I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU is...Forgettable

I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU: THE LAST 72 HOURS OF LYNYRD SKYNYRD (2019)

Featuring Gene Odom, Leslie Hawkins, Craig Reed, Lynda Haun, Dwain Easley. Directed by Jonathan Braucher. (63 min)

ON DVD FROM MVD VISUAL

Review by Fluffy the Fearless😾

Be forewarned: You will not hear any Lynyrd Skynyrd music in this film, and aside from a former back-up singer, no surviving members of the band participated.

Instead, I’ll Never Forget You focuses on the plane crash which killed several prominent members in 1977, as well as the friendship between lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and bodyguard Gene Odom, who wrote the book this film is based on. The crash remains one of rock’s greatest tragedies, but ain’t exactly an unsolved mystery. Unless one is interested in a computer-simulated depiction of the crash itself, there isn’t anything revealing here.

Odom himself suggests he suspected something was wrong with the plane, but doesn’t add anything that hasn’t already been well documented in previous books, documentaries and TV programs. What’s left are interviews with peripherals who either had ties to the band or were involved in the subsequent rescue operation (who mostly just describe what they saw). The generic southern rock score sounds sort-of like Skynyrd, but it’s obvious permission wasn’t given to use their actual music, not even for the brief concert footage.

Running a scant 63 minutes, I’ll Never Forget You plays more like one of those sensationalist tabloid documentaries that Reelz airs to pad its schedule (including the usual ‘dramatic re-enactments’). You’ll learn little about the band itself and there far are better Lynyrd Skynyrd docs out there.

EXTRA KIBBLES

40TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT

MUSIC VIDEO – “Cold Dark Mississippi Night,” by some band called Tennessee Iron.

"GENE’S FISHING ADVICE” - Really?

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEH...LIKE SHARING THE BED WITH THE DOG.