Can anyone tell me the point of Bob Dylan's character being in this movie? I'm a Dylan fan and this is my favourite Peckinpah movie but i can't see how Dylan contributes to the movie at all (apart from the Soundtrack). I'm aware that through editing to make the film shorter some of Dylan's importance may have been lost but he was 3rd billed which makes his part seem irrelevant....?
shareIn 1973 western movies were no longer box office magnets. So, by top billing the ever popular Bob Dylan is a way to get more returns for the film. He did tickle trying to read cans while Kris and Jack got ready for their gunfight. Getting back to the point. Eddie Murphy was once paid a handsome amount of money to make like a five minute scene. The movie (the title I can,t remember) was a total dud. But! How many people paid to see this disaster when they read the marquis that it starred Eddie Murphy. By the way Mr.Murphy has stated he would never make that mistake again.
shareThanks! It's a cynical way of looking at it but I can't come up with any other reason!
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The film I think you are talking about with Eddie Murphy in a five minute cameo is Best Defense with Dudley Moore. What a waste of celluloid. Horrible movie.
sharei think the question is who is alias, that's a question that does something very wonderful to the film once it has finished playing out. to me alias plays the most important role.
shareI had to study this film when I was at University and it was suggested to us that the role of Alias was sort of like a narrator. An impartial person who saw the action and perhaps as already mentioned pass on the legend. That was supposed to be suggested with his name also. Love this film very much. And its those little details and the sybolism all over the place that make it so good!
shareI've been reading the authentic life of billy the kid and in the begining when he was about 14 he rode to Arizona with a younger freind who he called Alias.
shareThe character of Alias was written in the original script before Dylan was ever involved in the movie. And as sxxpac said, Alias was a real person who rode with Billy the Kid.
Did you have a good world when you died? Good enough to base a movie on?
"His songs (although Alias is not shown singing them)"
Apparently there's a deleted scene of Alias singing to some Mexican children. I have a picture of it in one of my Dylan books.
I like pie.
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I have to state that I have never been a Dylan fan (although I admire his songwriting abilities) and remember seeing this film just after leaving school. Of all the scenes in the movie, only Dylan's "beans" recitation still sticks with me (and maybe the slow motion demolition of the gunslinger). I would say it was put in as comic relief, as in a Shakepearean tragedy. Dylan's tiny bit of acting verged on brilliant.
shareI like the idea of ALIAS being a shakespearean tool, in order to add comedy to the film. Just adds to the fact that this is one of my favourite westerns. This is simply a great movie.
shareKind of looks to me (there's only a frame or two when you see his face) that the rifleman who shoots Pat Garrett at the beginning of the film could be Alias.
sharewill have to look for this when DVD eventually gets released!
share I think that Alias is the Kid's myth-maker/balladeer. He is first seen wearing a printer's smock in front of a newspaper office. Later, he's holding a pad and pencil as if he's interviewing witnesses to the murders of Bell and Ohlinger. He removes his smock and appear's in the Kid's camp with the bounty hunters but joins the Kid's group with a well-thrown knife.
He seems to be in the background when most of the Kid's decisions (and non decisions) are made and, most importantly, is witness to Garrett's execution of the Kid. He seems to be the anonymous recorder of events, or Alias anything you please. The fact that Dylan is a folk-singer/rock star, enforces this role just by the casting of him.
We deal in lead, friend.
if you read dylans newly released "chronicles" you'll see he has unusal motives in the late 60s and early 70s.
due to the immense success of his first few albums sucess (all released between 1962-1967) he felt disgusted with the incredible amount of fame that was brought to him. he thought he was writing and singing songs beacuse thats what he wanted to do, he was being true to himself as an artist. he did not want to lead any revolutions, be the "voice of a generation", or make cynical comments on government and social status in America in the 60s. all he was doing, according to himself, was making music. "there were no hidden meanings in my songs, if someone found something in there, then they're mistaken." says dylan in the novel "Chronicles".
in fact, all dylan wanted to do at the time, was be with his family. he wanted no fame, only privacy and to be with his kids and wife. everytime he bought a house, it was mobbed by adoring fans who would make pilgramages to wherever he was residing all to catch a glimpse of their idol. he was forced to give interviews, he says in the novel, "i felt like a peice of meat that had been thrown to the dogs."
SO....in an attempt to change his own public persona (to one less popular than his current one) he puts out albums and does other gigs in the entertainment world (like movies---including pat garret and billy the kid) that are not normal to his repitor. the first album of this influence is New Morning (1970) in which he, "threw songs at the wall and whatever stuck made it onto the album, and then whatever didnt, got picked up and put on there too." for how long this type of behavior lasts im not completly sure (havent finished the book yet) but i am sure of what i have previously stated.
so an easy answer to the question: "why did dylan do this movie? (or one to that effect)........is......it was an attempt of dylan's to move him out of the public eye....but for people like me, it does no such thing....i am and always will be a dylan fanatic.
he is only third billed in the 2005 version i think...
in the other he was
AND bob dylan, which fits...
but the fact that he's third billed is really, really stupid, for i am a big dylan fan too and i think it makes him look lame... in 100 years someone is gonna watch this movie and, before it starts see that bob is the third star, and then realize that he's not even close to being all that important...
lame!
the POE character was, if any, the third star... ANYONE but Dylan who was just an added, fun character...
"me winning isn't, you do" ty webb