Thoughts on I'm Not There

    In the most basic sense, Todd Haynes’ film “I’m Not There” could be called an overly complicated biographical film focused on Bob Dylan. But to leave the evaluation of this film in its most basic form would greatly betray it. As, despite being a biographic representation of Mr. Dylan’s life and career, “I’m Not There” also serves as a commentary on one of the largest components in the human psyche: Identity.

            Identity is discussed and focused upon in many ways throughout the film, the first being Todd Haynes feelings on his subject matter, Bob Dylan. It is apparent throughout the film that Todd Haynes believes Mr. Dylan has some sort of insight into human nature, much like most greatly lauded poets and authors. Todd Haynes believes that Dylan has experienced and thought enough about life to be able to ‘get into someone else’s shoes’ and that Mr. Dylan has in fact purposely and accidentally done this through his songs and the path of his career. It is this belief of the Director that drives the rest of the film, and brings up the focus on identity.

            Literally, Todd Haynes chooses to depict a biography of Bob Dylan’s career without mentioning the man once. Instead, the various phases of Mr. Dylan’s psyche and life are represented by a myriad of rebellious, confused, conflicted, and some times unsavory characters. Each of these characters, although containing several core differences from each other, are all linked to each other by the questioning of ‘Identity’ that surrounds and eludes them.

In addition, none of these characters’ narratives are told in a normal manner, instead being subjected to kaleidoscopic jumps and cuts from character to character, narrative to narrative, presentation to presentation. In this way, Todd Haynes creates a nebulous tale in which nothing is ever certain and the viewer must constantly question and try in vain to identify; much like the characters on screen.

The film is driven by the question of identity as rich and famous characters are constantly interrogated as to where their thoughts lie, and how they should be viewed. The characters themselves have no real idea how they should be identified, and if they do, their own definition of themselves is constantly being overthrown by narrative events. As such, the characters end up scorning their fans and families, all of whom seek to identify with the famous main characters, sending the main characters into a scramble to ‘hide’ themselves and to hide their own inability to identify themselves.

What most of the main characters fail to realize is that they, their fans, their families, Bob Dylan, and the viewers can only be identified by one adjective: fallible. In this way, Todd Haynes presents and insinuates Mr. Dylan’s earned insight into humanity, bringing his fascination with Bob Dylan, and his belief in Mr. Dylan’s experiences full circle and to the screen.