By Erin Free
Worth: $18.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Tom Petty, Cameron Crowe, Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Howie Epstein, Stan Lynch
Intro:
It’s a terrific time capsule capturing an essential American band at a key point in their long and winding career.
The career trajectory of Cameron Crowe – a director capable of extraordinary highs (Say Anything, Singles, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire), abominable lows (Elizabethtown, Aloha, Vanilla Sky) – is now the stuff of Hollywood legend, with the gifted writer/director kicking things off as a teenage music reporter for storied rock titans like Rolling Stone and Creem before making the move first into screenwriting (the teen classic Fast Times At Ridgemont High) and then directing. Crowe’s affinity for rock music has always stayed true, with the director often delving back into the field, most notably with his masterful 2011 doco Pearl Jam Twenty. Though often heard about, Crowe’s exploits as a young music reporter are far less often seen, which makes the release of his “lost” music profile film Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party a true joy for the filmmaker’s fans. A one-hour look into the early 1980s world of the eponymous American rocker helmed by Crowe, this richly entertaining package is almost as revealing of its director as it is of its subject.
The death of the towering Tom Petty in 2017 at the age of just 66 was a true rock music tragedy. A singer of stunning, unmistakable and instantly recognisable originality; a songwriter almost supernaturally in tune with the American heartland (belters like “Don’t Do Me Like That”, “American Girl” and “Learning To Fly” are only the tip of the incredible iceberg when it comes to Petty’s catalogue of stone-cold classics); and a streetwise rebel of note (best espoused in his tough, wonderfully strident masterpiece “Won’t Back Down”), Tom Petty was an enduring and constantly fascinating figure in American rock. He had a truly amazing career, which is captured with exhaustive, incisive brilliance by director Peter Bogdanovich in his must-see 2007 documentary Runnin’ Down A Dream, to which Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party plays almost as a cheeky, long-lost cousin.
A true time capsule (and essentially Crowe’s first film as a director), Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party sees Cameron Crowe hanging out with Tomy Petty And The Heartbreakers in 1982 and 1983 around the release of the group’s fifth album Long After Dark. It was a tricky time for the band: original bass player Ron Blair was replaced with Howie Epstein, and their previous record, Hard Promises, had seen Petty engage in a bitter battle with the group’s record company, MCA who wanted to jack up the price of his increasingly popular albums as part of their bullshit “superstar pricing” policy, all of which feels strangely current considering the spotlight now being shone on dodgy concert promoters and other music industry vampires opportunistically sucking the life blood out of artists and the money out of music fans.
Originally aired on MTV (just once), Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party is great fun. Appearing incredibly young and fresh faced, the very preppy-looking and decidedly early-80s Cameron Crowe (showing that it certainly wasn’t any kind of Nick Kent coolness that helped him ingratiate himself with his interview subjects) peppers the famously spiky but strangely goofy Tom Petty with interesting questions, which are met with a compelling mix of often terse and unforgiving honesty and back-handed humour. There is much great live and tour footage and in-studio stuff (revealing that drummer Stan Lynch used to hit the skins with perfectly positioned opened copies of Playboy Magazine as inspiration!), as well as fairly illuminating interviews with The Heartbreakers during the shoot of the memorably silly “You Got Lucky” post-apocalyptic video clip. Through it all, Crowe’s infectiously engaging, youthful goofiness forms a curious counterpoint to the dazed, slightly ornery road weariness of his hard-touring interview subjects. It’s a terrific time capsule capturing an essential American band at a key point in their long and winding career.
After the hour-long profile, there’s a contemporary chat between Cameron Crowe and Tom Petty’s oldest daughter, Adria, herself a director of note, with music videos for Beyonce, Regina Spektor, Coldplay, Rihanna and Kings Of Leon to her credit. The pair talk a little about Tom Petty and the preceding footage, and also play some deleted and additional scenes not included in the programme. As well as shedding a little more light on the creation of Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, the chat also provides another interesting reveal on Crowe himself. Though obviously older, heavier and much greyer than he was in the original Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party footage, Crowe’s bright-shining-light enthusiasm for rock music – and especially for the great Tom Petty – remains gloriously, furiously and admirably undimmed.
Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party will screen on October 17 & 20. Click here for all venue and ticketing information.
