Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash

Street Survivors is the true story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. While that means nothing for people who aren’t saturated in Southern Rock, you can leave right now and stick a Maroon 5 CD up your ass. But, what does it mean to tell the true story about an event where the amount of survivors is slimming down throughout the years? Street Survivors tries to answer that.

Director Jared Cohn made something quite fascinating with Street Survivors. Working as part feature film and part documentary, the film takes us through what drummer Artimus Pyle did to save lives following the crash. I never quite pieced together all that Pyle did, but it’s heroic. Especially when you’ve been to places in the Deep South where getting a flat tire can leave you stranded. That’s not even to bring up the troubles of a plane crash.

Maybe it’s because I watched Behind the Music too much as a teenager, but I dig this sort of story. Growing up, I always heard about the plane crash and just assumed that ended the band. Then, I saw them Live at Freedom Hall and had to make sense of it all. Modern kids, this was a time before everyone lived on the Internet. You used to go to music stores and read magazines to find out things. But, there’s more!

I take so many bizarre trips that I remembered that I actually visited the crash site in 2001. It was a weird trip that ended up in me having to see the site from across a field, because that area is technically private property. But, the more I looked at it…the more I couldn’t understand how anyone survived. The logistics make sense that the lack of fuel onboard is what saved them.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is represented well in Street Survivors. It’s a biopic/documentary that does nothing to harm their legacy. Hell, it’s the kind of thing to send people into a deep Wiki dive to learn more about the case. Fan favored movies always do so much to bring attention to music that people dig. I just hope new fans learn something here.

The Blu-ray /DVD/Soundtrack CD combo from Cleopatra Entertainment comes with a CD of the soundtrack and multiple ways to view the film. Normally, that wouldn’t impress me. But, it sucked me into the story in a way I didn’t expect. Want to learn more? Well, we have an interview with the film’s director coming soon.

Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash is now available!