13 June 2009

"Goin' to Acapulco, Goin' On The Run."


I've raved about Todd Haynes' I'm Not There (film) as an instant classic. (If you click on the album cover above, you'll see the soundtrack CD is even broader than the music that makes it into the film.) Here's an example of the power of the film for me: a Dylan song I've never heard of, covered by a band I barely know, lands among my top five music segments from the film.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid are loosely woven through this new hide-out myth of Dylan's late sixties brief escape from the rock n' roll world. The surreal town of "Riddle" becomes the target of development (in this quasi-old-west tale (the railroad's coming right through the secluded valley) and the morality tale driving Dylan's outlaw-in-hiding persona a little farther down the road. Other interpretations welcome.

In the clip below -- (16 May 2010 update: My apologies, Web Sheriff has yanked the clip below because of a copyright claim; you will just have to trust me and rent the DVD) -- Jim James with Calexico give a spine-tingling, poignant performance. It's representative of such dramatic moments in the film, a film always reaching to grasp the multidimensional Dylan.

*****

*****

2 comments:

Dooley said...

Hey, what's with the giraffe?

Pepe' said...

Don't know about Tampa Paco, but this came out in NYC last year. Saw it at the NY Film Festival with Todd Haynes speaking afterwards. Thought it was absolutely brilliant and a tribute to Goddard and Fellini to boot, but a lot of people didn't like it.