This was first published on the Swedish Yahoo Group "Love & Theft" Johnny Borgan the author kindly translated it into English for Judas!

Simple Jack of Fate –
First thoughts on Masked & Anonymous.

Masked & Anonymous is a Bob Dylan-movie. That means: It's unthinkable without Bob Dylan.

Masked & Anonymous is the world transferred through Bob Dylan's eyes, in a way he so often has filtrated it through his, as it seems, never-ending ability to write songs and to transform his worldview through his performing of songs.

Dylan's songs is the movie's soundtrack, as they're the soundtrack of our world. What more is, this isn't limited to the songs who are used in full or partly in the movie, the links to Dylan's universe lays like beggars at the side of the road through the whole story. The world is drawn the Dylan way.

      "We live in a political world,
      Wisdom is thrown into jail,
      It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
      Leaving no one to pick up a trail."

      "Trouble in the water, trouble in the air,
      Go all the way to the other side of the world, you'll find trouble there.
      Revolution even ain't no solution for trouble."

      "Cities on fire, phones out of order,
      They're killing nuns and soldiers, there's fighting on the border."

And who, if not Ophelia, is it that we meet in the body of Penelope Cruz, peeking into Desolation Row? And who is Jeff Bridges' Tom Friend, if not Mr. Jones? At last stopped by Blind Lemon's guitar after getting a Jack-pot! Hihaaa! The victory of the blues – in the final end! And Bob gots his chance to be a real friend, by taking the sinner's place, after getting betrayed by Judas Lange. A true hero – an obvious Christ-like gesture, not inappropriate in a Bob movie, of course.

The worldview in the movie – we recognise it both in "Freewheelin'" and in "Cross the green mountain" – nothing new under the sun, actually. Apocalypse – then and now.

Dylan's fascination in film is well known, and his almost childish pride over his Academy Award, suggests some of his strong wishes to make the film his own medium. Nevertheless, this is not a familiar palette for Bob, and, even if he strongly wants to, he don't succeed even this time. And that's in spite of several golden moments, primarily moments when he has his guitar in his hands, as in the beautiful "I'll remember you" – worth the whole movie alone.

Personally I also love the way Bob attacks the easy chair – not unlike my own favourite position :-).

      "Human beings are alone with their secrets, masked and anonymous, no one really knows them."

Of course – if it's not the perfect movie, it includes words and lines that reminds us of Dylan at his best. There are pearls of language, both from Fate and other strangers' lines, and of course in Fate's monologues.

Even though, we're far from the tight drama that we get in a superb rendition of "Desolation Row" in Karlstad – where Bob totally controls both the canvas and the performance, and the perfect economy of his greatest songs. He lacks this kind of control in Masked & Anonymous.

On the other side – nobody can make a movie like Dylan – as in "Romance in Durango", as in "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts. Or, maybe most of all, as in "Brownsville Girl" – nobody can make a better "movie" than this, but what more is, nobody can even make a movie like this, not even Bob, even if he wants to.

Masked & Anonymous lacks the songs possibilities for direction and precision, and Bob obviously needs that to succeed. "Something about that movie though, well I just can't get it out of my head But I can't remember why I was in it or what part I was supposed to play."

Dylan is Jack Fate. Nobody can as he have a stronger presence when he's in his right element – the song. So also in the movie – when he sings he is just there - present, near, precise. But nobody can even be so distant, more alien-like – as when he stops mid-stage in Stockholm, and looks so baffled and so bewildered at the audience, searching for the renewing magic, but not finding it. Well, it was just one show away.

But in the movie he doesn't find it, except when he's in his safe spot, with his band, on stage. Not even a comforting Angela Bassett can reach Fate. He wanders, enigmatic, speaking in riddles – not a word without at least, two meanings. He is the seer, the observer, as we know him from all his work.

"He's got a new one out now, I don't even know what it's about But I'll see him in anything so I'll stand in line."

Of course, the movie is worth seeing, not just once, but several times, surely mostly for an audience who knows Dylan's songs and mythology. The movie is a video-track for the songs, a supplement, but not a necessity, and I don't think it transcends what Dylan already has given us as an artist, let alone the obvious joys it is to see Bob on the screen, as in the last scene, sitting in the backseat of a car. Most likely Bob doesn't have the patience it takes, maybe the producers don't have the money it takes, to make this great ambitions to the heights they deserve. Or maybe film never will be Bob's home area. If he gets another Academy Award, which I
hope, I guess it wont be for Masked & Anonymous, more likely for "Cross the green mountain".

"I was always the singer – and maybe no more than that."

Well, Bob, that ain't bad, it ain't bad at all. And the movie shows just this, Bob Fate is always the singer, and maybe no more than that.

The movie ends with a beautiful "Blowing in the wind" – perhaps one time a song of hope, now maybe a song about no hope, but that we're still keep on keeping on. (By the way – a great instrumental version of "Angelina" is the last music in the film – if we just could have had Bob Dylan's 2003-vocal going with this!)

I sat through it twice, but this was my impressions so far – I think they'll stay that way.