Dont Look Back
| Dont Look Back | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | D. A. Pennebaker |
| Produced by |
John Court Albert Grossman |
| Written by | D. A. Pennebaker |
| Starring |
Bob Dylan Albert Grossman Bob Neuwirth Joan Baez Alan Price Tito Burns Donovan Derroll Adams Horace Freeland Judson |
| Music by | Bob Dylan, Donovan |
| Edited by | D. A. Pennebaker |
| Distributed by | Docurama |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Dont Look Back is a 1967 American documentary film by D. A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England.
In 1998 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2014 Sight and Sound poll, film critics voted Dont Look Back the joint ninth best documentary film of all time.
The film features Joan Baez, Donovan and Alan Price (who had just left the Animals), Dylan's manager Albert Grossman and his road manager Bob Neuwirth. Marianne Faithfull, John Mayall, Ginger Baker, and Allen Ginsberg may also be glimpsed in the background. The film shows a young Dylan: confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and charming. Notable scenes include:
Dylan's romance with Baez had pretty much run its course by the time of the tour, and the film candidly captures what amounts to their breakup.
The opening scene of the film also served as a kind of music video for Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", in which the singer displays and discards a series of cue cards bearing selected words and phrases from the lyrics (including intentional misspellings and puns). Allen Ginsberg makes a cameo appearance during this episode.
The original title of this film is Dont Look Back, without an apostrophe in the first word. D. A. Pennebaker, the film's writer director, decided to punctuate the title this way because "It was my attempt to simplify the language". Many sources, however, have assumed this to be a typographical error and have "corrected" the title to Don't Look Back. In the commentary track to the DVD release, Pennebaker said that the title came from the Satchel Paige quote, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you," and that Dylan shared this view.
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