Neil Young “loved” Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’
Neil Young has declared that he is a fan of the “great” new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
- READ MORE: ‘A Complete Unknown’ review: don’t think twice about seeing this brilliant Bob Dylan biopic
The film stars Timothée Chalamet as the music legend, telling the story of his rise from a breakout star of Greenwich Village’s folk scene in the early 1960s to his controversial performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, where he performed live with electric instruments for the first time.
The film was released in the United States on December 25 and will be out in UK cinemas from January 17, and one audience member who appears to have already had a good time with it is fellow rock icon Young.
Writing on his site Neil Young Archives on Saturday (January 11), he said: “I love Bob Dylan and his music. Always have. He’s a great artist. Once he was on my bus and I didn’t recognize him and threw him off but that’s another story. This movie is a great tribute to his life and music. I think if you love Bob’s music you should see this great movie. I loved it.”
Young and Dylan have been longtime mutual admirers, appearing alongside each other in Martin Scorsese’s seminal 1978 concert film The Last Waltz for a version of the latter’s ‘I Shall Be Released’.
The two artists also played a joint headline show at London’s Hyde Park in July 2019, which NME attended. “Here’s to these two icons doing exactly what the hell they want, whenever they want,” NME wrote in a four-star review. “Sometimes it sounds like we expect and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s always a thrill.”
With A Complete Unknown about to hit cinemas, NME has launched a special print edition magazine celebrating the film and the legacy of Dylan. The 26-page one-shot is available now – find out where to get it here.
NME awarded A Complete Unknown four stars, writing: “The most important (and often trickiest) job of any music movie is to get the music right. And this nails that. If you’re a Bob newbie, you’ll leave the cinema ready to dive into his back catalogue. If you’re already a fan, the next few weeks will be spent making playlists of lesser-known B-sides or reading the lore around a scene you weren’t familiar with. And that’s why it was a good idea to make this film – a mad idea, but a good one.”
Dylan himself has been complimentary about Chalamet, describing him as a “brilliant actor” and saying he is “sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”
Dylan also had some impact on the film’s script, as revealed by producer Peter Jaysen. “He met with [director] Jim Mangold multiple times,” he said.
“At one point they sat there and they read the entire script out loud, with Jim Mangold reading every part and stage direction, and Bob Dylan only reading lines of dialogue for himself. Through that process, [Dylan] sat there writing notes on the script. At the end of the last session with Jim Mangold, he signed the script and said, ‘Go with God.’”
Young, meanwhile, is set for a big summer as he has been confirmed as one of the headliners for Glastonbury 2025, after initially announcing he had withdrawn from playing the festival due to creative differences.
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Max Pilley
NME
