite does, thanks to the rigor and precision of
director Larry Charles and his team of talented collaborators. The
film is, at turns, poetic, playful, political, personal, terrifying,
funny and deeply moving; in short, all of the virtues we've come to
associate with Dylan's greatest work as a recording artist.
Some of what has been written about the film is false. The setting is
not "an unnamed country" but rather "Somewhere in America", as a title
at the beginning makes clear. After a montage in which unkown groups
are seen rioting, carrying out terrorist acts and/or military
operations, the viewer soon realizes that "America" is a totalitarian
police state. The model for this country seems to be the negative
utopias depicted in the novels of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell
(images of a dictator-like "President" canvas almost every available
public space) - but instead of being set in the future to comment on
the horrors of the present day, references to recent world events
suggest the film _is_ set in the present, only in some kind of
alternate reality that just happens to bear a strong resemblence to
our own.
In an interview in 2001, Dylan said, "We're living in a science
fiction world whether we realize it or not." Masked and Anonymous then
is the story of that world. This is the world that Bob Dylan sees and
responds to; Tom Friend, an aggressive reporter played by Jeff
Bridges, is clearly meant to stand in for all journalists, even while
Dylan puts his own words in Friend's mouth. Similarly, the organizers
of the benefit concert make demands of Fate that must represent the
kind of idiotic commercial concessions that Dylan is faced with on a
regular basis: the setlist they want him to play includes (tee-hee)
"Eve of Destruction".
If Dylan's vision seems bleak, there is a ray of hope. There is one
genuine human relationship in the film - between Fate and his former
roadie, Bobby Cupid (Luke Wilson, in his prime). I believe the warmth
and real affection between these two characters, which stands in stark
contrast to all of the other relationships depicted in the film, is
key to understanding the agenda of Masked and Anonymous, and
especially its surprise ending (which I won't give away).
Of course, it is impossible to separate the story of Jack Fate from
the legend of Bob Dylan. There are so many references to Dylan's life
and career studded throughout the film that it ends up being a kind of
fascinating and wide-eyed self-criticism of the myth by the author.
(In this respect, the only film in the history of cinema that is
comparable is Chaplin's Limelight - not coincidentally, another
masterpiece by an artist in his autumn years.) One obvious example is
the character of Uncle Sweetheart, a portly, overbearing manager
played with great panache by John Goodman, who is meant to suggest
Dylan's own former manager, Albert Grossman. If Goodman's size and
obnoxious demeanor don't give it away, the glasses do. What these
personal references ultimately suggest is that Jack Fate, the
washed-up troubadour, is both Dylan's fear and, more importantly, his
victory over that fear.
The story: after being released from prison, Fate gradually makes his
way to the soundstage where the benefit show will be held. His first
significant encounter is on a bus with a confused young man (played to
perfection by Giovanni Ribisi) who regales Fate with a monologue about
joining a group of insurgents, only to realize that these rebels are
being funded by the very government that they mean to topple. When the
young man finally admits that he can no longer distinguish dream from
reality, you don't know whether to laugh or scream; it's the story of
John Walker Lindh, "the American Taliban", as told by Italo Calvino.
Fate laconically responds that he no longer pays attention to his own
dreams.
This scene sets both a tone and narrative pattern for the rest of the
film to follow; the plot proceeds in fits and starts as Fate
encounters a series of characters, each of whom reminds him of his
past. Flashbacks are introduced to Fate's childhood and we learn that
the troubadour is actually the son of the country's President.
To reveal more would spoil some of the film's surprises, but let's
just say that subplots involving the dying President's former mistress
(Angela Bassett) and a Vice President (Mickey Rourke in a welcome
comeback) who is preparing to take over the position that once seemed,
um, destined for Fate, indicate that Larry Charles and Bob Dylan had
Shakespeare on the brain. When Charles mentions Shakespeare and
Cassavetes as influences in the same breath, he's not kidding.
