Exhilarating was THC's reaction. THC hadn't planned to see A Complete Unknown when he first heard about it but was persuaded to take a chance after reading some reviews by people he respected. Glad he did so and is certain to see it again at some point.
Never saw Timothee Chalamet before. The kid is spot-on playing Dylan in all his mumbling, passive-aggressive glory and is very good performing the music. In fact, the staging of all the music scenes is done very well, including those of Joan Baez, played by the talented and charismatic Monica Barbaro, another actor new to THC.(1) Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a version of Dylan's early 60s girlfriend Suze Rutolo, is also outstanding.
All of the casting hits the mark. Edward Norton is a pitch-perfect Mr Rogers as folk singer Pete Seeger(2), Boyd Holbrook is hilarious as Johnny Cash, while Dan Fogler's Albert Grossman, and Scoot McNairy as the dying Woody Guthrie are also well done.
The movie recounts the beginning of Dylan's career, covering the period from 1961, when he arrives in New York City, becomes the star of the folk music revival period, and then goes electric in 1965, climaxing with his appearance at the Newport Folk Festival that year. THC recently wrote about the significance of the turn in Dylan's music in Dylan 15.
The film captures the marvel of Dylan's musical creative process (though the essence remains unknown) and stage presence, both acoustic and electric. The quality and quantity of his output is staggering. Dylan 15 focused on three albums from 1965 and 1966, but A Complete Unknown reminds one the avalanche of memorable original compositions on his three albums from 1963 and 1964. Here's a partial list (songs heard, at least in part, in A Complete Unknown, indicated with asterisk):
From his two 1965 albums we also hear Like A Rolling Stone, Maggie's Farm, Subterranean Homesick Blues, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes a Train To Cry, Highway 61 Revisited.
While conveying Dylan's musical genius the film is not a hagiography. At various times, Dylan is portrayed as snide, remote, elusive, egocentric, infuriating, and a fabulist. During the course of the movie, Baez calls Dylan an asshole and a jerk, both of which are accurate descriptions (though who knew that singing Blowin' In the Wind and Masters of War would serve as a chick magnet, at least where Baez was concerned!). He's also very funny. At the personal level all you see is Dylan's surface; what's inside remains enigmatic, as he has deliberately done throughout his life. Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, is the finest of any musician from the 60s and 70s, but a reader is often left wondering how much is invented by Dylan. He's been a careful curator of his myth for decades, while rejecting any attempt by others to define or control him, a characteristic accurately portrayed in the movie. This is not a traditional biopic where the main character's personality transforms over the course of the movie and he triumphs over all obstacles. Dylan's music changes, but his personality does not in A Complete Unknown.
The heart of the film is around what was seen by the leaders of the new folk revival of the late 50s and early 60s as Dylan's betrayal. He was seen as the figure who could transcend the mere folkie label and his move to electric was bitterly resented by some and indeed turned out to be a death blow to the folk revival. That theme puts a different spin on some of his folkie songs just before his transition to electric. In the context of the movie, these lyrics from The Times They Are A Changin' struck THC as a warning to those folkies who were resisting the oncoming wave of rock, though his audience heard them much differently at the time:
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don't criticize What you can't understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin' Please get out of the new one If you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'
As did this lyric from It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, which Dylan plays to close his '65 Newport Folk Festival set:
Well, strike another match Yeah, go start new, go start new 'Cause it's all over now, baby blue
Like all movies, A Complete Unknown plays around with facts and chronology. The sequence of the composition of Dylan's acoustic songs is rearranged, his relationship with Sylvie was over by the time of the '65 Newport Folk Festival, some other events portrayed didn't happen or, at least, didn't happen that way, and the fierceness of the resistance to Dylan's Newport performance is over-dramatized. The relationships with Baez and Sylvie play a significant part, but by early 1965 Dylan was involved with Sara Lownds who he was to marry that November. I assume Lownds is not in the movie because since their divorce in 1978, Lownds, with whom Dylan had four children, has remained silent on their marriage and Dylan, who commented on and approved the script, probably wanted to keep her out it.
Go see the film; like Dylan's autobiography it is a well-done and enjoyable mix of fact and myth.
Another towering figure, Bill James, gives some insight into Dylan here.
(1) Baez had a beautiful voice but I never cared for her singing because its lack of dynamics and declarative stridency made it sound like she was delivering a lecture.
(2) Imagine Mr Rogers, and, indeed, Seeger had a very sunny personality, as also being a Stalinist (as Seeger also was in real life).
The story of Desmond Doss during WW2 is something I'd been unaware of until a few years ago. I did not see Hacksaw Ridge when it was released in 2016, but the THC Son suggested we watch it when he was visiting last week. It is a very powerful movie. Like any film portraying real events there is a good deal of fictionalizing, but the core of the tale is faithful to the essence of Desmond Doss. And faith is the core of the story, as Doss was the first conscientious objector in our nation's history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. If anything, the movie understates his exploits and heroism.
