What Was Bob Dylan Doing In 'inside Llewyn Davis'?

‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ (2013), written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a musical drama that follows the titular character Llewyn Davis on a journey to find fame as a folk singer in the 1960’s. The film chronicles his final attempts to hold onto his artistic freedom in the increasingly competitive music industry. He scoffs at the character of Jim, played by Justin Timberlake, for being a sellout and writing nonsensical songs simply to make money, while his own album continues to remain obscure and his career static.

The movie ends almost cyclically, its final scenes mirroring the opening scenes – Llewyn wakes up at the Gorfeins’ house, then goes onto play at the Gaslight Café, is called out to the alley by a stranger and is beaten up. This ending left many viewers confused as it seemingly contributed nothing to the resolution of the movie, instead only adding to the threads that the movie had teasingly refused to explore. There is a small detail in the background in the background of this sequence that many failed to notice and even more failed to understand – the singer that follows Llewyn on stage is revealed to be Bob Dylan. Dylan is not spotlighted by the movie; he only briefly appears as a silhouette while Llewyn walks out into the alley and his voice can be heard during the scuffle with the stranger. However, this seemingly insignificant detail answers an important question that the movie poses from the very beginning – is Llewyn a good singer?

Oscar Isaac, who plays Llewyn Davis is an exceptional singer and the various songs in the movie sung by the protagonist are absolute pleasures to listen to. This helps put the audience on Llewyn’s side as he trudges through a world that refuses to acknowledge him – the final nail in his coffin is when the producer Bud Grossman remains unimpressed with his solo act. Our sympathies lie still with the protagonist and we believe it a tragedy when he finally lets go of his dream to rejoin the Merchant Marines. He blames his lack of success on his circumstances, commercialism, and the general disinterest of listeners to folk music. But the presence of Dylan at the Gaslight puts the whole movie into a new perspective. The year is 1961, and Dylan has not achieved the fame that he would enjoy in later years; he is on the same level as Llewyn Davis and in the same environment. But as history shows us, Dylan grew to be one of the greatest musicians. And so, the words of Bud Grossman grow more significant as he says how Llewyn is not suited to be a solo artist – the movie tells us that Llewyn Davis was not good enough. It is also telling how his songs all sound very similar to one another; he refuses to break out of his constricted view and do anything different.

The Coen brothers are exceptionally skilled in creating interesting and multi-dimensional side characters, and this is perhaps the pinnacle of that, where they used a silhouette in the background to give new meaning to the entire movie.