MOVING PICTURES

INTIMATE NEW TOM PETTY DOCUMENTARY NOW STREAMING FOR FREE ON YOUTUBE

BY JOE NOLAN Film Critic

Director Peter Bogdanovich’s sprawling 2007 documentary, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream was an epic, sprawling and deftly detailed history of the eponymous band’s career from their early days in Gainesville, Fla., as a regional outfit called Mudcrutch. It followed the band to the top of the charts in the 1980s, and into legendary status by the time the band created their Wildflowers album with producer Rick Rubin in the mid-1990s.

Bogdanovich’s film is energized with exhaustive documentation, spotlighting every change in the band’s lineup, every new twist on their sound, and all the collaborators — George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Dave Stewart, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Dell Shannon to name a few — who played a part in the band’s continued development and success over nearly half a century.

Bogdanovich’s film will likely never be bested as the definitive cinematic history of the band, and it’s required viewing for longtime Heartbreakers fans and newbies alike. Now a new documentary by Mary Wharton zooms-in on what many fans and critics consider to be the band’s high water mark. Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers spotlights the period from 1992-1994 when Petty joined forces with producer Rick Rubin to create the titular masterpiece LP. The film made a successful limited theatrical run in October, and it just started streaming for free on YouTube on Nov. 11.

We mention Bogdanovich’s film because Wharton’s movie manages to be the yin to its yang: Bogdanovich’s movie covers decades of history and clocks-in at a staggering 4h 19m runtime. Wharton’s movie focuses on a few years in the middle of the band’s career, and her film doesn’t break the 1h 30m mark. Bogdanovich’s film gives us an international cast of musicians, producers and star collaborators. Wharton’s film focuses on Petty and Rubin — the album was released as a solo LP that allowed the singer to “step out of the politics of The Heartbreakers.” In reality, most of The Heartbreakers contributed to the album, and guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboard player Benmont Tench also fill-in the blanks of Wharton’s film with their reminiscences about the band’s creative process, their tensions and camaraderie.

The album was cut over 21 months from July 20, 1992 - April 29, 1994 at Sound City and Ocean Way studios in Los Angeles, CA. Wharton gives us lots of footage of the band in the studio, behind the mixing console, and even on stage. But beyond the actual performances she captures, Wharton gives viewers deep insights into the process behind Petty’s writing, and how the band and Rubin evolved collections of chord changes, odd guitar riffs and random notebook scrawlings into a masterpiece album built on timeless songs like “Wildflowers,” “It’s Good to Be King,” “You Wreck Me,” and “You Don’t Know How it Feels.” Rubin isn’t a musician or even an expert audio engineer. His specialty is accommodating artists, meeting them where they are, and empowering them to find the flow in their creativity. Petty and the band had done projects with producer Jeff Lynne who is known for his technical, perfectionist releases. Petty and the band brought the discipline that Lynne inspired to the making of Wildflowers, but Rubin’s masterstroke was setting-up live recording sessions where the musicians could interact. They also took their time over more than a year-and-a-half of recording, relaxing into a place where they felt free to take chances and try-out ideas while also putting concerns about labels and charts and tour schedules on the back burner.

Wharton’s film is an invaluable document of the making of a modern masterpiece. It’s also a tender, funny, and fascinating profile of one of our greatest contemporary songwriters, and one of America’s greatest rock bands.

Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers is streaming on YouTube

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/ songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.