Long considered the folk cultural link between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, itinerant American music legend and unrepentent absentee father Ramblin' Jack Elliott finally gets his due thanks to daughter Aiyana Elliott and her lively documentary, "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack".
While Elliott has little luck in getting her dad to commit on any satisfying emotional level, her ambitious film expertly weaves together rare archival footage, photos and rich storytelling to create an entertaining portrait of the artist as a ramblin' man.
Granted, it is occasionally guilty of a little ramblin' of its own, but the winner of the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Achievement at this year's Sundance Film Festival should find favor among music and 1960s nostalgia buffs.
Certainly not the first person determined to escape his roots, Ramblin' Jack went quite the distance, given that he started out life as Elliott Charles Adnopoz, the Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish doctor. Heeding the lure of wide-open spaces, he ran away from home at age 15 to join the rodeo and would later become Guthrie's permanent houseguest. Elliott proved a quick study, prompting Guthrie to say, "Jack sounds more like me than I do myself."
Embarking on a quest to seek out the roots of American folk music, Jack traveled across the country before arriving in England in 1955, right smack-dab in the middle of a burgeoning folk scene. The quintessential cowboy and his unique brand of flat-picking struck a chord with the likes of Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. By the time he returned to a folk-crazed Greenwich Village in 1961, his reputation as Guthrie's heir apparent had definitely preceded him. Among his early fans was a very young Bob Dylan, who initially billed himself as "The Son of Jack Elliott".
Four decades and four wives later, not to mention the obligatory bouts with booze, drugs and bitterness, Jack's still standing and touring (President Clinton awarded him with the National Medal of Arts in 1998). And to his ignored little girl's credit, the story of his life mainly steers clear of VH1 "Behind the Music" histrionics.
Instead, she and co-writer Dick Dahl essentially tell it like it is -- or was -- with the help of such Elliott contemporaries as Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson and Pete Seeger, a number of those ex-wives and some terrific performance footage from the old "Johnny Cash Show" and Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
Aiyana Elliott may not have achieved any personal closure after two years on the road with Ramblin' Jack, but while her "Ballad" may have a familiar refrain, the hook is irresistible.
THE BALLAD OF RAMBLIN' JACK
Lot 47 Films
Director: Aiyana Elliott
Screenwriters: Aiyana Elliott, Dick Dahl
Producers: Aiyana Elliott, Paul Mezey,
Dan Partland
Executive producers: Hunter Gray,
Tyler Brodie, Jesse Crawford
Editors: David Baum, Susan Littenberg
Music: Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Color/stereo
Interviewees include: Rambin' Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Odetta
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While Elliott has little luck in getting her dad to commit on any satisfying emotional level, her ambitious film expertly weaves together rare archival footage, photos and rich storytelling to create an entertaining portrait of the artist as a ramblin' man.
Granted, it is occasionally guilty of a little ramblin' of its own, but the winner of the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Achievement at this year's Sundance Film Festival should find favor among music and 1960s nostalgia buffs.
Certainly not the first person determined to escape his roots, Ramblin' Jack went quite the distance, given that he started out life as Elliott Charles Adnopoz, the Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish doctor. Heeding the lure of wide-open spaces, he ran away from home at age 15 to join the rodeo and would later become Guthrie's permanent houseguest. Elliott proved a quick study, prompting Guthrie to say, "Jack sounds more like me than I do myself."
Embarking on a quest to seek out the roots of American folk music, Jack traveled across the country before arriving in England in 1955, right smack-dab in the middle of a burgeoning folk scene. The quintessential cowboy and his unique brand of flat-picking struck a chord with the likes of Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. By the time he returned to a folk-crazed Greenwich Village in 1961, his reputation as Guthrie's heir apparent had definitely preceded him. Among his early fans was a very young Bob Dylan, who initially billed himself as "The Son of Jack Elliott".
Four decades and four wives later, not to mention the obligatory bouts with booze, drugs and bitterness, Jack's still standing and touring (President Clinton awarded him with the National Medal of Arts in 1998). And to his ignored little girl's credit, the story of his life mainly steers clear of VH1 "Behind the Music" histrionics.
Instead, she and co-writer Dick Dahl essentially tell it like it is -- or was -- with the help of such Elliott contemporaries as Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson and Pete Seeger, a number of those ex-wives and some terrific performance footage from the old "Johnny Cash Show" and Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
Aiyana Elliott may not have achieved any personal closure after two years on the road with Ramblin' Jack, but while her "Ballad" may have a familiar refrain, the hook is irresistible.
THE BALLAD OF RAMBLIN' JACK
Lot 47 Films
Director: Aiyana Elliott
Screenwriters: Aiyana Elliott, Dick Dahl
Producers: Aiyana Elliott, Paul Mezey,
Dan Partland
Executive producers: Hunter Gray,
Tyler Brodie, Jesse Crawford
Editors: David Baum, Susan Littenberg
Music: Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Color/stereo
Interviewees include: Rambin' Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Odetta
Running time - 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/25/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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