So I found one of the most interesting parts of the movie to be the Billy the Kid scenes. It reminded me of Dylan’s later circus themed music featuring sword swallowers and other strange characters. But there is a point in this part of the movie where a man is singing in white face at the young girls funeral. I was wondering what you guys thought about this. Is this some type of reflection on when Dylan wore white out make up and performed on stage?
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April 27, 2010 at 7:12 pm |
Throughout the entire movie there are so many footnotes to keep up with that I think you’d be correct in saying that there is a connection between the scene of the young, dead girl having a white face and the white makeup Dylan wore on his face during performances. Another underlying connection to this funeral scene could be based on how often Dylan wrote songs about youth and the corruption it endures, specifically in the song “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” During the Billy the Kid scenes, there are many images of young children looking distraught and even one young girl wiping up spilled blood from a horse, which directly refers to the line in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” when he sings about “a young child beside a dead pony.” If one had not heard the song prior to watching the film, that connection would have been completely lost, as would the connection between white faced girl and the white make up used by Dylan. I feel that undestanding all of these underlying connections throughout the movie was a significant problem for many people who watched the film.