Which Bob Dylan Should We Biopic Next?…
Bob Dylan has always been more than a musician. He’s a symbol, a storyteller, a shapeshifter, and a mythmaker whose influence spans six decades. It’s no surprise, then, that filmmakers keep returning to him, crafting wildly different approaches to capture his enigmatic essence. Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There (2007) took a kaleidoscopic, avant-garde approach, presenting six actors ranging from Cate Blanchett to a young Black actor, Marcus Carl Franklin as variations of Dylan. More recently, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown has taken a more traditional route, focusing on Dylan’s transformative years in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, during his rise to folk stardom.
But Dylan’s life, filled with sharp left turns, mysterious disappearances, and reinventions, offers far more material for the big screen. As a man who embodies both the mythology and contradictions of American history, he deserves an extended cinematic universe. Imagine The Bob Dylan Biopic Anthology: a collection of films spanning his different eras, directed by diverse filmmakers, each tackling the facets of Dylan that resonate most deeply with them. Here are some of the untold or underexplored moments in Dylan’s life that would make for rich, compelling cinema.
1. The Gospel Years: A Surprising Conversion
In the late 1970s, Dylan shocked his fans and critics alike by embracing evangelical Christianity. This wasn’t just a private shift; Dylan spent years crafting explicitly Christian music, preaching from the stage, and alienating his fan base. Albums like Slow Train Coming and Saved marked this period, featuring fiery gospel tracks and lyrics steeped in Biblical imagery.
A biopic focusing on this era could grapple with themes of faith, doubt, and artistic reinvention. How does an artist who thrives on ambiguity and mystery find himself in the rigidity of organized religion? What toll does this take on his career, his friendships, and his perception of himself? A director like Martin Scorsese, whose Silence and The Last Temptation of Christ explored complex questions of belief, could bring the necessary gravitas and depth to this story.
Dylan’s gospel years were polarizing, but they were also intensely creative. His live performances during this time were electric, full of fire and brimstone. A film centered on this period could showcase not just the spiritual struggle but also the music’s raw, redemptive power.
2. The Basement Tapes: Retreat and Reinvention
In 1966, after a near-fatal motorcycle crash, Dylan retreated from the public eye to a house in upstate New York known as Big Pink. What followed was a period of profound artistic experimentation. Dylan and The Band holed up in the basement, recording hundreds of loose, surreal, and genre-defying songs that would later become known as The Basement Tapes.
This era could be captured as a chamber piece a quiet, intimate look at Dylan the artist rather than Dylan the celebrity. Imagine a film where the action rarely leaves Big Pink, focusing on the dynamics between Dylan and The Band as they create music free from commercial pressures. Directors like Greta Gerwig or Noah Baumbach, who excel at exploring interpersonal dynamics in confined spaces, could bring warmth and humanity to this chapter of Dylan’s life.
The film could also explore the cultural context of the time. Dylan’s retreat came during a moment of intense social upheaval, and his withdrawal from the world could be seen as both a rejection of fame and a deeper engagement with American folk traditions.
3. Rolling Thunder Revue: The Circus on Tour
If any chapter of Dylan’s career deserves the full rock-and-roll spectacle treatment, it’s the Rolling Thunder Revue. In 1975 and 1976, Dylan assembled an eclectic cast of musicians, poets, and performers including Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, and Patti Smith for a chaotic, theatrical tour that blended music, performance art, and countercultural idealism.
This film would be the ultimate rock epic, blending the anarchic energy of Almost Famous with the surrealism of Dylan’s own persona. The visual style could take cues from Scorsese’s 2019 documentary about the tour, leaning into the blurred lines between myth and reality.
But the Rolling Thunder Revue wasn’t just about the music; it was also deeply personal. Dylan wore white face paint during the performances, a theatrical touch that masked his identity while amplifying his mystique. A film could explore what Dylan was running toward or away from during this time, weaving in the personal and the political as the tour crisscrossed a divided America.
4. Bob Dylan Goes Electric: A Moment of Rebellion
No Dylan biopic anthology would be complete without a film focused on the infamous moment when he “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. This is Dylan at his most rebellious, plugging in his guitar and alienating the folk purists who had once idolized him.
This film could be structured as a tense, ticking-clock drama, building toward Dylan’s performance and the fallout that followed. It would be a study of artistic courage: How does an artist cope with the pressure to meet expectations while staying true to their evolving vision?
The supporting cast could include Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and other folk icons of the time, whose reactions to Dylan’s electric turn ranged from shock to fury to grudging admiration. The director? Someone like Damien Chazelle, who has a knack for capturing the highs and lows of artistic ambition, could bring the necessary tension and energy to this pivotal moment.
5. The Never-Ending Tour: A Road Movie with No Destination
Since 1988, Dylan has been on what’s known as the Never-Ending Tour, a decades-long odyssey of relentless touring. This era, less flashy than his earlier periods, offers an opportunity to explore Dylan’s later years as a performer: older, weathered, and perhaps more enigmatic than ever.
A film about the Never-Ending Tour could be a meditative road movie, akin to Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson or Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland. It would focus on the rhythms of life on the road, the small moments of connection, and the existential questions that come with performing the same songs night after night for decades.
This film wouldn’t need to explain Dylan or uncover some hidden truth. Instead, it could embrace the mystery, showing Dylan as he is: a restless traveler, constantly moving, constantly searching.
6. Dylan and the Protest Era: Beyond the “Voice of a Generation”
While Dylan’s early years as a protest singer are well-documented, they’re often simplified into a neat narrative of the folk singer who became the “voice of a generation.” A film could dive deeper, exploring Dylan’s complicated relationship with the civil rights movement, his ambivalence about activism, and his eventual rejection of the protest label.
Spike Lee or Ava DuVernay could direct this film, bringing nuance and historical context to Dylan’s involvement in the 1960s social movements. It could examine not just Dylan’s music but also his interactions with key figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and his brief but meaningful participation in events like the March on Washington.
The Case for the Dylan Cinematic Universe
Bob Dylan’s life is too vast, too multifaceted, to be captured in a single biopic. Each era represents a different version of Dylan: the folk prophet, the electric rebel, the gospel preacher, the surrealist poet, the road-weary traveler. Why not embrace that complexity and create a cinematic universe where each film explores a different piece of the puzzle?
There’s a Dylan for everyone, whether you’re drawn to the sincere troubadour of the early 1960s, the cryptic recluse of the late 1960s, or the restless seeker of his later years. By giving each chapter of his life its own film, we could celebrate not just Dylan’s music but also his ability to mirror and shape the world around him.
Hollywood loves franchises why not make Bob Dylan the next one? With the right directors, actors, and creative vision, the Dylan Cinematic Universe could become a masterpiece of storytelling, as complex and enduring as the man himself.
