When our foremost modern film director turns his sights on the great modern singer-songwriter, a definitive documentary is assured. Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home follows the early career of Bob Dylan, from his days as a fledgling folk singer to his burst of popularity as the socially conscious “voice of his generation” to his controversial turn to electric rock music in the mid-1960s.

Weaving onscreen commentary from such important Dylan collaborators as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, as well as Dylan’s own observations, the film paints a vivid picture of a volatile period in American life and Dylan’s powerful artistic reaction to it.

Including priceless interview and press-conference footage and dramatic performances from the time — including the divisive Newport Folk Festival show of 1965, and the 1966 British tour with members of the Band — this monumental documentary makes clear how and why Dylan became the living legend he remains to this day.

Dylan allowed Scorsese to have access to hours of footage that had never before been made public, including a number of live performances, and footage of Dylan in the recording studio creating some of his landmark albums from the period. Dylan sits for an extensive interview, as does a variety of people who worked with him during this time period. (Barnes & Noble)

Watch the full documentary now (playlist contains several segments)

It’s virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn’t have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese’s achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative.

There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art’s self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans’ complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths.

All of these threads reinforce each other, together weaving the film’s intricate texture. Scorsese’s 200-plus-minute focus on Dylan’s earliest years allows for a portrayal of unprecedented depth, with multiple angles: a rich composite photo is the result.

The main narrative has an epic quality: it moves from Dylan growing up in cold-war Minnesota through Greenwich Village coffeehouses and the Newport Folk Festival, climaxing in the controversial 1966 U.K. tour that crowned a period of unbridled and explosive creativity. In his transition from Robert Allen Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, we observe him concocting his impossible-to-describe, unique combination of the topical with the archaic, like an ancient oracle. (Amazon)