OK, so I'm not much of a Bob Dylan fan. In fact, I'm not a Bob Dylan fan at all. To me his voice grates, his music's fairly monotonous. But I do marvel at the brilliance of Todd Haynes' experimental Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There.

D.A. Pennebaker, in my estimation, is still one of the greatest documentary filmmakers in history, and while The War Room is still Pennebaker's greatest accomplishment, his 1962 cinema vérité treatment of Bob Dylan's first tour of the UK, Don't Look Back, is almost as brilliant a fly-on-the-wall film.

Now in Haynes' I'm Not There, Cate Blanchett is one of six actors playing an element of the Dylan legend, focusing primarily on the same English journey that Pennebaker captured. And she plays it almost perfectly, aside from the slight sway to her walk and perhaps being just a little too tall. Oddly, she's not the only Australian playing Dylan; there's also Heath Ledger, playing a Steve McQueen-James Dean-Al Pacino composite who once played a character inspired by Bob Dylan. Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw, both Brits, also assume roles as the folk master.

The Collector's Edition DVD, now available, brings us two discs packed with features. Unlike certain DVDs, where the special features turn out to be just trailers and a poorly crafted documentary produced for E! or the TV Guide channel, the extras that accompany I'm Not There take you through the entire production, from auditions for the "Woody Guthrie" and "Arthur Rimbaud" versions of Bob Dylan to a short but heart-breaking tribute to the late Heath Ledger. For music aficionados, the real prize is the documentary on how they recorded the music, with a different genius behind each storyline, including none other than Lee Ranaldo, guitarist for Sonic Youth, who orchestrated the electricified Dylan songs for Blanchett's segment. Todd Haynes, of course, is also especially eloquent in explaining his decisions, whether they concern cinematography, editing, or exposition.

The real reason to pick up the DVD, though, is that at 2 hours and 15 minutes, the film was too much for a lot of people to handle (personally, I would've cut all of Richard Gere's bits, except for the Calexico-My Morning Jacket cover of "Going to Acapulco"). With the pause button on hand, you can really appreciate the scene-by-scene mastery that tops Ray and Walk the Line and The Doors and every other iconic musical biopic.

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