Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Playback (1995)

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I got this in 2 days ago and I have loved watching it. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers made 2 of the greatest music videos of all time with "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance". When I saw the first one back in the 80's, I never forgot it. It was one of the best takes I've ever seen taken of Alice in Wonderland. The second was a classic as well. When a person sees it, they don't forget them. I also liked the video for "Into the Wide Open" as well. When I saw it back in the 80's, I never forgot that scene where Eddie played by Johnny Depp blows his nose at the crowd. This is a must have for any fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The difference between these videos and the ones put out today is that they will not be remembered 20 years from now and these always will be. I also noticed on many of the videos that Petty's character had on a jacket and a big hat. If you don't agree with what I'm saying, it means you don't want to admit what music has come down to these days which is it is all about sex. While it might sell Cds fast, in the long run it won't be remembered.

PLAYBACK is a no-nonsense compilation of Tom Petty's promo films and video clips, spanning the years 1979 to 1994, beginning with 'Here Comes My Girl' and ending with 'Mary Jane's Last Dance'. The earliest clips are the most interesting, with Petty and his band coming out of their mid-seventies plastic punk phase and becoming embraced by the nascent new wave movement, and the promos for 'The Waiting' and 'Refugee' nicely subvert the "stand still and mime" ethos that rock videos were already getting bogged down with. Cameron Crowe has an early stab at directing with the video for 'Change Of Heart', which is presented in a mix that sounds more direct and exciting than the album mix, and the ever-alluring Stevie Nicks makes a guest appearance in the haunting 'Insider'. On the negative side, the Mad Max-style visuals in 'You Got Lucky' seem self-indulgent and even dated (as well as having precisely nothing to do with the song), the tricksy hallucinatory style adopted for 'Don't Come Around Here No More' gets tiresome very quickly, 'Jammin Me' could give you a headache or eyestrain or worse, 'I Won't Back Down' features some cringe-inducing "zaniness" from Ringo Starr and 'Free Fallin' has shots of skateboarders crow barred in, as if the director was making some misguided attempts at making the then-middle-aged Petty seem more hip and in touch with the kids. That said, the mini-films accompanying 'Into The Great Wide Open' and 'Mary Jane's Last Dance' are both excellent, and the solo 'Face In The Crowd' is appropriately haunting. It's a shame room couldn't be found for some earlier, rougher tracks like 'American Girl' or 'Listen To Her Heart', but there we are. All in all this is a must-have for Petty fans, but you may want to close your eyes at times and just enjoy the music.