Writer-director Cameron Crowe's love of music has been a key part of his work since his teenage days writing for rolling stonebut a fundamental text to understand that passion has been absent until now. Rediscovered after more than 40 years, Heartbreakers Beach Party (Crowe's first work as a director) has been rediscovered and remastered, breathing new life into an intimate portrait of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, seen through the eyes of a great rock journalist.
In fact, Heartbreakers Beach Party begins by presenting itself not as a documentary, but as “A Profile of Cameron Crowe”: the clear intention is to offer a video version of the kind of cover stories Crowe had been writing for. rolling stone up to that point. Focusing primarily on footage filmed in 1982 and 1983 (plus some footage from old live shows), the camera focuses on Tom Petty's face more often than not, as the frontman speaks candidly about the record company's troubles and the replacement of bassist Ron Blair with Howie Epstein. .
MTV only aired the documentary once, in February 1983, at which time (according to official movie website) “the film was considered too experimental and abruptly taken off the air.” Experimental is an accurate description, although meandering might be another.
Being framed as “a profile” inspires a lot of reflection on the differences between a few thousand words of print journalism and an hour of filmed interviews and improvised material; the second offers more immediacy and intimacy, while the first benefits from the author's hand guiding the action. Even though Crowe was literally on screen with Petty throughout the documentary, it suffers from a lack of narrative drive, even though the core of Heartbreakers Beach Party lasting only an hour, within that time period it tends to wander a bit, becoming (especially in the middle) more of a collection of interesting clips rather than a coherent story about the band at this time.
However, the clips are truly glorious. There's Petty composing a silly little song on the bus with the title “I'm Stupid” (you can see a clip here, courtesy of the band's facebook page). There's Petty addressing a crowd of UCLA students about album prices. There's Petty talking nonsense to rock stars who are pretending to be characters. There's Petty working with Stevie Nicks on the recording of “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.”
And there's footage of a 2:00 a.m. meeting between Crowe and Petty, during which Petty declares “Here you go, Cameron, here's the whole dirty truth” while pulling out a box of old photographs full of stories, like what James is like. Brown. The only musician Petty asked for an autograph.
There are a few central interviews interspersed throughout the film, the most predominant of which is that of Petty and Crowe sitting in the back seat of a limousine as it drives around Los Angeles. Even the choice to travel by limo ends up being telling about Petty as a rock star at the time, as he acknowledges that it's a “pretty unpleasant way to travel,” but that he might as well enjoy it while he can, because who? Do you know what could happen in a year? Plus, he points out, “I don't have to drive around in an old Ford to convince myself that I'm from the street.”
This wouldn't be the last time Crowe attempted to direct a music documentary; He also did the one in 2011. Pearl Jam twentywhich chronicles that band's 20th anniversary, and he technically directed this one with the help of Doug Dowdle and Phil Savenick (the other two credited directors). While Crowe is very much present in the action here, it's not in a way that takes attention away from the subject, a difficult balance to find that only comes with experience. It reminds me of one of the most famous monologues he's ever written, words put into the mouth of legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Almost Famous:
You I can't make friends with rock stars… If you're going to be a real journalist, you know, a rock journalist, first of all, you're never going to get paid much. But you will get free records from the record company. There is nothing about you that is controversial. God, it's going to get ugly. And they will buy you drinks, you will meet girls, they will try to take you places for free and they will offer you drugs. I know, it sounds great. But these people are not your friends. You know, these are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of rock stars and they will *ruin* rock 'n' roll and strangle everything we love about it. Good? And then it becomes a cool industry.
In Heartbreakers Beach PartyCrowe is ten years into his career as a music journalist and seems to have internalized these lessons to some extent. What you have learned is how seem as the band's friend, making the film's most honest and revealing moments possible. But there's still enough of a fan in him that the film ultimately feels like a celebration of his work, if only because the music is ever-present, a reminder of how in the early '80s, a time when (as he says Crowe during the outtakes) ) synth was king, real people playing real guitars stood out as something special. And to this day, there remains something unique about the way the Heartbreakers rock.
Tom Petty: Heartbreaker Beach Party opens in select theaters on October 17 and 20. Learn more about tickets at the official website.
thanks to our partners at consequence.net
