**Enough With the Dylan-Splaining: ‘A Complete Unknown’ Isn’t a Documentary!**
By now, Bob Dylan has become one of the most mythologized figures in modern music history. His music, his persona, and the stories that have grown around him are often so deeply intertwined that it can feel like there’s no such thing as a straightforward exploration of his work. Instead, the cultural conversation about Dylan often turns into a kind of “Dylan-splaining,” where well-meaning critics, fans, and even filmmakers attempt to decode his mysteries, unwittingly adding to the very mythology that surrounds him. One of the most recent culprits in this regard is the documentary *Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown* (2023), a film that aims to unpack the enigma of Dylan’s early years. However, it is crucial to assert that this isn’t a documentary in the traditional sense—at least not in the way we usually understand the genre.
*Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown* purports to offer an intimate look at Dylan’s evolution from a humble folk singer to the cultural icon we know today, but the film misses the mark by presenting a more stylized, narrative-driven take on Dylan’s early career, one that prioritizes myth over fact. The problem isn’t just with the approach of the filmmakers, but also with how these myths are presented as “truths” to audiences who may not be as familiar with the complexities of Dylan’s life and work. Rather than providing insight, the film tends to reinforce stereotypes, misunderstandings, and the dangerous impulse to “explain away” Dylan’s unique contributions to music and culture.
### The Mythmaking Problem
Bob Dylan is one of the most written-about and discussed figures in modern culture, and for good reason. His music has captured the imaginations of countless listeners, with his lyrical genius and ability to tap into the social and political currents of his time making him an essential figure in both music and history. But somewhere along the way, the myth of Bob Dylan became so powerful that it began to eclipse the person himself. Dylan, the artist, was replaced with Dylan, the symbol—the mysterious figure who said just enough to keep people guessing but never too much to reveal everything.
This process of mythologizing has only been exacerbated by media and critical narratives that attempt to explain Dylan, often through simplistic frameworks. Critics have too often tried to pin down the “real” Bob Dylan, as if the artist himself could ever be contained in a single narrative. The documentary *A Complete Unknown* fits neatly into this tradition of reducing a complex artist to a digestible myth.
From the outset, the film presents Dylan as an unknowable figure—a “complete unknown” in the eyes of the world, even as his music grew in popularity. This framing isn’t necessarily wrong; after all, Dylan’s very public persona was often contradictory, elusive, and resistant to easy interpretation. But this theme of unknowability is carried through to such an extent that the film often leans too heavily on speculation, rather than providing any real analysis or insight into the person behind the myth. The result is a depiction of Dylan that feels more like a collection of stereotypes than a genuine effort to understand his artistic journey.
### Repackaging the Legend
The desire to make Dylan understandable isn’t a new phenomenon. Throughout the decades, Dylan’s work has been analyzed, critiqued, and deconstructed in a multitude of ways, often with the intent of “solving” the mystery of who he really is. This documentary, however, presents its own version of the mystery, with a focus on reconstructing Dylan’s early years, from his arrival in New York in the early 1960s to his breakthrough as a major figure in the folk and protest music scenes.
One of the issues with this film is that it approaches Dylan’s rise to fame with a sort of detached reverence, presenting him as a blank slate onto which various cultural forces could project their expectations and desires. The documentary portrays Dylan as an outsider, a kid from Minnesota trying to find his place in the world of Greenwich Village folk music, but in doing so, it simplifies his journey and positions him as an archetype, rather than as a fully realized individual.
Much of the film’s narration and structure feeds into this idea of Dylan as a figure who exists primarily to be interpreted, rather than as an artist who was actively engaging with the culture around him. It’s a neat and tidy narrative that reflects the kind of “Dylan-splaining” that has become all too familiar in the years since he became a household name. The reality, of course, is much messier than the film suggests. Dylan wasn’t just responding to the world around him—he was also helping to shape it.
### The Documentary’s Blind Spots
Perhaps the biggest problem with *A Complete Unknown* is its lack of context for Dylan’s work. By focusing so much on the mythology and the surface-level aspects of Dylan’s rise to fame, the film fails to delve into the nuances of his art. Dylan wasn’t just a folk singer who stumbled into political protest music; his lyrics were deeply poetic, shaped by a wide range of influences, from the Bible to the Beat poets to the world of classical literature. His decision to “go electric” in 1965, a moment that caused a firestorm in the folk community, is treated almost as a footnote in this film, despite its massive cultural and musical significance.
The film’s reliance on dramatized reenactments of pivotal moments in Dylan’s early career also strips away the complexity of the actual events. These reconstructions may add a layer of cinematic flair, but they do little to enhance our understanding of Dylan’s thought processes or artistic intentions. Instead of offering new insights, *A Complete Unknown* takes a familiar approach to Dylan’s mythic persona—one that feels more like a glossy retelling than a genuine exploration.
Moreover, by focusing so heavily on Dylan as an enigmatic figure, the documentary runs the risk of encouraging a view of Dylan as someone to be admired from a distance, rather than understood or engaged with. This lack of deeper engagement with his work ultimately undermines the possibility of a more profound appreciation of his contributions to music and culture.
### Conclusion: A Cautionary Tale of Dylan-Splaining
In the end, *Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown* is emblematic of the challenges that come with trying to represent an artist as complex and elusive as Bob Dylan. While it may serve as a primer for those unfamiliar with his early years, it ultimately reinforces the very myths and misunderstandings that surround Dylan’s persona. It positions him as a figure to be decoded, rather than an artist to be experienced and explored on his own terms.
Dylan’s work is complex, layered, and full of contradictions, and the impulse to “explain” him through oversimplified narratives only serves to diminish the very things that make him a compelling figure. Rather than attempting to pin him down, perhaps the best approach is to acknowledge the mystery and embrace the ambiguity that has always been a part of his art. After all, Dylan himself has often said that he isn’t interested in being “understood”—and that’s perhaps the most important thing we can take away from his work.
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