What to Watch

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Documentaries to Watch if You Love the Band

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been featured in several documentaries over the years. Here are 4 that fans of the group should watch.

by Emma McKee

Published on March 16, 2023

3 min read

‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’ is one of the most comprehensive documentaries about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Peter Bogdanovich’s 2007 film Runnin’ Down a Dream is lengthy, so viewers should set aside over four hours to watch the movie. It’s worth it, though.

Runnin’ Down a Dream follows Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from their childhoods, to their days in Gainesville bars as Mudcrutch, to their 30th-anniversary concert. It provides a careful and comprehensive look at the band and, despite its length, never seems to slog. Bogdanovich interviewed the past and current Heartbreakers, as well as other musicians like Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder, and Dave Grohl.

The documentary could easily be split into two parts, but viewers may find themselves so enraptured that they watch the entire four-hour film in one sitting.

‘Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers’ is a recent documentary

The 2021 film Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers follows Petty as he made his solo album, Wildflowers. The album has long been celebrated as one of Petty’s best — even he said this — and the film gives viewers insight into the process of creating it. It also provides never-before-seen insight into Petty as a person. His longtime bandmate Benmont Tench said even he better understood Petty after watching.

“The film gives you this deeper ability to feel who Tom really was,” Petty’s daughter Adria told Vulture. “For me, it’s just like, That’s my dad. That’s really my dad. That’s not capital T, capital P. I used to always joke, ‘When my dad was on the road, he was TOM PETTY. Then he’d come home and he’d be dad or Tommy.’ He would calm down and stop yelling at everybody to get him stuff. He was sort of like two different people, but the guy in the studio was the normal guy. He wasn’t a rock star. He was very comfortable and very much like the same person he would be in a layman’s life. You really see him the way that I see him as a person.”

‘Echo in the Canyon’ features Tom Petty’s final on-camera interview

The 2018 documentary Echo in the Canyon follows Jakob Dylan as he explores the mid-60s music scene in Laurel Canyon. While Petty and the Heartbreakers were not a part of this scene, he speaks with Dylan about the music. The film was also Petty’s last on-camera interview before his death.

“My recollection was that it was a great day. It was maybe the most fun of the [shooting] days, for me,” Dylan told Yahoo. “Maybe that’s because I was spending time with Tom Petty and being in a guitar store, all at once — two things I like a lot! He seemed to have a really nice time, and obviously he was someone who couldn’t just get in a car and go to a music store very often, so we closed the store down.”

Dylan and Petty were close in his lifetime, so the film also provides insight into their relationship.

‘Concert for George’ shows the Heartbreakers in a tribute concert

In his lifetime, Petty was close friends with George Harrison. A year after Harrison’s death, in 2002, Petty and the Heartbreakers played in the Concert for George. The concert, which celebrated Harrison’s life and music, was also released on film in 2003 and reissued in 2018.

In it, the band plays “Taxman,” “I Need You,” and “Handle With Care.” It provides viewers with a unique look at the band celebrating a good musician and a great friend to them.