To direct the Hollywood cast to speak in the script's poetic, ornate
language could not have been easy but the actors do an exemplary job.
Nearly all of them manage to hit just the right note of cartoonish
hysteria to give the film a sense of unity and harmony. Except, that
is, for Bob Dylan. Jack Fate is the calm in the eye of the storm, the
one rational character surrounded by a world of swirling insanity and
director Charles gets a lot of comic mileage out of the contrast
between Dylan's deadpan delivery and the over-the-top performances of
nearly everyone else; it's like taking a Humphrey Bogart character out
of the '40's and plunking him down in the middle of a massively absurd
science-fiction landscape - the resignation and world-weariness of the
film noir hero remains hilariously intact! The very idea is inspired
and the execution is flawless.
The performance footage of course is terrific. Dylan and His Band play
seven songs live on camera and there is a warmth, an intimacy and a
relaxed quality to the performances that you will only see at Dylan's
best club shows. Although none of the songs are heard in their
entirety, these sequences are nonetheless beautifully filmed. There is
none of the rapid-fire editing and pointlessly roving camera moves
that mar the filmed footage of so many live performances. Instead,
Charles' strategy is to have the band crowd together and film them in
close-up with a wide-angle lens. There are numerous long takes in
which all of the band members can be seen and when the camera does
move, it's deliberate and meaningful.
A few notes about some techinical aspects of the film: I have called
it a "dense collage". There is so much going on in all corners of the
frame at all times that it's impossible to process it all in one
viewing. The clever production design of Bob Ziembecki (Dead Man) is
largely responsible for this. There are many Dylan in-jokes involving
signs, brand names and television schedule listings. A dvd and a
remote control should come in handy in sorting all this out.
The cinematography of Rogier Soffers (Character) also deserves
mention. The colors are nicely saturated and the resolution of the
image is the best I've seen in a tape-to-film transfer. Stoffers
lights his scenes with a noir edge - reminiscent of Edward Hopper's
paintings - and he shows a particular knack for capturing nighttime
exteriors. On a low budget with minimal set design, a crumbling
civilization is successfully suggested through the cinematography and
a careful choice of locations.
The film's soundtrack though may be its densest aspect, containing a
wealth of overlapping aural information: nearly wall-to-wall music is
interspersed with dialogue delivered at a machine gun clip and a
creative use of off-screen sounds, including omni-present gunshots and
the whir of helicopter blades. The nearly constant use of Dylan cover
songs is particularly complex and intelligent. As in Dylan's film
Renaldo and Clara, these songs are used, with varying degrees of
directness, to comment on the plot and characters and to underscore
the film's themes.
In a recent interview, Larry Charles said he never worried about
finding a distributor for the film and that Dylan had told him long
ago not to worry about the film "in the short term." However the film
is received in the short term, the richly orchestrated tapestry of
sound and image that is Masked and Anonymous is sure to keep
Dylanologists and film fans alike busy for decades.
Footy
sure other people feel the same. I'm really looking forward to this film.
--
Footy
furl...@hotmail.com
"May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sunshine warm your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand."
http://www.geocities.com/furlongn/Boots.html
"Michael G Smith" <mikey...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9a9afe56.03012...@posting.google.com...
Alex Leik
> and a Vice President (Mickey Rourke in a welcome comeback)
Oh come on!!! There is nothing to which he can comeback - he has always been
a bum!
Thanks for the great review, and for not spoiling the "key" moments! Can't
wait to see it!
aml
Stuart Dunn
"Alex Leik" <Aml...@ntelos.net> wrote in message
news:7VMY9.4539$wL1.941@fe01...
Dark Helmet
Ok, I just have to ask this in order to get some perspective. For the people who
are giving M&A glowing reviews: do you also like Renaldo & Clara? The answer to
that question will clear up a lot for me and will let me know who to trust on
this matter. Thanks.
d
What these personal references ultimately suggest is that Jack Fate, the washed-up troubadour, is both Dylan's fear and, more importantly, his victory over that fear.
what a fantastic observation!
d
Debra Lind
that but don't think he had enough experience with the medium to get
across what he was trying to say. It ended up an interesting mish mash
collage of what was going on with him at the time. He was trying to
capture things as they were happening in a sponatianeous kind of way.
