Documentary puts rare spotlight on Tom Petty
By Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune - October 29, 2007
Tom Petty's lip curls in disgust. He is reading the lyrics to a song that Roger McGuinn, one of his heroes, has been given by a record company executive to sing.
"Are you getting a kickback on this?" Petty fumes as the label representative argues for the song's validity. "This is a bad song ... This is just perpetrating the depth of [junk] we're in with pop music."
McGuinn stands uncomfortably while his record-company man squirms. Later, the Byrds legend acknowledges that he might have been willing to record the song to mollify the label until Petty stepped in. "He was being my hero," McGuinn says. "Standing up to those guys."
4-hour Tom Petty documentary a fan's 'Dream'
By Jim Farber
New York Daily News - Monday, October 29, 2007
'RUNNING DOWN A DREAM' | Tonight at 7, Sundance | ★★★★☆
Telling a story right takes time.
Director Peter Bogdanovich obviously believes this because he takes no less than four hours to relay the musical rise - and rise, and rise - of Tom Petty in "Running Down a Dream," which debuts tonight at 7 on the Sundance Channel. The length may seem better suited to a Ken Burns epic, if not "War and Peace," but believe me, there's barely a wasted minute.
It helps if you're a Tom Petty fan, but even if you're not, you'll appreciate the tension, history and inspiration captured by a tale so finely told.
Runnin' on Empty: Lots of Details, Little Meaning in Tom Petty Documentary
By J. Freedom du Lac
The Washington Post - Monday, October 29, 2007
Nearly an hour into the interminable music documentary "Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers," Petty himself recalls that rock-and-roll circa 1976 had become bloated. There were too many seven-minute songs, he says. Such a piggish display of excess and self-indulgence!
Petty et al. favored brevity. Their breakout single, "Breakdown"? Two minutes, 42 seconds. "American Girl"? Three minutes, 33 seconds. "Refugee"? Three and change.
"We have a slogan," Mike Campbell, the band's superlative guitar slinger, tells the camera. "Don't bore us -- get to the chorus."
Peter Bogdanovich, are you listening?
Darn That Dream
By Bill Barol
The Huffington Post - October 31, 2007
Peter Bogdanovich's magisterial Runnin' Down a Dream (re-airing tonight and Saturday on The Sundance Channel) does what it wants to do: It makes a powerful case for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers as the great American rock and roll band of the last three decades. Petty serves as a laconically compelling narrator, the Heartbreakers (especially an incisive Benmont Tench and a drily bitter Stan Lynch) chip in like color analysts, and the music speaks for itself, a staggering string of one masterful pop song after another. What Petty almost certainly didn't set out to do, though, in what amounts to a four-hour vanity project -- and what Bogdanovich is canny enough to let him do in his own leisurely way -- is explicate some of the darker traits that have helped him stay successful for a thirty-year stretch.
Tom Petty documentary a must see for fans
By Ari Jacknow
The Page - November 2, 2007
Runnin' Down a Dream, a Peter Bogdanovich documentary, recounts the 30-year career of rock-and-roll band legends, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The world premiere of this documentary only played in three theatres in the Bay Area (28 showings total in the U.S.) on October 15. It was a private screening, with limited tickets.
You'd think any movie that is four hours long would be painful to sit through, but this documentary is not one of those. Even if you aren't a complete Tom Petty fanatic, this film will draw you in from the start and leave you totally inspired.
Portraits in music
By Joshua Klein
Chicago Tribune - November 18, 2007
Truth is stranger than fiction, goes the saying, but that presumes it's easy to tell the two apart. This holds particularly true in the world of music, where myth and legend often loom larger than the recorded legacy itself; Bob Dylan has exaggerated, embellished or outright fabricated more of his life story than even the most creative biographer could ever hope to invent.
No wonder, then, that the rich and complicated history of rock and pop continues to inspire filmmakers. Some films from this fall's slate of music documentaries and biopics attempt to show what really happened. Others are more interested in some version of the truth rather than the real thing. And still others use pop myth as a jumping-off point for parts unknown or even unknowable.
DVDS: Shining a spotlight on Tom Petty
By Rod Lockwood
Toledo Blade - Thursday, November 22, 2007
It doesn't take four hours to figure out Tom Petty.
Everything anyone needs to know about the man is tucked neatly into a few deliciously tense moments in the Peter Bogdanovich-directed Petty doc Runnin' Down A Dream, which really does clock in at just under 240 minutes.
It's a rare peek into the sleazy morass of the recording industry that someone captured on film years ago. Petty's in a studio with one of his most important influences, Roger McGunn of The Byrds, who is working on a solo album. The control room is tight and claustrophobic, and there's a youngish record company executive there telling McGuinn he has written him a song that should be recorded for the release.
2-Minute Drill: Another Side Of Emerson Fittipaldi
By Bob Wolfiey
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel - November 23, 2007
Racing fans know him as the father of the Brazilian migration to America racing, a Formula One world champion who won two Indianapolis 500s. Others may remember him as the guy who drank the orange juice instead of milk. But to musician Tom Petty, Fittipaldi serves a preconcert inspiration. Petty explains in 2005's "Conversations with Tom Petty," describing a trip with George Harrison to the Long Beach Grand Prix:
"We were backstage. and I watched him getting read and into his racing suit. I thought, this is heavy (stuff). This guy is going to be going really fast for a long time. And if you (mess) up you are dead. So it's a heavy gig.
Grand Gift Guide! Awesome ideas for the music snob
By Adrian Ruhi
The Independent Florida Alligator - Thursday, November 29, 2007
We all have one to shop for -- the friend who happens to be an uber-finickly music fan. Here are five holiday gift ideas for the snob who wants a more in-depth present than the hottest Soulja Boy single on iTunes:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Runnin' Down a Dream":
Another Best Buy exclusive, this box set contains one CD and three DVDs, which have more than five hours of video, including rare band footage, interviews and their 2006 Gainesville homecoming concert in its entirety.