Home Movies of History: A Movie Review

I am quite sure you have had to watch family home movies before. I know I have. Although my family was not particularly big on taking home movies there was a time when I was quite young when my father was in possession of an 8mm film camera. Was anything caught on those cameras historical? Was there anything on film that would later be discussed by historians? No. Mostly what you get are relatives smiling awkwardly and waving awkwardly and record of some of the most horrific fashions you could possibly imagine.

The interesting thing is that many historical people also carried film cameras. Sure you can talk about presidents and dictators and their home movies, but what really interests a lot of us is music. In particular rock and roll. This is where the DVD "The 1966 World Tour (The Home Movies)" comes in. These are home movies for one of the most famous and historical moments in rock and roll history.

The World Tour in question, in case you were not aware, was the Bob Dylan world tour of 1966. You see by this time Bob was called a protest singer by a lot of the world's press and had been traveling around the world playing with his acoustic guitar and that harmonica thing strapped around his neck. In 1966 Bob decided to make a change. He decided he wanted to play electronically and plug in his guitar and play with a band equally plugged in behind him.

The DVD released in 2006 features the home movies taken by Bob's drummer Mickey Jones. While the tour footage is amazing and fascinating Mickey's story is worthy of its own documentary just by itself. You have probably seen Mickey because he has become an actor in recent years. He was the bearded fellow in "Home Improvement" and was part of the band playing on the front porch in "Sling Blade." He was also the big scary biker-looking guy with the really fresh breath on the subway in that Breathsavers commercial a few years back.