People make up their past, Sylvie!
They remember what they want.
They forget the rest.
Monica Barbaro and Timothée Chalamet star in ‘A Complete Unknown,’ a biopic that takes some factual liberties with Bob Dylan’s story.Searchlight Pictures
A Complete Unknown is loosely based on Elijah Walds 2015 bookDylan Goes Electric!
These are two guys with a deep breadth of knowledge about Dylan and his past.
If you have seen it, read ahead to see where the movie veers away from the historical record.
Dylan didnt arrive in New York alone.
Underhill has been removed from the story inA Complete Unknown.
Dylan didnt meet Woody Guthrie for the first time at a psychiatric hospital.
As the movie shows, Dylans first objective upon arriving in New York City was to meetWoody Guthrie.
Dylan takes a taxi and meets the ailing singer at his bedside.
Dylan didnt first encounter Pete Seeger at Guthries bedside.
Pete Seeger (played by Ed Norton) is a major figure inA Complete Unknown.
In the movie, hes sitting with Guthrie at Greystone when Dylan visits him for the first time.
In an unpublished portion of a 2007 interview withRolling Stone, Seeger recalled his actual first meeting with Dylan.
It was down in Greenwich Village, he said.
I knew a lot of people down there.
They said, You gotta hear this guy.
I heard him once, and I asked him to be at a Hootenanny at Carnegie Hall.
And this skinny guy raises his hand with a wry smile.
He says, Well, one of my songs takes 10 minutes.
I think it was A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall.
Dylan didnt sing Song to Woody to Guthrie at their first meeting.
In the movie, he motions for Dylan to play a song on the guitar.
The young singer responds by playing Song to Woody.
Dylan didnt crash at Seegers house.
Dylan was essentially homeless when he arrived in New York.
Bob was a very accomplishedschnorrer, a Yiddish term somebody who mooches for a living.
And a very smartschnorrernever wears out his welcome.
Dylan wasnt writing Girl From the North Country in 1961.
Dylans first meeting with Joan Baez didnt happen quite like that.
Dylan and Baez did meet at Gerdes, but it wasnt a chance encounter like the movie presents.
She went there specifically to see him.
I, of course, internally went completely to shreds, cause it was so beautiful.
Albert Grossman wasnt Dylans first manager.
In the movie, Albert Grossman is at Gerdes the same night that Dylan meets Baez.
He sees huge potential in Dylan, becomes his manager, and arranges an audition with Columbia Records.
Prior to that, Dylan was managed for brief periods by Terry Thal and Kevin Krown.
Theyve all been erased from the story inA Complete Unknown.
Dylan cut his first album two months after Robert Shelton wrote about him inTheNew York Times.
But he was there to play harmonica on a Carolyn Hester song that Hammond was producing.
Dylan didnt record his own album for another two months.
Dylan never dated a woman named Sylvie Russo.
Nearly every character goes by their actual name inA Complete Unknown.
Shes played by Elle Fanning.
Suze/Sylvie went to Europe for much longer than 12 weeks.
This left Dylan shattered.
you’re free to hear his pain in songs like Boots of Spanish Leather.
In the movie, Sylvie heads to Italy for a mere 12 weeks.
Dylan and Baez never hooked up on the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This is a gross exaggeration.)
Baez stumbles into a coffeehouse and sees him performing Masters of War.
They meet up, make out in the doorway, and head back to Dylans apartment.
In reality, Dylan was more fixated on Baezs younger sister Mimi when they met for the second time.
Dylan and Baez did indeed have a brief romance, but it didnt start until much later.
Blowin in the Wind was written several months earlier than shown.
She encourages him to play it for her, and they wind up singing it together.
This scene takes place in October 1962.
In reality, hed been playing the song at Village coffeehouses since at least April 1962.
By October of that year, it wouldnt have been new to Baez or anyone on the folk scene.
Dylan and Baez didnt sing Girl From the North Country at the 1963 Monterey Folk Festival.
As the movie shows, Dylan traveled to California in May 1963 to perform at the Monterey Folk Festival.
But the song Dylan played with Baez during his brief set was With God on Our Side.
In the movie, they perform Girl From the North Country.
Theres no record of them performing that song together at any point.
Dylan did not play The Times They Are A-Changin' at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.
He never played The Times They Are A-Changin.
Johnny Cash didnt perform right before Dylan at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.
Johnny Cash was on the bill of the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.
He played right before Joan Baez on Friday, July 24.
Bob Dylans main set took place two days later on Sunday, July 26.
InA Complete Unknown, its all compressed into a single evening.
Like a Rolling Stone was recorded prior to Highway 61 Revisited, not the other way around.
Like a Rolling Stone was recorded in June 1965.
The movie ends with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
At that point, he had yet to record Highway 61 Revisited.
Tom Wilson didnt produce Highway 61 Revisited.
Bob Johnston produced the rest ofHighway 61 Revisited, including the title track.
In the movie, Wilson is still behind the board for Highway 61 Revisited.
Dylan didnt bring the police whistle to theHighway 61 Revisitedsessions.
The last one is due to a police whistle Dylan plays throughout the title track.
In reality, organist Al Kooper brought in the whistle.
When we were recording the song, it just sounded great to me.
I took the necklace and put it around Bobs neck and said, Play this instead of the harmonica.
And there you go.
And I think he kept it, damn it.
Dylan never crashed Pete Seegers TV show.
Near the end of the movie, we see Seeger hostingRainbow Quest.
Dylan shows up midway through the taping and performs a song with Moffette.
But there was no Moffette, and Dylan never appeared on the show.
Dylan and Baez didnt get into a fight onstage over the set list.
In March and April 1965, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez played theaters together across the East Coast.
InA Complete Unknown, they play All I Really Want to Do before Dylan stops the song short.
She attempts to carry on with Blowin in the Wind, but Dylan refuses.
I dont believe the set list was advertised, he snarls.
This isnt a request-punch in concert.
If you wanna hear that, go see Donovan.
He then storms off the stage, and she finishes the show by herself.
Bob Neuwirth didnt enter Dylans life in 1965.
They became close friends, and Neuwirth was later hired as his road manager.
They were joined at the hip throughout Dylans amphetamine-fueled mid-Sixties period.
InA Complete Unknown, they meet randomly in an elevator following a stuffy Manhattan party in 1965.
Suze/Sylvie didnt attend the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with Dylan.
He drove there in a car with friends.
Johnny Cash was never at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
He repeatedly encourages Dylan to ignore the doubters and forge his own path.
The character is present throughout the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, but he wasnt there in real life.
Dylan and Baez didnt perform together at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
She tagged along for the early dates, but he didnt invite her onstage a single time.
She left halfway through.
When Newport came around two months later, they were barely on speaking terms.
But they didnt sing a note together at Newport that year.
The It Aint Me, Babe duet took place at Newport 1964.
At the 1965 Newport, she sang with Donovan.
Dylan played two acoustic songs at Newport following his electric set.
And others say they happily sang along since Like a Rolling Stone was a hot new single.
The movie only shows him doing the latter song.
moment happened in England, not at Newport.
According to Ed Norton, Bob Dylan insisted that James Mangold include a wildly inaccurate scene inA Complete Unknown.
and Dylan responds, I dont believe you …
