Classic Movie Review: 'I'm Not There' is the Ultimate Bob Dylan Biopic

I’m Not There

Directed by Todd Haynes

Written by Todd Haynes, Oren Moverman

Starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, David Cross, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood

Release Date November 21st, 2007

Published January 15th, 2025

With the release and popularity of the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, now is the right time to look back at the last time a filmmaker attempted to bring the life of Bob Dylan to the big screen. In 2007, the remarkably gifted director Todd Haynes made the film I’m Not There and to set it apart from the spate of rock n’roll biopics like Walk the Line, Ray, and so on, Haynes decided to approach the life of Bob Dylan from a few different and quite odd angles. Employing a half a dozen actors to embody aspects of Dylan’s career, I’m Not There flies in the face of the traditional biopic and creates something wholly unique that somehow feels more authentic to the life of Bob Dylan than even A Complete Unknown which is a strictly conventional biopic.

I’m Not There approaches the life of Bob Dylan the same way Dylan himself does, in eras and personas. The first such persona is a young black boy, calling himself Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin), in honor of the musician that inspired Dylan to pick up a guitar. The verbose young Woody is hopping trains, playing his guitar, and sharing his wise-beyond-his-years philosophy as he makes his way to New Jersey where the real life Woody Guthrie is laying in a hospital bed breathing his final breaths. In a parallel with A Complete Unknown, we see our Dylan stand-in arrive at Woody Guthrie’s bedside and play a song for his hero.

Our next Dylan approximation is Jack Rollins (Christian Bale), a rising star in the New York City folk scene. We follow Jack’s life from the distance of a documentary style approach in which his story is told via interviews with a woman named Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore), who acts as a stand-in for the legendary Joan Baez. Jack Rollins captures Dylan in his alcohol and drug fueled self-destructive phase and returns to the story later to embody the time Dylan, out of the spotlight of stardom, became something akin to a street preacher/cult leader, dedicated deeply to religion and gospel.

Jack Rollins briefly crosses over into the story of Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger) who plays Dylan the actor, a would be movie star on the rise struggling with fame and balancing it with family life. After falling in love with Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Robbie slowly loses her and their kids to his desire for fame, and the trappings that come with such fame. Jack just wants to be a successful actor and would rather not have anything to do with the world that keeps seeping into his life via TV reports on the War in Vietnam. This section mirrors how Dylan receded from the spotlight during the time when many of his contemporaries were protesting the war.

Easily the most exciting, compelling, and fascinating Dylan approximation is Jude Quinn, played by Cate Blanchett. Jude is Dylan in the immediate aftermath of going electric and seemingly abandoning his political convictions in favor of chasing money and lifestyle. Through Jude we see a frustrated Dylan seeking something to rebel against and ending up rebelling against his fans and the image he felt was foisted upon him as the leader of a political peace movement. Jude Quinn feels like the most honest and raw depiction of Bob Dylan, a cheeky, poetic, prickly genius who cannot stand being told what to do. This is who I genuinely believe Bob Dylan is.

Naturally, that’s what both Bob Dylan and Todd Haynes are going for in I’m Not There, a way for fans to choose their own idea of Bob Dylan while the real Dylan maintains his mystery. Dylan, through Haynes, can remain mysterious while still revealing the things that make up who he is. Via these fictional approximations of himself, Dylan is freed to be honest about himself and the things that truly matter, the fictions and realities that shaped his worldview. And the best part, while it feels like we are getting to know Dylan, he can disown any aspect of it via these fictional characters, allowing Dylan to control the narrative of his life and what he is really revealing about himself.

It’s unclear exactly what role Dylan played in I’m Not There but the film notably contains a great deal of Bob Dylan music, indicating a level of support on Dylan’s behalf. That plus the odd angled approach to telling his life story in a way that would suit Dylan’s own self-mythologizing, indicates Dylan perhaps had a strong hand behind the scenes. Regardless of Dylan’s level of involvement, I’m Not There carries an authentic quality that is surprising and exciting given the superficiality of the central gimmick, that more than one actor is playing an approximation of the main character.

Cate Blanchett is the standout among the actors portraying a piece of Bob Dylan. Her effortless cool, androgyny, and harsh, cruel, wit, provide a near perfect picture of a petulant budding superstar chafing against the image-makers, tastemakers, and fans who demanded Dylan fit into their specific mold. Dylan’s cynicism that often seeped out of his lyrics flows effortlessly from Blanchett’s give no-f###’s take on the character of Jude. The man who wrote Idiot Wind comes fully to life in this section of I’m Not There.

A deeply underrated part of I’m Not There is a section performed by Richard Gere. Gere plays Billy the Kid, the old west outlaw who fascinated Dylan for years. Here, I’m Not There takes a big risk in moving the action to the Old West and a small town that is about to be overrun by developers. Billy steps forward to champion the town that has provided solace for him as he’s hidden away from those pursuing him for his crimes. The one to one of Billy the Kid and the way Dylan hid away from the spotlight for several years is obvious, but the film finds a deeper catharsis in this section of the film as Billy rising to defy the developers comes to symbolize how Dylan found his voice again and returned to the spotlight to resume his career after a few years hidden away.

I’m Not There is filled with these lovely, graceful moments where the legend of Dylan reveals the real life Dylan in unexpected and insightful ways. The gimmicky premise proves to be the absolute perfect way to tell the story of Bob Dylan and the way his public life seemed to rise and fall in very specific eras. Fans and popular culture can relate to the eras of Bob Dylan and in that way, this strange approach to his life taken in I’m Not There makes the unfamiliar approach familiar in how we collectively view the real Bob Dylan.

I’m Not There is the classic on the latest episode of the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. We decided to cover it alongside our review of A Complete Unknown and, in many ways, I’m Not There is a perfect critique of A Complete Unknown. I’m Not There manages to feel more authentically about Bob Dylan than a movie where Dylan is the actual main character. Conventionality is a flaw in A Complete Unknown, for sure, even as A Complete Unknown is not a bad movie, just a far too conventional movie. The life of and fame of Bob Dylan defies convention and a straightforward biopic like A Complete Unknown was always going to suffer from playing too straight with its main character. A complete Unknown was always doomed to be a quite good movie incapable of transcending convention while I’m Not There is a masterpiece of unconventional storytelling.

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