“No Direction Home” interviews close friends who mentored, recorded and toured with the young Dylan, providing informative footage of musicians who inspired him. We learn how a so-called voice of a generation was actually, in his own words, a “musical expeditionary,” a close observer who absorbed the popular and folk music styles of the day. He aped these contemporaries of his until their style became his own, part of him, and the influence fell away.

After emerging from obscurity with a few marginally successful albums of covers, Dylan began recording his own material. There are many beautiful eureka moments of songwriting in this documentary, often provided with archival concert footage. The best is when “Like a Rolling Stone” first comes together in the Columbia recording studio. Branching out into full accompaniment, Dylan was called a traitor to folk. Scorsese’s film demonstrates that attempts to label him are pointless. All he has given us is his music, and that’s plenty. — Wayne Melton