Originally posted by JustaFied
He was never particularly political on specific subjects. His songs from his brilliant '65 albums, "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" were a far cry from the folk ballads on "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan".

Right, his subject matter was always quite varied, not particularly political. Even "Freewheeling" features 8 out of 13 songs that have not a single political verse. The five "protest songs" therein are: "Blowin' in the Wind", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's", "Oxford Town" and "Talkin' WW III Blues". I've noticed several Dylan songs look back on relationships that have ended.

I agree that the interviews were "edited masterfully to provide chronological and thematic order", but I thought the musical footage was sometimes edited in awkwardly. For instance, in Part 1, there were several scenes of his mid 60's electrical performances interspersed with descriptions of his growing up in Minnesota. I didn't see the relevancy of such juxtapositions, unless it was to show the evolution of the artist.

I hadn't noticed until now that you mention it, JustaFied. Foreshadowing perhaps?

I also wish the film had done a better job of putting into context just how many great songs Dylan wrote in that time period.

Ed Bradley mentioned this during an interview of Dylan for the program 60 Minutes last year, but Scorsese gives no sense of just how prolific the young Dylan was as a songwriter.

the DVDs don't actually contain any more concert footage than what was seen in the film. In fact, when you flip to the individual songs on the DVD, it just skips to that part of the film. Disappointing.

Several sources indicate the dvd set includes 8 songs performed in their entirety. I wtached it on PBS so I don't know firsthand. Please check the extra features on the discs and let me know.