Complete Unknown , unsurprisingly reinforces the myth.
His objection was the shit sound. They had no idea how to mix electric back then.
Clip in comments.
Pete Seeger and the myth of the axe at Newport
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Seeger is treated as a an emblem of the old guard in the film, a useful earlier champion whom Dylan outgrew. I confess I knew nothing about his wife Toshi before the I saw the film, and very little more after. She is treated an an almost mute presence whose role is to be there for her husband.
This article gives a very different impression, of a far more dynamic, important and powerful figure in Seeger’s career and the whole American folk revival, and one who is treated pretty disrespectfully by A Complete Unown.
https://merrillmarkoe.substack.com/p/a-complete-unknown-the-ballad-of
Think he did better than Suzie Rotolo
Met up yesterday with someone who I trust with an opinion on film, and she said that, yeah, it’s all over the place, but it is worth seeing. I don’t do biopics – exception: Walk The Line about twenty years ago, and that was because I won tickets, erm, twice – but I am off to see it today.
Here’s a funny thing. She liked the Joan Baez portrayal but also said that she looked too toned.
Note to film-makers… in the Golden Age, the hip kids didn’t go to any gym!
“Hey John, fancy lifting some weights down at the gym?”
“Oh yes, Paul, that would be a simply splendid idea”.
That didn’t happen.
Not being a big Dylan fan, I rather enjoyed the movie likely because I wasn’t overly familiar with the real life events in detail.
I certainly felt the Pete Seeger presented on screen was a better man than the selfish at times Bob Dylan portrayed who rubbed his natural songwriting talent in the faces of many fellow folk music singer songwriters who supported him in the early days (such as Joan Baez).
Rock ‘n’ roll eh.
I thought the scene with Seeger eying the axe and thinking of possibly using it was a witty and knowing nod to the urban myth. They included a reference to it but showed it not happening; I thought it was funny, and meant to be so.
Yes I thought that was a good touch.
There seem to have been a few knowing references to Dylan’s life and
legend – JC’s ‘take care on that thing’ when BD got on the motorcycle was
another goodie.