After waiting nearly two years and leaping obstacles of selective theatre showings and selective store releases, I was finally able to get my grubby little hands on Masked and Anonymous, a movie starring my favorite singing artist of all time, Bob Dylan.  Other stars included Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, and Luke Wilson  The movie took me on an enigmatic trip into the ulterior motives and the more primal desires of human nature.  I was very impressed with the movie, while at the same time understanding why the professional movie critics and other people didn’t like the movie. 

The movie takes place in a futuristic and desolate United States in which a revolutionary war physically and emotionally tears apart the country.  A corrupt businessman by the name of Uncle Sweetheart organizes a benefit concert, seemingly to assist the victims of the war, but his real motivations soon become clear.  He has an aging troubadour named Jack Fate released from prison to headline the concert.  The following explores the movie’s main characters and their representations of us as human beings, as well as a personal analysis of why many people didn’t like this movie.

            Uncle Sweetheart represents the incessant, insatiable human desire to acquire more and more material goods; primarily money.  Watching his character, especially in the first scene with him and the two mysterious agents pressuring him to pay them back for something he did in the past, I’m reminded of politicians in our own United States government.  While many say they perform good deeds for the ‘common good’ of society, they do it for themselves.  While people in the upper-class of society say they know the need of those who are not as well of as they are, they are so concerned with their own ‘needs’ (more along the line of ‘wants’) that they do not take the time needed to be thankful for what they have and step outside their own mental boxes to help those who are in need.  While this is the more innocent analysis of the upper class, it is only an offshoot of Uncle Sweetheart’s character.  He paints a picture of the people responsible for the Enron scandal.  In this, he uses his pretense of helping those hurt by the unexplained revolution in order to finance his payment to the two agents.

            Nina Veronica, the television producer, portrays the personae of the person who needs to control everything around him/her.  While she and Uncle Sweetheart discuss what Jack Fate will play during the concert, she constantly asks of his songs are going to be recognizable, and that he will play “exactly what we tell him.”  Nina isolates herself from those around her…even Uncle Sweetheart…with her control-freak nature, as many people do in the upper strata of corporate America today. 

            Bobby Cupid, a longtime friend of Jack Fate, reminds me of a person who knows how people think and act, but still projects an innocent atmosphere.  In the scene between him and the alcoholic at the bar, Bobby Cupid tells him a few facts of life and puts a full bottle of wine on the table in front of him.  Later on, when he tells Uncle Sweetheart about Tom Friend the reporter, he seems to be a combination of idealistic and cynical.  His character climaxes when he tells Uncle Sweetheart what he really thinks of him: “You commit treason against your own self…Jack, he’s like a praying mantis.  He doesn’t kill his victims…”  A very thought-provoking character.

            Tom Friend, the reporter, depicts the image of a stereotypical media reporter.  He gives Jack an inundation of questions without waiting for any answers, and sometimes answers them himself.  An example is when he asks Jack his opinion on Jimi Hendrix’s performance of the Star-Spangled Banner at Woodstock in 1969 (I saw the documentary, by the way…it’s pretty good).  He answers his own question, saying “He was saying, ‘Love me, love me.’  I’m not a…I’m an American citizen.”  The most interesting scene is when his boss says, “If you can’t get anything, then, make it up.”

            Jack Fate is the most enigmatic, and yet in a way, the most understood, of all the characters in the film.  Of course, considering that he’s being played by Bob Dylan, it does not bring surprise to those who listen to Bob Dylan’s music, such as yours truly.  From the first scene of him being released from prison to his ironically being imprisoned again at the end of the film, it appears to show a man who, now getting towards the end of his life, is analyzing and answering his own questions about himself and other people in his life, his parents being the main focus.  In Erik Erickson’s theory of psychological development, the final stage is Ego Integrity vs. Ego Despair.  In this stage, a person looks back at his/her life and is either very pleased and satisfied with what he/she has accomplished, or is grieved for the rest of his/her remaining days, feeling that not all has been accomplished that could have been accomplished.  Jack Fate, his last name epitomizing his view on his life, reaches a point of resignation at the end of the movie.  Having experienced alienation, corruption, and a series of unfortunate mishaps, he accepts life the way it is, including his cynical interpretation of it and the people around him.  He summarizes it in his final statement: “Things fall apart.  Especially all the neat order of rules and laws.  The way we look at the world is the way we really are.  See it all from a fair garden, and everything looks nice and cheerful.  See it from a higher plateau and you’ll see plunder and murder.  Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder.  I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago.  In that final sentence, he surrenders to his spiritual and philosophical interpretation of life itself.  It somewhat alludes to Luke 24:46 in the Bible, in which it says, “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, ‘Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.’  And having said this, he breathed his last.”  In somewhat of a similar fashion, Jack Fate feels that all things have come to past, and that it is time to accept what is.

            My absolute favorite scene in the movie is when Jack Fate is in the bus, passing through the poorer neighborhood of Los Angeles.  His facial expression, coupled with the playing of “Blind Willie McTell” from the Bootleg Series 1-3, is very powerful and moving.  I like scenes that emotionally grab me and provoke thought and introspective reflection.  This scene does that for me.

            I think that the professional critics did not like this movie because it did not have a plot at face value.  The overwhelming majority of people in the United States appear not to enjoy having to mentally delve into the meaning of life.  They prefer everything to be shallow and superficial, to have all of the answers right then and there, delivered on a silver plate.  What these people don’t realize, and what I have figured out to the surprise of those that realized it later on in life, is that life doesn’t have any one right or wrong answer.  I think that is the message that Bob Dylan and the other writers of Masked and Anonymous are trying to deliver, now that I think about it.  It is not always black and white; good and evil.  There is always gray around the edges.  This is what defines my spiritual and philosophical beliefs.

            Overall, this movie is very good.  I give it three stars out of four; one being dropped for conflicts between Dylan acting and Dylan playing songs in the movie.  To me, that’s a bit tacky, having the character in two places at once.  Otherwise then that, Larry Charles, I take my hat off to you.  An excellent philosophical and, in a way, religious masterpiece.  This is for anyone who likes Bob Dylan, or likes movies that make you think.