Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown introduced a whole new generation of listeners to the artist, but that biopic didn’t even touch on the era of his life that I’m most interested in. As one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Dylan’s music had a major impact on popular culture, and his protest music continues to inspire countless activists. In A Complete Unknown, Chalamet depicted Dylan’s rise to fame out of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s, but Bob’s story didn’t end there and was arguably even more fascinating in later years.

There are so many eras of Dylan’s life that would make for an excellent movie, as his reclusive years during the late 1960s actually led to some of his very best music. The mid-1970s saw Dylan’s concert career revitalized as he traversed the United States as part of a traveling music troupe. Yet the Bob Dylan movie that I really wanted to see didn’t touch on these eras either, and instead relates to perhaps the most divisive, controversial, and misunderstood period of the music legend’s life story.

Bob Dylan’s Brief Born Again Christian Phase Would Be A Far More Interesting Movie

From 1979 to 1982, Dylan’s Music Was Also Exclusively Religious

While A Complete Unknown showcased how Bob Dylan left many in the folk scene disillusioned as he traded his acoustic-based sound for fast-paced rock ‘n’ roll and blues music, this was nothing compared to the reaction to him becoming a born-again Christian in 1979. With the release of Dylan’s Grammy Award-winning album Slow Train Coming, Bob shocked the music world with a record preaching the word of God and spreading an evangelical message.

This period in Dylan’s life was also one of intense personal struggles, as his marriage to Sara Lownds had come to an end, his film Renaldo and Clara received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and his music had become increasingly irrelevant. As a star who at one point had the world at his feet, the Dylan of 1979 was a lost soul in search of meaning in a meaningless world. It’s out of this context that Dylan claims to have encountered a vision of Jesus Christ (via Phoenix New Times) in a Tucson H๏τel room and converted to Christianity.

Following this supposed spiritual encounter, Dylan would go on long, biblical rants at his concerts, and his trilogy of gospel records would leave many thinking the once dubbed voice of his generation had left secular music behind for good. While most music fans are well aware of Dylan’s controversial decision to go electric, a movie detailing the background of this mysterious and little-discussed time in his life would be the holy grail of Bob Dylan biopics.

I’m Not There Briefly Touched On Dylan’s Christian Era

This Todd Haynes Movie Explored Six Different Facets Of Dylan’s Life

Although Bob Dylan’s born-again Christian phase is often ignored in films and documentaries on the enigmatic artist, director Todd Haynes did address this aspect of the musician’s legacy in I’m Not There. As an experimental biopic that cast six different actors to play various iterations of Dylan, the opening credits of I’m Not There declare it was “inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan.” This was a unique and interesting way of exploring the artist’s legacy, which didn’t suffer from the clichéd cradle-to-grave style of many other music biopics.

In I’m Not There, Christian Bale played Jack Rollins, a folk musician inspired by Dylan’s early career who rejected the protest music that made him famous and reemerged as an ordained minister singing gospel songs under the name Father John. Bale’s incredible performance tapped into the fascinating circumstances of Dylan’s born-again period without being burdened by a need to follow the exact historical record. While I’m Not There explored the religious side of Dylan, in a stroke of genius, it also cast Cate Blanchett as the mid-1960s iteration of the singer.

A Complete Unknown Explored An Era Of Dylan’s Career We’ve Seen In Lots Of Films Already

The Mid-1960s Is The Most Widely Discussed Period In Bob’s Career

As one of the most documented musicians who ever lived, the biggest issue with A Complete Unknown was that it depicted an era of Dylan’s life that hardcore fans had already seen on screen several times before. Documentaries like Don’t Look Back and No Direction Home provided first-hand accounts of Dylan just as he was going electric, and the events of the Newport Folk Festival had become so mythologized in rock ‘n’ roll history that there were few new anecdotes from this period for James Mangold to uncover in A Complete Unknown.

While Chalamet did a great job of capturing the complexities and contradictions of a young Dylan, he also faced an insurmountable challenge in winning over the die-hard fans who had been analyzing every detail of Bob’s legacy for the past 60-plus years. Instead of repeatedly depicting the sunglᴀsses-wearing, frantic creativity of Bob in the mid-1960s countless times over, a movie that delves deep into an older Dylan once again shedding his image and reinventing himself in a way nobody could have expected would offer something we’ve never seen on screen before.

Dylan’s Life Story Could Carry Its Own Mᴀssive Franchise

The Bob Dylan Cinematic Universe Is A Real Possibility

With a career categorized by transformation and reinvention, the life of Bob Dylan has the potential to be expanded into a mᴀssive ongoing franchise. A Complete Unknown opened the door to countless new Dylan fans who connected with Chalamet’s impressive performance, and the star himself has even hinted he’s open to the possibility of reprising his role as the folk legend. In an interview with Nardwuar promoting A Complete Unknown, Chalamet said, “We could do part two and three. It depends on how people react,” which means a movie addressing Bob’s religious phase isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

There’s also the potential for an Avengers-style crossover that explores the formation of the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, featuring legends like Dylan, George Harrison, and Tom Petty. Another movie exploring Dylan’s later years could also provide fascinating insight into how a music legend becomes increasingly guarded and reclusive in old age after his near-fatal heart infection in the 1990s saw him face his mortality head-on and enter his gritty, elder-statesman phase.

As Dylan stands as one of the most mysterious and intriguing figures of modern popular culture, I’m glad A Complete Unknown has introduced the latest generation of music fans to Dylan’s unmatched legacy and songwriting genius. However, Dylan’s choice to turn electric at Newport was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his esteemed legacy, and I’m eager to see other periods of his life gain the same level of reverence as the mid-1960s. I loved A Complete Unknown, but the Bob Dylan movie I really want hasn’t been made yet.

Sources: Phoenix New Times, Nardwuar