How does it feel? Bob Dylan’s hometown is gearing up for a new film about the singer

Bob Dylan’s music played a huge role in Justine Jacobson’s life.

“My tagline was that he wrote (“Girl from the North Country”) about me. He just doesn’t know yet.”

Jacobson and her father shared a love for his music.

“My father died in 2020 during the pandemic… and I sang ‘Blowing in the Wind’ at his memorial as a tribute to my father. And so I think this is probably the best way to illustrate how Bob’s music influenced me.”

Like many others, Jacobson is looking forward to the upcoming film “A Complete Unknown,” based on Dylan’s early career.

“I was so excited when I saw Timothée Chalamet was cast as Bob Dylan. I can only imagine how perfect he will be in this role.”

Although Minnesota does not appear in the film, which focuses on Dylan’s time in New York in the 1960s, Chalamet visited Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing earlier this year. In a press conference at the University of Minnesota, he told MPR News that the trip helped him understand who Dylan was in an “unspoken way.”

“I just felt like it kind of, I don’t know, gave me the energetic information about what Bob went through growing up,” the actor said.

Last Friday, before the film’s release, Hibbing hosted a screening. Previously, the Hibbing College Foundation held a fundraiser to celebrate the music icon.

“Bob is a big hero of mine,” said participant and musician Paul Metsa. He also wrote a book about Dylan.

“He had a huge influence on my career.”

Metsa comes from the Iron Range. He says he can hear how Dylan’s upbringing on the range influenced the characters that appear in his songs. Metsa also sees Northern Minnesota’s courage in Dylan.

“He’s really stubborn. “I mean, there is no one in American culture who has been more exposed to and withstood the onslaught of criticism than Bob Dylan,” Metsa said.

“As I say in my book, who but an Iron Ranger would take their guitar and hitchhike to New York City in January?”

Across Hibbing are elements from Dylan’s life. Visitors can take tours of his childhood home and the street where he lived was sometimes called “Bob Dylan Drive.” An exhibit of Dylan memorabilia, photos and newspaper clippings is on permanent display in the Hibbing Library.

One of the librarians who helped curate it was Nancy Riesgraf, who worked at the Hibbing Library for 38 years. She was surprised by the fact that people from all over the world would make the pilgrimage to see where Dylan grew up.

“It really amazed me. I never thought we would get people from Germany, England and Australia.”

Hibbing’s relationship with Dylan wasn’t always the friendliest.

“At school, Bob was an outsider,” said retired social studies teacher Craig Hattam, adding that Dylan’s leather jacket and motorcycle riding gave the musician a counterculture look in 1950s rural Minnesota.

“In fact, when he was on stage in Hibbing, he played Little Richard songs.”

Hattam also explains that there were advantages to growing up in Hibbing, such as the care Dylan received in school.

“BJ Ralphson helped him with his poetry,” Hattam said of Dylan’s high school English teacher.

In 2016, Dylan became the first musician in history to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“(Ralphson) had a huge impact on his life.”

After Dylan left Hibbing, he began making up his backstory and left Hibbing out of his story. This kind of self-renewal was common for musicians of the time – but left him feeling like his hometown had become icy.

“And for a while, for some reason, it led to ‘Hibbing hates him,'” Hattam said. Hattam, however, seems that fewer people now have this attitude towards him.

Hattam said there’s an undeniable Iron Range vibe to the songwriter.

“I like how he has a sort of wail to his song. And I do, wait, that hard R and that whine? I talk like that all the time! That’s an Iron Range song!”

As the film nears its release, Hattam is excited to see the impact it will have and to celebrate the man.

“(He’s) from northeastern Minnesota. Who would have thought something like this would come from here? And to have that celebrated in a film? It gives a whole new generation of people the chance to be inspired by his music.”

“A Complete Unknown” opens December 25th.