Metallica: A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica

Metallica is one of the greatest rock bands in the late 20th Century. Here is the full document on the making of the Black Album. Pre Production to Black Album Tour. Only other DVD's worth checking out on Metallica is Cliff'em All which covers the years with original Bassist Cliff Burton and the newly remastered and remixed to DVD... finally, The Box Set: Live S**t Binge and Purge. When placed in a Multi Disc DVD Player this Metalli-collection should blow your mind completely.

The two segments involved in the documentary feature Metallica, both the black-clad public leaders of metal madness and the laid-back, long hair goofballs from down the hall playing electric guitar at 3 in the morning.

The direction was awful shaky. In terms of a documentary, director Adam Dubin chose to involve the presence of the film crew as much as possible in the privacy and business of the bandmembers to the point of where much of the material is essentially them playing to the camera. This is an effect that can alter the realism of the documentary and put the subjects into a position to where they feel compelled to "act" for the camera instead of being their true selves. There were also many baffling cuts into the middle of a joke or editing techniques that involved blending and blurring of conversations that at times some of the meaning and humor is lost. The effect is similar to walking abruptly into a roomful of laughing people, and not getting the joke.

The documentary does work best as an insight into the workings of major studio album. For example, in the first half, we get to witness the real brains behind the band in action as drummer Lars Ulrich and lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield butt heads and raise all hell and putting their ambitious new project titled "The Black Album" into tape. The album displayed a new mainstream style with emphasis on shorter, slicker songs. Metallica, a band that has *forever* been called "sellouts", seem to know what they were getting themselves into, and the hard work and determination evident in the documentary dispels any doubts of their merit.

Interesting to note is the minimal input lead guitarist Kirk Hammet and bassist Jason Newstead (this being only his second album with the band) contribute to the production process. They more or less are nowhere to be seen for most of the first half of the documentary. Also, note the lack of reference (reasons unknown) to Michael Kamen, the composer of the string section on the track "Nothing Else Matters", who Metallica later worked with on the "S&M" project.

Metallica nonetheless has a very drawing power, and the documentary, peppered with some awesome filming of the band doing what they do best in concert and the well-done music videos, is a must have for anyone.

I got this for my 11th birthday on VHS and i was so excited. I wasnt really happy with the black album but like i didnt care i was excited to have it. I watched that movie 14 times in 3 days and i was in total awe.........unfortunatly my VCR ate and destroyed the first tape. Then last summer i bought the DVD and i was so happy again......it was like i was a kid again. this movie is for all and i mean all metallica fans.....from new ones that will be created when the new album comes out next summer to the oldest fansfrom the kill em all/ride the lightning days. this movie is worth a 10.....but if i had my way it would be worth a 100000000000000 payce

A real-life look at what these spectacular artists and human spirits are all about.

The movie illustrates facts about each member of Metallica's group, their honesty, straightforwardness, tell-it-like-it-is-ness, beauty, heart and soul, intelligence, human-ness, more-than-human-ness, creativity, above excellent talent, and, last but definitely not least, the messages they deliver to humanity and the truths contained in those messages.

You will laugh and you will cry. You will feel every human emotion, especially the frustration, anger, rage, love, hate, resentment at being human and all that entails; the extremes of every sensation of waking up to find out that you are a human.

Excellent movie about more than excellent people.

This set is a definite must for anyone who calls themself a Metallica fan. Though the Black Album isn't my favorite Metallica album, Master of Puppets holds that slot, this set shows you all the great behind the scenes action of when a band records an album then tours on it. Part I is obviously the making of the album. You get to see some cool outtakes and hear the songs in the production process. You also get a peak at the real Metallica outside of studio and stage. You almost feel like you know them. Part II is the best though. Almost 2 1/2 hours of live Metallica. There are a bunch of live performances spanning the first leg of the tour as well as award shows and tribute concerts. Again you get to see more of Metallica being themselves offstage as on. Also on both parts you get to see the music videos from the album including 'Enter Sandman', 'Sad But True' and 'The Unforgiven.' When I first bought this set years ago on tape I wore them out. I could watch these over and over. Thanks to DVD they will last a long time. Definetly check this out.