Masked And Anonymous [2003]

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video Starring: Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz Directed By: Larry Charles Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5014503151126 Format: PAL Label: 2 Entertain Video Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video Number Of Discs: 1 Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: 2 Entertain Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2004-05-10 Running Time: 102 Studio: 2 Entertain Video Theatrical Release Date: 2003
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Editorial Reviews: Sometimes surprising, often baffling and occasionally entertaining, Masked and Anonymous is another in the long but not necessarily distinguished line of rock-star movie vehicles. Bob Dylan stars in this BBC Films coproduction as an alter ego of himself, ageing rocker Jack Fate, released from jail to play a benefit concert in an alternative America that is run down and ruled by a military dictator. When not singing he makes little impression, so it's fortunate that director Larry Charles surrounds him with a galaxy of excellent supporting players, including John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Penelope Cruz, Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Dern, Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi and Val Kilmer--all of whom gave their services for free. The screenplay, cowritten by Dylan, is full of the kind of cryptic aphorisms familiar from his song lyrics: "What's bugging me?", remarks Jeff Bridges' character, "The absurdity of a lifetime of human labour, that's what's bugging me." "They have no ideology. They push both Jesus and Judas aside," says an anonymous bus driver, and there are plenty more didactic, speechy comments that even these veteran actors can't make sound natural or spontaneous. Better to focus on the music--both the songs Dylan performs on screen and those on the soundtrack, which consists mostly of foreign-language covers of Dylan classics. On the DVD: Masked and Anonymous on disc comes with a commentary track from director Larry Charles, who is good on the details of the shooting schedule, but vague about the movie's aspirations. There are some deleted scenes (none of which shed any more light on the plot), another Dylan performance, and a 20-minute "making of" featurette, with the many supporting stars waxing lyrical about the freewheeling shooting style and semi-theatrical staging. The anamorphic widescreen picture is unexceptional, as is the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, which naturally enough works best with the music. --Mark Walker
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Is Dylan that poor ? Comment: Bob Dylan is not always very well inspired these days. To invest his song and music in a fictitious Latin American situation with a dying general dictator, a civil war without any ideology, some dumb sharks trying to exploit some artists to organize a free concert in support of ... of what? It tries to show how Latin America is rotten, how our times have changed so much that we have lost all ethical ideology, how show business is meaningless, how even a revolutionary guerilla warfare has no real ideological objective and yet the film sets some religious objectives to this revolution. And it all ends in a fiasco. Bob Dylan is no great actor and that is not new. His music are interesting but this film is betraying them 100%. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne Customer Rating: Summary: Wasted opportunity, Comment: Bob Dylan made an observation early on in his life, perhaps on the way to New York from Minnesota, perhaps in those early years while working in the folk clubs, perhaps even while he laboured in his daddy's hardware store. What he observed affected him in a way that was only fully realised when fifteen years after he was famous for the song 'Blowing in the Wind' he found Jesus. The kind of madness that Bob has grappled with is one that visits all of those who see the mechanics of society revealed to them in painful, excruciating detail and absolute meaning, a vision that exceeds words, and which it takes all their effort to reduce into words. They become mad if they don't realise that they musn't share it with ordinary folk in its naked form, but can only use it, to create art, or create evil. Dylan chose art and the good, and he is a good man because he made that choice, and his art is great because he understands mystery. This film takes on that essential idea with a great tongue-in-cheek (but never ironic) view of what it is like to be Bob Dylan. It's highly unrealistic in the sense that it draws the real person of Dylan in the characters he meets, and keeps him aloof, as he plays the character of Jack Fate. It doesn't really work as a film, in that the allusions are orientated to Dylan's own particular iconography, his own symbolic landscape, which you kind of have to be familiar with to get it, but its fun to spot the allusions and the references to Dylan's own reputation. The problem is that it presents itself as a straight movie with an illusive and allusive narrative structure, but what it needed was something more coherent in the narrative and a director who really understood what the point was that Dylan was trying to make. But how do you make a movie in which the point is to be mysterious and to reject logical coherence, without utilising thie filmic properties of film. Perhaps they should have had Joss Whedon from Buffy the Vamnpire Slayer do script and direction. The film has a very slim narrative, it is mostly concerned with putting across a series of set pieces, which try to synchronise Christian or relgious thruths, with contemporary reality, and present those with a kind of mystical form of old fashioned wisdom. It tackles the big ideas, or human values on a unviersal scale. Nothing is less than fundamental, everything must be taken withn a pinch of salt. In other words: proper human values. If you are looking for an easy ride forget it, but you can enjoy yourself along he way. My one fundamental criticism of this disjointed and too complex, virtually incomprehensible tale (in any normal sense of what a film is supposed to be) is that Dylan did not take his hat off in the last scene. Customer Rating: Summary: OUCH Comment: Hey dont get me wrong I like Bob Dylan. I think that he is a good singer/songwriter. I have enjoyed many live concerts and own a lot of the mans records. I saw 'Renaldo and Clara ' and thought that it was a good movie. I enjoyed 'Pat Garret and Billy the Kid". "Masked and Anonymous" is less than a disappointment. It was weird watching Bob looking like Leonard Nimoy. At one stage someone refers to Bob's character's twin brother and I half expected Leonard to breeze in . . . . if only. . . . . . with a message for Captain Kirk. Such a development would have doubled my enjoyment of this movie. Do not bother to buy or watch this movie. If someone offers it to you repectfully refuse it. Customer Rating: Summary: Beyond bad. Comment: A terrible film. The story is drivel. The overacting is ubiquitous. Dylan's singing is awful. Why did they bother? Does no one have the bottle to tell Bob that he isn't the most talented guy in town or they all just a gang of fawning lackeys? How can I get back the 100 minutes of my life I wasted in watching this rubbish? Bobcats, open your eyes and ears asnd come to your senses. Stop trying to make out that this disaster is in some way meaningful. Or maybe you DO need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing. Customer Rating: Summary: Mysterious Comment: Bobcats will love this. They are a hardy bunch and will be prepared to stick with this often inscrutable, sometimes bizarre film. Although co-written by Dylan (under a hopeless pseudonym) it is no mere vanity project and features a truly great cast. While John Goodman, Val Kilmer, Jeff Bridges and Penelope Cruz do their best to not act Bob off the screen, he does a good job of lending wisdom and mystery to the ageing character of Jack Fate. Fate has to play one last benefit concert for the victims of post revolutionary America, which looks just like Dylan's Desolation Row. The entire film weaves dream like images around some great song performances from Bob and his band. It's like being lost in some of your favourite Dylan albums. There is little plot to speak of, rather an almost non-linear sequence of scenes recalling nothing less than an Empire burlesque and a World Gone Wrong. It doesn't reveal any obvious truths about Dylan, it's not autobiographical, and it's certainly not an easy view. However, it is witty and deeply human in places, and there are snatches of dialogue worthy of the best Dylan lines. This should be seen, not just by Dylan fans, but by fans of brave and individual cinema making. More Reviews