Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 2, 2017

Remember when television shows used to have themes with actual lyrics? Trivia fans know that the first season of Gilligan's Island kind of hilariously referred to two cast members as "and the rest", despite them being in a rather small aggregation who had otherwise all been identified in the theme. Both The Wrecking Crew and 20 Feet from Stardom have documented the weird aspect of “and the rest” that attends some careers in the music industry. The Wrecking Crew ultimately became something approaching icons themselves, at least to those who paid attention to liner note credits if not to the general public, and unlike some of the backup singers in 20 Feet from Stardom or some of the sidemen profiled in Hired Gun, were able to craft incredibly successful and consistent careers as session musicians. I had the pleasure of producing a concert for the fantastic jazz pianist and songwriter Dave Frishberg a few years ago, and he delighted the audience with his wonderful tune “I Want to Be a Sideman”, a song whose message is perfectly a propos this documentary's focus, and where Frishberg's lyric documents the supposed “adventures” of a backup player supporting the main act:

I want to be a sideman
Just an ordinary sideman
I’d go along for the ride, man
Responsibility free.

Some of those profiled in Hired Gun might want to quibble a bit (and maybe more than just a bit) with that “responsibility free” part, but this engaging documentary offers some insight into what it’s like, both professionally and perhaps even emotionally, to be one of the folks on the stage helping to make “the magic”, despite never being in the veritable spotlight.

Anyone who has ever played music professionally will probably tell you there’s sometimes no logic to who is (or becomes) a “star”. That’s probably especially true in these days of what I’ve called “fame by lottery” courtesy of such shows as American Idol: The Search for a Superstar or The Voice which often bestow “insta-fame” on a performer, only to snatch it away just about as quickly. I have several friends on various social media platforms who in fact have worked as regular musicians on either of those shows, and while Clay Aikens or Dia Framptons have come and gone, these session players continue to hone their craft in front of millions of people who wouldn’t recognize their names if they reached out and slapped them (I’ve specifically chosen “also rans” to indicate even they are better known than some of the sidemen). While most of the backup folks profiled in Hired Gun seem to have found their emotional balance with regard to this seemingly unjust situation, you can occasionally glean just a hint of bitterness beneath some of their comments, specifically with regard to the callous treatment some of them have been on the receiving end of from their “superstar” bosses.

What becomes apparent almost immediately is the disconnect between the average person’s starry eyed presumptions about what “success” in any entertainment industry must be like, and what the actual reality turns out to be. The really interesting thing for some will be the lack of a jaded sensibility on the part of many of these sidemen, despite having peripatetic careers that outsiders may insist never really “grabbed the brass ring”. While there are sweet stories here (one involving Kiss is especially meaningful in the “dreams come true” category), many of the stories relayed by these people deal instead with the long, slow trudge to just getting a regular paycheck, certainly something anyone in any kind of business could understand.

While there are talking heads here that virtually anyone is going to recognize (i.e., David Foster, Alice Cooper), the bulk of the piece is spent interviewing a slew of folks who have played on countless albums, tours and radio hits while never really receiving any outsized recognition for their contributions. This therefore may be an especially meaningful "learning experience" for younger musicians just starting out in their field who might assume that "mere" talent will get them where they want to go. Some of them might want to just slightly amend Frishberg's great line to say "I'm OK with being a sideman - as long as there's a big paycheck attached."

Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hired Gun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This presentation is understandably a bit on the heterogeneous side, having been culled from a variety of sources, including newer sit down interview segments with the participants, some archival video of performances, and a lot of stills scattered through the offering. The interview segments have the best overall definition and detail levels, though some of the performance footage is rather nice looking as well. Some other archival video can look a bit ragged in spots, at least relatively speaking. Some of the video sources have occasional damage or noise issues. A few establishing shots of various locations look like they may have either been upscaled or had unstable stock footage sourcing, with just some momentary image instability.

Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's quite a bit of music in Hired Gun, as might be expected, but the fact that is regularly recurs as either interstitial performance snippets or underscore means that there's perhaps less of a difference between the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and the Dolby Digital 2.0 track than might be assumed. The surround track certainly opens up the music and just as certainly provides a much more boisterous accounting of the all important low end to some of the harder rock offerings, but since so much of this documentary is simply talking heads material, there's less of an opportunity for consistent surround activity. Fidelity is top notch across the board (though it arguably fluctuates in a minor way in some of the on the fly live footage that's featured).

Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Additional Hired Gun Interviews can be played individually or sequentially as a whole, and include:

  Greg Phillinganes (1080p; 5:19)

  Jason Newsted (1080p; 12:06)

  Neal Schon (1080p; 5:44)

  Steve Lukather (1080p; 4:38)

  Steve Vail (1080p; 9:29)

• Cast Q & A (1080p; 20:45) is a fun if kind of awkwardly staged event from SXSW.


• Studio Performance by The Drills (1080p; 2:24) features Phil X, Kenny Aronoff and Paul Bushnell.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:46)

Hired Gun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gilligan's Island did "the right thing" by adding "the Professor and Mary Ann" to the theme music for the series' second and third seasons, and maybe some wise marketing guru in the music industry will follow suit by getting some of the remarkable musicians included in Hired Gun a bit of notice as well. Those who have spent some of their lives in the veritable trenches of whatever career they've found themselves in will understand some of the subtext of this fascinating piece, even if they have not one whit of musical talent themselves. Fans of either The Wrecking Crew or 20 Feet From Stardom will almost certainly enjoy this at least somewhat similar outing. Technical merits are generally strong, and Hired Gun comes Highly recommended.