Martin Scorcese's documentary on Bob Dylan will be aired on PBS tomorrow and Tuesday nights. This follows the release of the film on DVD last week. I couldn't wait a week, so I bought the DVD. For Dylan fans, it's a must-see. For others, it's still worth the 4-hour viewing time, at the least to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps the film's strongest point is its extensive concert footage, as well as its numerous interviews with such luminaries as Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Neuwirth, Pete Seeger, and with Dylan himself.

The film focuses entirely on Dylan's life and career up to 1966, the year in which he suffered extensive injuries in a motorcycle crash that temporarily slowed his evolution as a songwriter and performer. Although this time period is probably Dylan at his most talented and prolific, the documentary, in choosing to focus only on these years, doesn't entirely succeed in capturing the full Dylan persona.

But then again, who exactly was Bob Dylan during those years, and who is he today? Joan Baez gives perhaps the most salient answer: "Bob was one of the most complex human beings I had ever met. I think at first I really tried to figure this guy out. And then I gave it up. So I don't know...I don't know what he thought about, all I know is what he gave us".

What he gave us was some of the most exciting and challenging songs of his era. In 1962, Dylan was in Mississippi singing Pawn in the Game, then in '63 he was next to MLK in Washington singing When the Ship Comes In. Then he grew cold of being the protest song spokesman and he moved in a new direction, plugging in the electric guitar and churning out such classic albums as "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde". Was this the right decision? I don't know, but what he produced was musically groundbreaking and lyrically stunning, although it was not immediately popular at the time. The documentary contains wonderful footage of Dylan performing "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Maggie's Farm" at the Newport Folk Festival in '65, the songs drowned out in a chorus of boos. Similarly, when Dylan and his band start up an electrified version of Ballad of a Thin Man during a tour of England that year, a heckler yells out, "What happened to Woodie Guthrie, Dylan?". Dylan smiles, turns to his band, and tells them to play it loud. He starts singing, "You know something's happening but you don't know what it is...". Once again Dylan's one step ahead of the crowd.