The film I’m Not There takes a novel approach to the classical biopic genre through using multiple characters to describe the different aspects of Bob Dylan’s life and personality. Each character in the film leads a very different life from all the other characters, and they serve to show how Dylan was a colorful person of many talents and abilities. For example, Woody Guthrie shows how Dylan was influenced by Guthrie’s artistry. Additionally, Jude Quinn demonstrates how Dylan was reluctantly chosen as a “member of the people”, to represent them and their sentiments. The other characters also serve to represent Dylan with their own backgrounds and individual stories.
In the film, Jude Quinn represents how Dylan was the reluctant “voice of his generation”. In the film, Quinn is not cooperative with anyone, is angry with the media and the bureaucrats, and is constantly questioning why he has become so popular. He insists that no one understands him or his motivations, and that he doesn’t care whether they do. Mostly, he just wants to be left alone, like Dylan did during his early days. In the film, he is only happy when he meets the poet Alan Ginsberg, his hero, and when he is in his apartment flipping through magazines and admiring art. Quinn is an artist who becomes a voice of the people, just like Dylan was an aspiring artist whose music and artistry represented the feelings of the people. Some of Dylan’s fans felt betrayed later on by his switch to electric music mediums. This anger is portrayed in the character Quinn, whom some former fans yell at during a press conference. Reporters also try to extract information and quotes from him to explain his strange behavior, but Quinn is reluctant to give any information and only offers obscure quips, the context of which hint at the fact that he is an individual who is not only a public servant. Throughout the film, Quinn consistently represents the reluctant public voice of Bob Dylan.
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