a mainstream audience. Commenting on the film when it was screened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in December 1972, New York Times critic Vincent Canby quotes from the program notes written by Howard Alk, describing the reaction of ABC Television as "What city are we in? What's happening?" According to Canby, Alk explains: "Instead of trying to re-create the 'real' event with a vérité documentary approach, the editors looked for what each shot itself wanted to be. Conversations unheld, events untranspired. Some real music, some not. Murder, villainy, slavery and lust. We hope a real movie. Perhaps even a comedy." Bootleg releases Eat the Document was never given a theatrical release or made commercially available on VHS or DVD, but unauthorized bootleg copies circulate among Dylan collectors. John Lennon scene Some bootleg versions of Eat the Document include a longer scene featuring Dylan in a limousine with John Lennon in the early hours of 27 May 1966. As Dylan shows signs of fatigue, and may be impaired by alcohol or drugs, Lennon urges him to get a grip on himself: "Do you suffer from sore eyes, groovy forehead, or curly hair? Take Zimdon!...Come, come, boy, it's only a film. Pull yourself together." Lennon would later recall in an interview with Rolling Stone that he and Dylan were "both in shades, and both on fucking junk, and all these freaks around us... I was nervous as shit. I was on his territory, that's why I was so nervous." Legacy Some of the concert footage shot for Eat the Document - including the "Judas" incident in Manchester's Free Trade Hall - was used in Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary, No Direction Home , along with footage of Johnny Cash and Dylan singing Hank Williams' "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry". Todd Haynes' film 2008 I'm Not There features a reference to the car ride with Lennon, featuring Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan. Notes External links Unused Danish footage of Bob Dylan with sailors American documentary television films Films directed by Bob Dylan 1972 films Films about Bob Dylan Rockumentaries Bob Dylan video albums 1970s English-language films 1970s American films