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DON'T LOOK BACK - Bob Dylan in the U.K., 1965

© John Vincent Brennan

D.A. Pennebaker's black and white documentary DON'T LOOK BACK (1967) captures one moment in time in the life of singer Bob Dylan. In 1965, when the film was shot, Bob Dylan was becoming a rock and roll star in the U.S., while in England, he was still known as a protest/folk singer. Pennebaker's film follows Dylan on his U.K. solo tour where Dylan played material his acoustic songs such as "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll."

At this point in Dylan's career, he was just becoming a superstar. Although his top forty rock single "Like a Rolling Stone" still had not recorded, he was already the most famous folk singer in the world and had recently recorded his first rock album BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME containing the hit single "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The film captures the period of time when Dylan was shedding one skin while growing his next.

Dylan's music throughout the film (with the exception of "Subterranean Homesick Blues") is folk, but his attitude throughout is pure rock and roll. Dylan admired many things about the Beatles, and it seems that he had picked up the Beatles' trick of turning every press conference into a comedy routine. But while the Beatles chats with the press were always amusing, Dylan's could turn very dark and nasty. He spends much time tearing apart a TIME reporter, automatically assuming the man does not "get" Dylan, and in an even more uncomfortable scene, Dylan ruthlessly needles a student fan that had simply come up to Dylan's hotel room for a friendly chat. At the same time, he shows very gentle humor with a female fan that expresses disapproval of his new rock sound, and he is a perfect gentleman with an attractive female reporter and an African-American radio interviewer.

Dylan's entrance into the world of rock and roll is similar to Dorothy's entrance in Munchkinland, and it is fitting that this film, capturing the last year of Dylan the folksinger, is filmed in stark black and white. Whether that was Pennebaker's intention or not, he made a wise choice choosing black and white. DON'T LOOK BACK, although a documentary, comes off as Pennebaker's answer to Richard Lester's excellent Beatles mockumentary A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Lester's film was filled with bubbly humor and good cheer; Pennebaker's film is filled with dark humor and large doses of Dylan's cynicism.

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