Kind of how he writes songs. M&A I can see as a result of the learning
process of doing R&C. This time he had a lot of help from Charles, who
understood where he wanted to go with this. A true collaboration in
every sense of the word. If you afraid this movie a is quirky,
embarrassing and self absorbed type of thing, well it isn't. Listen to
what the critcs are saying to get your main clue. The one common thread
throughout their critiques is that the movie doesn't explain why this or
why that. Look at how many missed that Fate was the President's son for
instance. If they missed that, how are they going to figure out the
implications of that relationship? They didn't even see in the beggining
that it says its set in America. If they missed the obvious stuff that
was stated blatantly how are they going to get the rest?
Debra Lind
with info. Both visually and verbally. I would be busy soaking up one
bit and miss the next two. You don't have to be a Dylan fan to
appreciate this movie but you do have to pay attention. It helped to see
the film with several other people as, what one would miss the others
would catch and it came out in the conversation after. There are things
in there that only Dylan fans are going to catch, though they aren't
real necessary to the plot. It's like he threw in a Dylan easter egg
hunt for the fans. It's just going to take a few viewings to find all
the eggs...
passing stranger
news.none of them make any attempt to describe it at all. they just
lamblast it with out serious consideration. what's the point of that?
their attitudes just breeds mediocrity.
tab...@webtv.net (Debra Lind) wrote in message news:<27042-3E...@storefull-2131.public.lawson.webtv.net>...
Who Me
>that
You're stoned!
:-)
Bill
"There were four million people in the Colonies and we had Jefferson and
Franklin. Now we have over 200 million and the two top guys are Clinton and
Dole. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong!"
Mort Sahl
passing stranger
can't really deal with it unless I'm quite beyond stoned. The only
comparison for me between R&C and M&A is that any time Bob is around a
TV in M&A and it happens a bit, it's always pictureless electronic
snow. What a comment that was, I loved it.
Dark Helmet <Dark_...@newsguy.com> wrote in message news:<b1114...@drn.newsguy.com>...
LikeARollinStone
Killers. If this film is as surreal and stupefying as many Dylan songs I love
so well I'm sure I'll really get a rush out of it. Sounds like a strange trip
of a movie. Just can't wait.
===ACompleteUnknown===
Paul Templeton
portion of screenplay circulated about four months ago real?
"Michael G Smith" <mikey...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9a9afe56.03012...@posting.google.com...
Nick Jordan
Nick
"Paul Templeton" <temp...@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message news:<3e362...@news.iprimus.com.au>...
Tricia J
stranger) wrote:
>I missed this opening question. As for R&C, my copy is SO BAd that I
>can't really deal with it unless I'm quite beyond stoned. The only
>comparison for me between R&C and M&A is that any time Bob is around a
>TV in M&A and it happens a bit, it's always pictureless electronic
>snow. What a comment that was, I loved it.
that's great!
John Howells
<Thanks all for the info. One question, with the M & A now released was the
<portion of screenplay circulated about four months ago real?
Yes.
--
John Howells
how...@punkhart.com
http://www.punkhart.com
Beth Stern
become as elusive as R&C?
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* Remember Lot's Wife
"John Howells" <how...@punkhart.com> wrote in message
news:bSzZ9.456$8Z5....@sea-read.news.verio.net...
Debra Lind
pulling it back up, just didn't want to see it slide quietly off into
the archives quite yet.
Delia
"Debra Lind" <tab...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:4197-3E3...@storefull-2133.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> A review long and good. Pardon me for posting just for the sake of
> pulling it back up, just didn't want to see it slide quietly off into
> the archives quite yet.
Delia
>