This is How Movies Should Be Made

A Disappointing Continuation

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

I have to admit that it took me fifty years to understand that some band players are just 'hired guns', never knew about that, I always thought they just played in different bands as full members. So for that only this documentary was an eye opener for me, and a good reason to watch it. It was very interesting to see the view of those artists on the bands they played with, and how some of those 'celebrities' are just a bunch of egoistic egocentric bastards, like Billy Joel in this documentary. He's a heartless very self-centered egoistic prick that doesn't deserve anybody buying his music. On the other hand you can witness what a wonderful guy his drummer Liberty DeVitto is, still forgiving everything and playing for peanuts. But there are also others than Billy Joel that are just wannabe good people and I guess that once you got a bit of success you just look at other people like they are your possession. In this documentary you also discover nice celebrities, with a golden heart, like Alice Cooper, Ozzy and Pink, not directly people that I would have thought being nice persons in daily life. So never judge a book by it's cover. The documentary is very well made, with tons of relevant interviews of great side artists, guitar and drum virtuoses that made the name of some big bands without ever being recognized. Interviews with hired guns, producers, artists and so on, it all passes the revue and it's very interesting and pleasant to listen to. If you are a music fan you should definitely watch Hired Gun. I will always listen to music in a different way now.

1/11/18. What a cool bunch of professionals. This is a great documentary to watch in which session musicians get to share their love of playing for the sake of playing. Though many have gone nameless, playing in the shadow of big personalities, they are so grateful for the chance just to play in that kind of environment. These are the true artists in the music world! Worth catching.

I was excited to see this documentary after a friend told me about it. I've followed music pretty heavily for the last 30+ years and have appreciated its history and the 'behind the scenes' stories. A similar documentary, The Wrecking Crew, is a must see!I enjoyed Hired Guns but was left wanting more. I felt they could've spent more time showing how a 'hired gun'/A-List player is different, or better, than the guy who is just not making it versus only talking about it.I would've liked to have seen how an A-List player can quickly learn a tune. Show a couple examples of them knowing nothing about a song and picking it up quickly, a Randy Rhoads solo for example, and tell how that compares to a non A-Lister. Show what makes them different. (Seeing Jay Graydon play the Steely Dan solo was pretty cool. )I found it a little ironic for Phil X to talk about not selling out for $200-300 but then this documentary has them all playing a couple of rather bland tunes together for a reason that I didn't really understand.Maybe I missed it but also seeing some guys who were originally in successful bands and then went on to be session musicians would've been interesting too. Jeff Pilson for example.

I wanted to watch this documentary after I read that Steve Vai was in the credited cast because I'm a huge fan of his unique style and of his work throughout the years. In my opinion, he is the ultimate hired gun ever, being "used" by "gunslingers" like Frank Zappa (who used to call him "Stunt Guitarist" and "Little Italian Virtuoso"), Graham Bonnet, David Lee Roth and David Coverdale. And guess what? He barely talks in this documentary. I think that in total he has less than thirty seconds on screen saying a few thoughts of his about the business. It' so disappointing watching all the other musicians in this video talking about their adventures and misadventures in their lives while waiting for something that never takes place: Steve Vai's stories of his amazing career. Not to mention that exceptional hired guns like Joe Satriani and Steve Morse in Deep Purple or Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz are not even mentioned. The documentary is okay, but gets boring after a while. They aimed too low and missed a lots of great "shots".