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Runnin' Down a Dream

My first reaction upon viewing the trailer for Peter Bogdanovich’s new documentary, entitled Runnin’ Down a Dream, was that the producers were swaddling a weak film in the songbook of its subject, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A review in Variety indicates that the trailer reflects the film’s emphasis correctly, but suggests that my reasoning for it is incorrect. Variety credits Bogdanovich with putting the music of Petty and his influences at the center of the four-hour documentary. The main departure seems to be the story of Petty’s battle against a record-company plot to price the band’s Hard Promises LP at $9.98, a full dollar more than the standard LP price at the time, and to use the album to make the increased price the new standard.

Putting Petty’s music at the heart of the film seems to me a sensible creative choice. Music has certainly been at the center of the lives of Petty and his bandmates. In short, I’m in for Runnin’ Down a Dream. I’ll add queue it either right before or right after the Joy Division documentary.