Sometime prior to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s spring 1965 tour of England, his manager, Albert Grossman, approached documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker to make a film of the tour, according to a 30 May 2016 LAT article. Pennebaker eagerly accepted and shot twenty hours of footage using a lightweight, handheld, 16mm camera and “a sound system he built himself.” The 14 Jun 1967 Var review noted that the footage was edited chronologically to its final ninety-six-minute length.
       According to the 4 Oct 1967 Var, Pennebaker and fellow documentarian Richard Leacock formed Leacock Pennebaker Films, Inc., in order to self-release the picture, referred to by contemporary and modern sources as Don’t Look Back, but spelled without the apostrophe onscreen and in print advertisements, including a full-page ad in the 7 Jun 1967 Var. Only one 16mm print was made to show prospective distributors, and when Pennebaker finally struck a deal with a San Francisco, CA-based exhibitor, the same worn 16mm print was used for daily screenings at the Presidio Theatre, where the film premiered on 17 May 1967 and went on to earn $42,000 in its first two weeks, the 14 Jun 1967 Var reported. Two months later, the 15 Aug 1967 NYT stated that Walter Reade-Sterling, Inc., had acquired distribution rights and was planning a Sep 1967 New York City release. However, the 7 Sep 1967 NYT review listed Leacock Pennebaker as distributor, and the 30 May 2016 LAT recalled that Pennebaker had arranged the 35mm prints that were shown in New York theaters.
       Several critics described Pennebaker’s documentary style as “cinéma-vérité” (a French term for “truthful cinema”) and noted the black-and-white footage was often underexposed and grainy, and the sound quality was lacking. The 21 Jun 1967 LAT review claimed the “technical shortcomings” served to “enhance the atmosphere of claustrophobic chaos surrounding a pop idol on tour.” Although the same review stated that Pennebaker’s unobtrusive style had resulted in a revealing portrait, a critique in the 22 Oct 1967 NYT lamented that Albert Grossman’s involvement as a producer was a “bad omen,” and warned that documentaries deemed cinéma-vérité were still “only a version of the truth.”
       The picture opens with a scene set to Dylan’s song, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” in which Dylan stands in an alley, flipping through cue cards with words and phrases from the song. The now iconic scene has been copied by various performers, including an homage in the music video for “Mediate” by INXS, and a scene in the 1992 film, Bob Roberts (see entry).
       Additional footage was compiled in a documentary titled 65 Revisited, released in Feb 2007 as part of a DVD box-set with Don’t Look Back. 65 Revisited was also theatrically released in New York City on 28 Nov 2007. That day’s NYT review stated that 65 Revisited included unabridged versions of musical performances that had been truncated in the original documentary, and an appearance by Nico of the Velvet Underground.