The vintage footage, shot by the longtime Petty chronicler Martyn Atkins, ran four hours.
Wharton’s film draws on two primary sources – footage shot in the 90s during the Wildflowers recording sessions and fresh interviews she conducted with the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, as well as with the album’s producer, Rick Rubin, and Petty’s daughter, Adria. Last year, they sanctioned a four-CD box set titled Wildflowers and the Rest, which restored 10 songs excised from the original release, along with demos, alternative takes and live recordings of material from the original sessions performed over the next two decades. Lately, they have concentrated on Wildflowers, drawn by its revered status with fans, critics and Petty himself. In the time since, his estate has been combing through the music and film that remains in the vault. An official statement by the family at the time stated that the musician had been taking that mix of medications to numb the escalating pain of emphysema, issues with his knees and a badly fractured hip. On 2 October 2017, Petty died at the age of 66 from what was ruled an accidental overdose of opioids, sedatives and an anti-depressant.
Some of that has to do with what Petty revealed, and didn’t reveal, about his life at the time some probably came as a result of a life that ended too soon and without warning. Small wonder the film is as interesting for what it doesn’t include as what it does.
For the most part, the film focuses on that aspect, leaving some of the more troubling issues either implicit, glossed-over or denied. Despite the frustration, controversy and agony of the time, Wildflowers also represented a fount of opportunity, a blank check for the future.
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