"It Might Get Loud" is a great little guitar movie.

Well its finally made it to Australia, I'll def go see as I'm a fan of all three. Even if they sound a bit detached from each other. The reviews here have been good so I will give it a go. Jack White pompous? Never! Comes with the territory doesn't it?

(2009/Dir: Davis Guggenheim/USA/97mins)

Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artists musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play

 

I think any reviewer worth his aspirations to be liked by the "hip crowd" doesn't dare spit on this movie, because there's "cool" people in it, and look, they all play gee-tars!

I think, as a movie, this film would make some great extras in some other movie's DVD release.

 

I loved it...

I think, as a movie, this film is much better than your opinion conveys.

 

What is better that seeing Jimmy Page with a giant grin playing air guitar to an old Link Wray 45? He is a fan too just like us. In general I think we hear way too much from and about musicians, directors and actors but this film is an exception.

 

Fair enough; my caveat is, I am not smitten by rock, starstruck by the participants, nor swayed by their collaboration enough to delve deeper into any of their music. So, I guess you could say, this film was not for me, but for people who have already drank that particular flavor of Kool-Aid. I feel a documentary subject is best explored when aimed at an audience not previously informed on the subject at hand - and yes, that is an opinion as well.

And while I might term this as comfort food for the already-initiated, I suppose there's nothing wrong with that.

 

I LOVE Kool_Aid and Cool Cats...

I'm a huge fan of Page and White, the Edge less so. I liked that this documentary showed the more human, fan side, of Page, rather than the rock star strut seen in most Zep DVDs. It really humanized the guy for me, and showed how much he has aged, and fairly gracefully, from his prime. Seeing his record collection, trainspotting Lp spines, haivng him spin the Link 45 and air guitar the chords--and still, that pout, was all worth the price of admission alone. White was classic, narcassisitc White, all full of himself, and trying to stake a claim with his elders, and share his love of the music and the pursuit of the magical Muse. I loved watching that dynamic unfold, and the end credits, sit-down cover 'The Weight' was awesome. Was it the best roc. doc. ever? No, but it was mighty fine and fun in the theatre. I'd like more folks to see it and judge it for themselves. Like most films, much impact will be lost on DVD and home TVs.


But, it is all good, unless it aint your cup o' musical tea...

 

So why did you want to go see it?

 

Yep, did you notice that part in his house where he's standing in front of his music library? Pretty big disc collection...

 

I thought it was a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and a half, but I thought they could have done more to explore connections or contrasts between the three guys. This is the point of Dillydipper's I would agree with. For example, there was the potentially interesting debate between Jack White's ethos of low-tech spontaneity and The Edge's high-tech and cerebral approach, and the movie didn't do anything with that. Or Page and White's devotion to the blues (and guitar virtuosity in general) vs. Edge's rejection or at least avoidance of it.

 

Yep. I've even seen references on some LZ lists to particular er "collections" that can be seen in Jimmy's library.

 

Yep, wide release on DVD and Blu-Ray on Dec. 22 with an iTunes release set for Dec. 8.

 

My friends and I support our local indie cinema, to the point where we tend to chose what to see on movie nights based on which ones are playing that we haven't seen yet. Often we will have barely a conversational familiarity with the movie, and let it make its' case for us without the pre-selling of reading-up on them.

 

Palm Daze Ending...

My daughter told me last night she heard a rumour our local indy cinema (The Palm, 30 miles away in SLO--where I saw this film) was closing down soon, due to lack of folks who go to indy films actually being able to afford them these dark days. If this is true, this is very sad news, locally.

 

I saw a thread about Jack white so I thought this one needed a bump...

 

I thought Jimmy Page & Jack White were pretty close to being equals in this movie while the Edge looked like he was doing some struggling to keep up. An enjoyable hour & a half. As mentioned before, it humanized Jimmy Page. Jack White came off as an eccentric genius (that opening scene where he was building the one string thing was great). The Edge, while a good guitarist, seems to enjoy creating more ambiant guitar sounds. He was kind of an orange among two apples.

 

I agree overall. I saw it today, and was disappointed in how the movie largely focused on histories of the participants, and didn't explore in more detail how the players contrasted and complimented each other in their approach to their instrument...not to mention how little footage there was of the three jamming together - almost nothing until the end. They really should have made more of the contrasting approaches of the players and had them discuss this, as The Edge almost seemed extraneous to the proceedings, and the playing of White and Page seemed to compliment each other well. I wish they'd jammed on "Seven Nation Army", but oh well. Whatever my quibbles, I will no doubt be checking out the DVD.

 

I agree. My expectations were that the whole movie was about the three of them meeting & interacting. I was disappointed as well in how little was shown (& no fistfights).

 

I just watched the Blu Ray edition, and liked what I saw. I, as was mentioned, was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more "interaction" between the three as it would seem there would be or should be. They built a stage and set for them to "talk" and "interact", yet 80% of the movie was basically three separate stories that really did nothing to help someone learn about the electric guitar.. you really just got to know a bit about the three guitarists. I assume if you didn't like anyone or all of them, this movie might be a bore.

I actually liked the deleted scenes (26+ minutes) of which they did show more of the interaction that went on between the players and how they talked to each other and played each others songs together.

Even more interesting was the 38 minute Toronto Movie Festival '08 Press Conference with the producers, director and three guitarists. Nearly all 38 minutes was very interesting discussion by the guitarists about the movie, how they interacted together, what they learned, etc from each other.

If I had just seen the movie in the theater, without seeing the extras presented on the Blu-Ray disc, I might have been a bit let down by the movie. The deleted scenes and press conference actually helped show the movie in a different light, and made the entire experience of Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page together more entertaining.

Funny ... during the press conference the question of a Zep reunion came up a few times, and the question was never addressed (it was totally ignored like it was never asked) until the end, when someone asked point blank about Jason Bonham, John Paul Jones and Jimmy supposedly recording together. Page brushed it off as nothing and said "We had our reunion at the 02!!!"

 

Well that might explain why you didn't like it then!

Eddie

 

Ah, you may laugh, but...isn't a documentary supposed to intrigue and show me something worthwhile about a subject I have no familiarity with...?

 

Im going to get that dvd asap.
I guess I'm still a starry eyed fan with some of these guys. I'm to a point that I'm happy if they don't turn out to be pricks or play bad. Jimmy Page seemed like a cool guy to be around and the admiration he showed for John Bonham was nice to see.

 

finally saw this today and REALLY enjoyed it -- i'm surprised at the lukewarm response it's gotten. for me the picture was about how every person hears, play, and thinks about music differently, but feels it the same. it was a great movie for a music geek, and there were a ton of little great moments in it. watching page spin records and digging link wray was charming, and seeing the mutual look in jack and edge's eyes as page played the "whole lotta love riff" made me laugh out loud. if nothing else, it was a cool movie because it makes you feel like picking up as guitar and playing your heart out. it wasn't snobby at all, which i appreciated.

 

Just watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Makes you want to pick up a guitar and start playing.

 

Exactly, I went home and picked up my bass and started playing "Whole Lotta Love".........

 

Unfortunately I noticed the same thing. Go look at threads in here, if they have some title like "worse this", or "most hated" and then notice it will have more posts than the "best this" or "best that".

I'm beginning to think if I would have said, "It Might Get Loud" a horrible guitar movie", it would have over a hundred posts.