Director James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown chronicles the beginning of Bob Dylan’s legendary career and features other notable figures, such as fellow musician Woody Guthrie. Timothée Chalamet leads A Complete Unknown‘s cast as Bob Dylan himself, but the entire cast does a great job of highlighting the nuances of real figures within the American folk music movement of the 1960s. The movie largely covers the early years of Dylan’s career, from becoming a fixture in New York City’s musical scene to his decision to play an electric show at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

However, the movie does not simply outline the events that occurred, as Mangold is incredibly talented at portraying real figures with the complexities that they have in real life, not just as caricatures of themselves. This is particularly clear in Dylan’s relationships with those around him and his own mentality, leading to A Complete Unknown‘s ambiguous ending. Additionally, the movie is book-ended by Dylan’s interactions with his idol, Woody Guthrie, giving the story a cyclical feel, while revealing Guthrie’s condition and its significance to Dylan’s story.

Woody Guthrie Was Diagnosed With Huntington’s Disease In 1952

Guthrie Already Suffered From Poor Health Throughout The 1940s

Woody Guthrie had already built himself a career by the late 1930s and early 1940s, particularly after moving to New York and gaining prominence in the New York City folk scene along with Pete Seeger. Guthrie’s music often revolved around finding peace and highlighting inequality, penning songs like “This Land Is Your Land” and gaining even more specific anti-fascist sentiment during World War II. By the late 1940s, it had become clear that Guthrie suffered from some acute health issue, though he was yet to receive an accurate diagnosis.

Early on, when Guthrie’s health began declining, he was linked to schizophrenia, but the diagnosis was later changed. Guthrie had various symptoms, but none of the doctors that he saw were able to determine what was truly causing his health to decline so quickly. However, in 1952, Guthrie finally received an accurate diagnosis of Huntington’s Disease, which allowed him to finally understand what was happening to his body.

Huntington’s disease is a genetic disorder in which brain cells begin to degenerate over time. The disease can cause people to have various changes to their mood and memory, and at later stages, can lead to difficulty moving around and speaking. Sadly, this was the case for Guthrie, as the legendary singer’s health slowly declined during the first half of the 1950s, eventually leading to him being hospitalized in 1956.

Woody Guthrie Was Hospitalized With Huntington’s Disease From 1956 to 1967

Guthrie Lived In Various Hospitals Around New York

An accident in the early 1950s left Woody Guthrie unable to play the guitar. After moving back to New York, Guthrie continued to compose songs and kept involved in the folk scene. Then, in 1956, Guthrie was hospitalized and lived at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Guthrie remained at that facility until 1961, coinciding with the beginning of the period portrayed in A Complete Unknown. After his time there, Woody Guthrie was transferred to Brooklyn State Hospital and lived there until 1966.

Following Brooklyn State Hospital, Guthrie lived the remainder of his life at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. In the final years of his life, Guthrie’s quality of life had greatly deteriorated to the point that he could only blink to communicate with others (via PBS). By that point, he was being cared for by his ex-wife, Marjorie, up until Woody Guthrie pᴀssed away on October 3, 1967, at the age of 55. Marjorie later went on to raise awareness of the disease through her Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease.

Woody Guthrie’s Family Had A History Of Huntington’s Disease

Guthrie’s Mother Pᴀssed Away From The Disease

Many genetic diseases can be pᴀssed down from parents to children and this is also the case for Huntington’s disease. In the case of Guthrie’s family, Huntington’s disease was pᴀssed on to Woody by his mother, Nora. Granted, at the time, she was not diagnosed with Huntington’s, and the family could only provide treatment based on the symptoms that they saw, including dementia and a decline in her mobility. This lack of diagnosis led to Guthrie’s mother being insтιтutionalized at the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane, where she eventually pᴀssed away in 1930.

Sadly, there is still no treatment that can eradicate Huntington’s disease, so care is largely focused on alleviating symptoms as much as possible. Because there is no cure, this also means that Huntington’s gets pᴀssed down with no way of knowing whether one’s children will also be affected. This was the case for Woody Guthrie, as several of his children also got Huntington’s disease while others did not. Sadly, like Guthrie himself, two of his children have also pᴀssed away from Huntington’s.

Did Bob Dylan Really Visit Woody Guthrie In The Hospital?

Bob Dylan Actually Did Visit Guthrie In The Hospital

While A Complete Unknown does make some changes to Dylan’s true story, one thing it certainly gets right is that Bob Dylan did, in fact, visit Woody Guthrie while he was in the hospital. Dylan first began to visit Guthrie while he was in Greystone Park, proving that Bob Dylan truly did make the journey to New York largely to see his musical idol. In fact, in a Time interview from 1963, Dylan stated that he was “at the high point of [his] life from seein’ Woody” and called the musician a genius.

For the remainder of Guthrie’s life, Bob Dylan continued to visit him, maintaining their musical connection and showing the devotion that Dylan truly had to his idol. Though A Complete Unknown‘s harmonica scene was invented for the film, its meaning does have some level of significance in Dylan and Guthrie’s relationship. The harmonica shows how much care Dylan had for Guthrie both while he was alive and following the folk legend’s death, and as A Complete Unknown shows, that legacy continues to live on today.

Source: PBS, Time