Categories: Bob DylanFilm

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese will be released on Criterion January 19 2021

New cover by F. Ron Miller
  • United States, 2019
  • 142 minutes
  • Black and White/Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English
  • Spine #1062

In 1975, in an America defined by both the self-mythologizing pomp of the upcoming bicentennial and ongoing sociopolitical turmoil, Bob Dylan and a band of troubadours—including luminaries such as Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, and Joni Mitchell—embarked on a now-legendary tour known as the Rolling Thunder Revue, a freewheeling variety show that was part traveling counterculture carnival, part spiritual pilgrimage.

Director Martin Scorsese blends behind-the-scenes archival footage, interviews, and narrative mischief, with a magician’s sleight of hand, into a zeitgeist-defining cultural record that is as much a concert “documentary” as it is a slippery, chimerical investigation into memory, time, truth, and illusion. At the center of it all is the magnetic Dylan, a sphinxlike philosopher-poet singing, with electrifying conviction, to the soul of an anxious nation.
–> Criterion.com

It will be released on blu-ray and dvd January 19, 2021. The retail price is $31.96 for the blu-ray and  $23.96 for the dvd.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital transfer, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interviews with Scorsese, editor David Tedeschi, and writer Larry “Ratso” Sloman
  • Restored footage of never-before-seen Rolling Thunder Revue performances of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” and “Romance in Durango,” and of a never-before-seen cut of “Tangled Up in Blue”
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by novelist Dana Spiotta and writing from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour by author Sam Shepard and poets Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman

This is wonderful news, but I must confess that I’m a bit disappointed that they haven’t included more performances in the extras. There are so much that could/should have been included.

I will pre-order it and I am happy that it will come out on such a prestigious label.

More Dylan on the Criterion label:

Hallgeir Olsen

View Comments

  • I share your disappointment - much the same as when the Deluxe Edition of NDH was released. We know there's so much more in the vaults. I can only imagine they are holding stuff back for Tulsa.

    • The Netflix productions has been released on Criterion UK before (Roma, Marriage Story and The Irishman), so I think it will be a UK release as well. But no date yet

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