A Complete Unknown changes Joan Baez’s career and worldwide success, painting her as an emerging artist at the time she meets Bob Dylan. Director James Mangold’s retelling of Dylan’s early years has been known to change and omit key players around the artist. Though A Complete Unknown‘s reviews praise the actress’ lasting performance of the angelic Joan Baez, it’s worth noting that Monica Barbaro’s character isn’t truly representative of the folksinger’s trajectory. Mangold changes both characters’ rise to fame, making it seem like they broke out at the same time.
Notably, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez’s reimagined relationship is crucial to James Mangold’s biopic, as their journeys parallel each other until A Complete Unknown‘s ending, where they take different paths. The director’s changes to the barefoot Madonna aren’t fully misguided and successfully add narrative weight to both the singer and her relationship with Dylan. However, as one of the crucial characters in A Complete Unknown, and given Monica Barbaro’s Oscar nomination, it becomes important to clarify the timeline between Joan Baez and Bob Dylan’s careers and how and why Mangold changed it.
A Complete Unknown Makes Joan Baez An Unknown Artist When She Meets Bob Dylan
Baez And Dylan Gaining Fame Simultaneously Makes Their On-Screen Romance Better
One way that A Complete Unknown changes Bob Dylan’s life is by editing Joan Baez’s career when they meet, making them both unsigned artists who are just starting to gain recognition. Though some people in line outside the music venue ask for her autograph, Baez is introduced as another emerging artist who is experiencing her breakout in 1961. In reality, she already had two gold albums by then. However, the change helps create parallels between Dylan and Baez, which adds weight to their on-screen romance, as they’re going through the same experience.
A Complete Unknown received eight nominations at the Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound.
Shortly after Dylan and Baez meet in A Complete Unknown, both release their first albums, with Joan quickly selling out, which gains her a cover in TIME magazine. In real life, Baez got the cover after her third gold album. However, her early success sets the stage for A Complete Unknown‘s reimagining of Dylan and Baez’s relationship and epic collaborations, as their duet performances bring them both to national acclaim. By 1964, both Baez and Dylan become the two key singers of the folk revival movement, having risen to fame simultaneously by helping each other.
Joan Baez Was Already An Established International Star When She Met Bob Dylan In Real Life
A Complete Unknown Prioritizes Romance Over Fact, And It Works
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez did meet in 1961 at Gerde’s Folk City, in NYC’s Greenwich Village, just as shown in A Complete Unknown. However, by then, she was a worldwide star, having earned the nickname “barefoot Madonna” for her duet with Bob Gibson at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, which immediately got her a contract with Vanguard Records. The night they met, Baez didn’t perform but merely wanted to check out Dylan. Her albums Joan Baez, and Joan Baez, Vol. 2, had already achieved gold status, the latter peaking at no. 13 on the Billboard chart.
While Baez’s breakout happened in 1960, Dylan’s came in mid-1963. Even if A Complete Unknown overlooks Peter, Paul, and Mary’s roles in helping The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan‘s success, it recognizes Baez was among the most famous artists to cover “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” However, A Complete Unknown heavily downplays her international fame, implying that Dylan is not far behind. Mangold likely wanted Baez and Dylan to be parallels, so the audience’s emotional involvement in the couple increased. The pair being at the start of their careers makes their love story feel fated, as they’re perfectly aligned.
Sources: Biography, Rolling Stone