The power of Desmond's religious conviction is conveyed honestly and I think director Mel Gibson's ability to convey faith, as demonstrated in his previous directorial efforts, is a perfect match for the subject matter. The movie was filmed in Australia with mostly Aussie actors except for Doss (Andrew Garfield) and his sergeant (Vince Vaughn).
The power of the movie is enhanced at the end by brief excerpts of late in life interviews with Doss, and his company commander, who initially tried to get Doss removed from his command. Doss passed in 2006 at the age of 87.
The events portrayed at Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa in late April and May of 1945 actually took place over a three week period. Omitted from the movie is Desmond's service as a combat medic in the 1944 assaults on Guam and Leyte, for which he received two Bronze Stars for his bravery.
After the war, Doss spent 5 1/2 years being treated for tuberculosis, contracted on Leyte, during which he had a lung and five ribs removed before being discharged in 1951 on a 90% disability.
Below is the full text of his Medal of Honor citation.
He was a company aidman when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged
escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy
concentration of artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire crashed into
them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others
back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept
area with the many stricken, carrying them one by one to the edge of the
escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the
face of a cliff to friendly hands.
On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy
rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of
the lines on the same escarpment; and two days later he treated four men
who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave,
advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy
forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before
making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety.
On 5
May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small-arms fire to
assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a
spot that offered protection from small-arms fire, and, while artillery
and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma.
Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a
cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the
enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while
continually exposed to enemy fire.
On 21 May, in a night attack on high
ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of
his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be
mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured
until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a
grenade. Rather than call another aidman from cover, he cared for his
own injuries and waited five hours before litter bearers reached him and
started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank
attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby,
crawled off the litter and directed the bearers to give their first
attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was
again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of one arm. With
magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a
splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the
face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of
many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry
Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of
duty.
I've never ridden the autonomous driving vehicle Waymo but Phoenix Metro is one of the initial areas in the country that allowing the vehicles to operate. It's becoming more and more common to see their distinctive profile as you do your errands. A couple of days ago I was at the intersection of 44th and Indian School and saw three at the same time. Yesterday I was on Camelback Road which is three lanes. At a red light I noticed the cars in the other lanes were both Waymos. Today we drove about twenty minutes to meet some friends for coffee and saw a couple more.
Both of the THC Kids have taken them and enjoyed the experience. My time is coming.
Right now Waymo is only authorized for surface roads but it is being tested on highways and expected to get approval in 2025 per the video below.
Eric Ross likes maps and draws many of them. Ross grew up in Montreal and is a Canadian citizen but was born in Turkey. He has a Masters Degree in Geography and a Doctorate in Islamic Studies and is currently an Associate Professor of geography and research methods at Al
Akhawayn University in Morocco. His specialty is the cultural and urban geography of
Muslim Africa.
The map below shows the major trade routes in the Old World about a century and a half before the voyage of Columbus and just before the outbreak of the Black Death later in the 1340s. The major nodes of trade are in the Middle East, India, China, and the Middle East. At the time, all of China and most of the Middle East were dominated by the Mongols.
Four of the ten largest cities are in China - Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. Two of the other big cities, Fez in Morocco and Tabriz in what is now Iran, are much smaller today. Tabriz was the capital of the Mongol's Middle Eastern dynasty, while Fez hosted its own prosperous Moslem dynasty. It was at this time that Ibn Battuta, the famed Moslem traveler, set out from Morocco on his great journey. From 1325 to 1354, Battuta visited Moslem Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, India, and possibly China, making a final visit across the Sahara Desert to West Africa, a journey on which he provides a detailed description of the slave trade from that area to the Moslem world. On the map below, slaves show up as a major commodity in several areas besides West Africa, including the Slavic areas of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Sudan, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the islands of what is now Indonesia.
At this point, Europe had many trade routes but is not designated as a core trade area by Ross. This was to change over the next century as European rapidly became more wealthy.
Super Sky Point to Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff man and base stealer to ever set foot on a baseball diamond. I’m stunned. Some guys seem larger than mortality. Rickey was one of them. #RIPpic.twitter.com/CFnizuJAog
The greatest lead-off hitter in major league baseball's 150 year history. A top-tier Hall of Famer. One of the most exciting players anyone has seen. With that distinctive crouched batting stance, of which sportswriter Jim Murray wrote, "He has a strike zone the size of Hitler's heart". And the source of many funny stories, including his penchant of referring to himself in the third person.
Born Rickey Nelson Henley Henderson, named after Ricky Nelson. Died a baseball immortal.
