Director Jeremy Dylan
Score 5.5/6

From the Australian outback to Music City USA, a child guitar prodigy dedicates his life to become the world’s greatest acoustic guitarist, even as revelations of dark family secrets send him into a battle with addiction that threatens to destroy his career, his family and his life.

Even though I don’t listen to a lot of music by Tommy Emmanuel, I have to admit that the start of this documentary made me smile. In the past I have talked about with some filmmakers particularly with biopics to paint their subjects in the most favourable light possible. One of the things I learnt at school in a journalism class was that facts are sacred and it was good to see that with Tommy’s story the filmmakers told the good and the bad. This is why I enjoy documentaries like Tommy Emmanuel : The Endless Road.
The story of Tommy’s first word seemed oddly appropriate for a musician and it certainly seemed that Tommy had what could be described as a colourful childhood (compared to other people) playing on tour in the family band. The file footage that was used was interesting and it was a little nostalgic hearing about Tommy’s performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
I also enjoyed hearing the influence that Chet Atkins had on Tommy’s career.