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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 11/05/2007 : 23:28:01
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The current thread was semi-inspired by another one in which Downtown was rightly drooling over Martin Scorsese's upcoming Rolling Stones docu. Then he made fun of the idea of Peter Bogdanovich spending four hours with Tom Petty [with and without the Heartbreakers]. Ms. Randall and I were equally bemused when we noted the running time for the screening at this year's New York Film Festival.
However, I've now seen the entire film on the Sundance Channel, and there's egg all over my face. The four-hour running time is required to take you through thirty years. You see band members leave, return, burn out, freak out -- yet there's still Petty at the center, upon reflection one of the most important rock musicians of the last quarter century. This movie compels you to make that reflection.
You can't, I couldn't, sit through it all at one patch. In fact, they must have had an intermission halfway thru, because there's a title card that says, "End of Part 1," then "Part 2."
But by the time it's over, you are so proud to have met the guy who gave the finger to his label time and time again, and prevailed each time. But most importantly, you get to relive the music that, to quote MTV's Bill Flanagan, "made rock & roll relevant again." I can sure attest to that, since I used to write about it professionally, then quit later when I couldn't hear anything I liked, then Petty's Rickenbacker jangled, and it made me feel good all over again. Despite its length, this movie does too. |
Edited by - randall on 11/06/2007 01:18:44 |
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Running Down A Dream
