Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 24, 2025

Tom Petty's death in 2017 from what was described as an accidental drug overdose was understandably shocking for a lot of the icon's fans, but that shock might be at least partially ameliorated by the discovery in 2020 of a pretty amazing archive of 16mm film circa 1993 to 1995 which offers an admittedly now bittersweet but still captivating "up close and personal" look at Petty during the writing of what would ultimately become Wildflowers. A lot of what might be called Behind the Music adjacent documentaries tend to frankly be overly produced near hagiographies to whatever creatives were involved, and there's probably that aspect suffusing this piece, too, but it's a good deal more casual and seemingly off the cuff than a lot of what, say, used to populate MTV back in the day when that network still actually focused on music.

The documentary begins with some explanatory text:

In early 2020, a collection of 16mm film was discovered in the Tom Petty archive. Shot between 1993 and 1995 by Petty's longtime filmographer Martyn Atkins while Petty was recording the Wildflowers album and on the tour that followed, most of this material has never been seen before.

And that last bit is probably the most relevant for some fans who may still be missing Petty, since this footage kind of offers a "surprise" chance to reconnect with him, albeit with the undeniable nostalgia that's attached to the enterprise. All of the foregoing said, this is a documentary that will probably appeal mostly to existing Petty fans, especially those who love Wildflowers, rather than "newcomers" trying to find out about Petty. There's a lot of biographical background offered by way of passing anecdotes, but this is a piece focusing on a specific time in an artist's career and which therefore doesn't really even attempt any "overarching" analysis.

In that regard, Adria Petty closes her insert booklet essay with this comment:

At its heart, this is a film about a very authentic person creating art during a very unique time in his life.

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Records with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (mostly) in 1.34:1 (contemporary interview segments are in a wider aspect ratio). The archival 16mm material is in surprisingly good shape, and has both black and white and color sequences. The color moments are decently suffused, if not overly vivid, but the black and white footage offers secure contrast and some nicely modulated gray scale. Detail levels are also surprisingly consistent given the surplus of close-up framings. There are definitely variances in clarity and fine detail levels, as well as grain resolution throughout the 16mm material. The newly shot interview segments look great.

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options. Frankly, the stereo audio suffices perfectly well for this feature, since the music tends to be interstitial (though there are some performance moments). The surround track offers intermittent immersion, mostly due to the relatively brief musical moments. All spoken material is delivered clearly and cleanly, which may be a good thing since there are no optional subtitles.

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Tom Petty Interview (HD; 15:27) is described on the back cover as "director Mary Wharton's collection of unreleased bonus footage featuring interviews and archival clips." This has some really appealing extra moments with Tom.


• Music Videos are described on the back cover as "2020 Promotional Videos", with both Wildflowers and You Don't Know How It Feels further advertised as "home recordings":

You Don't Know How It Feels (HD; 4:50) is a demo from 1993 and plays to some fun animation.




Something Could Happen (HD; 6:14) offers what might be called a riff on Beauty and the Beast material.




Leave Virginia Alone (HD; 4:36) is a black and white pastoral dreamscape.




Wildflowers (HD; 2:56) has some of the main feature's 16mm "home movie" sensibilities.

As mentioned above, an insert booklet has a sweet essay by Adria Petty.

Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free - The Making of Wildflowers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Years ago in my misspent youth I was blasting some music from my stereo in a house I was renting and suddenly there was a loud pounding at the door. It turned out to be a neighbor asking me to turn things down, but in her "defense" for intruding she offered, "Tom Petty is my cousin, I love music". I have actual doubts about the veracity of her claim, but the fact that she would have pulled that reference out of her veritable hat to prove something has always stuck with me as an indicator of the connection Petty made with listeners. If you're a fan of Petty in general or Wildflowers in particular, this documentary should be a "must see". Technical merits are generally solid and the supplementary music videos enjoyable. Recommended.