Martin Scorses's film of a Bob Dylan concert, "Rolling Thunder Revue," looks like a typical music documentary, but as Indiewire points out, it's not.
Fictional characters are mixed in with real people in order to provide context...and also just for fun.
The little white lies include:
- Sharon Stone claiming an affair with Dylan;
- The reminiscences of retired politician Jack Tanner (actually actor Michael Murphy who played that role in HBO series "Tanner 88)";
- The testimony of filmmaker Stephan van Drop (actually actor Martin von Haselberg);
- The memories of concert promoter Jim Gianopulos (who is actually the CEO of Paramount Pictures but was never involved with promoting music events).
While I do like Dylan's music, what interests me from the perspective of screenwriting is the film's blend of factual material with fiction--maybe that's why the film's full title is, "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese."
Still from "Rolling Thunder Revue." (Not really, just an image I like)
