A Todo Volume

1/15/18. I love electric guitar music but this rockumentary comes off being uneven in its approach. I loved when they played their guitars, but the narratives were not that enlightening. Oh well.

If you love rock music you must see this film. I cannot describe how much I enjoyed it. It chronicles how each of the artists first discovered the music they loved (blues, rock and/or punk, depending on the era), began playing the guitar, and developed their own styles. Page strove to explore as many musical possibilities with his guitar as he could, White searches for authenticity, and the Edge can't stop tinkering to find the perfect sound.

The filmmaker, discreetly off camera, interviews them individually in the places where they made music and found inspiration. Then he films their encounter and jam session. Seeing these great artists improvising together is priceless. Clips from classic footage of Led Zeppelin and U2 concerts, footage from White's various performances, and footage of other performances from the guitarists' early years and also of the artists who influenced them, are interspersed. The artists also discuss some of the sources of their inspiration and their creative process. There are a few really funny and telling moments. Don't miss it.

Good, but a bit disappointing. I am a massive fan of Jimmy Page and Jack White - Led Zeppelin is my favourite band, and the White Stripes would be amongst my favourites, plus I liked U2 when they made good music, i.e. until about 1989. So what was the problem?

It just felt a bit empty in the end. Like, so what? Maybe it is that I have seen just about every rock documentary ever made that made the guitarists' revelations seem a bit empty.

Also, the mutual back-slapping got a bit tiresome.

This all said, there was a lot of great stuff in here. Hearing Jimmy Page talk about how he got into playing guitar, his early bands, showing us the spot where John Bonham played the amazing drum-intro on When The Levee Breaks (which explained the unique sound to that track), seeing some of Jack White's pyrotechnics, The Edge talking us through the technology he uses in producing his sound, and hearing the sound.

It's hypnotic. It's incredible. I don't think this can properly be called a movie; it's so close to a rock album in sheer street cred.

The first thing you see after production logos is Jack White, one of the most interesting men in rock and roll, puffing away, building a one string guitar on his porch on a farm from scratch. After playing a few short riffs, he unplugs the jack and turns the amp off. "Who says you need to buy a guitar?"

What follows after the credits is an exploration of a vast variety of subjects, unified by the instrument that best represents the 20th century in music: the electric guitar. From six strings, a few electronics and a lot of wood and varnish, we branch out to rock'n'roll, the blues, alternative rock, songwriting, the nature of performance, endless discussions about effects and how they affect songwriting--or in some cases effect it. Jimmy Page, Edge and Jack White are three of the most fascinating guitarists on Earth and form a generational cross-section of guitar society. Page plays guitar because it's what he's done since he was seven; Edge plays because Larry posted a Musicians Wanted ad; Jack never wanted to play guitar in the first place.

As a documentary, it's entirely unique. There are no dates or place names. As Roger Ebert said of 45365, this isn't that kind of documentary. Guggenheim assumes your familiarity with Led Zeppelin, U2 and The White Stripes. You aren't here to learn about how the bands formed from the perspectives of the guitarists. You're here to learn how the guitarists formed your perspective of the band.

You don't watch this movie for some profound insight on the nature of the guitar; you watch it for the privilege of seeing three men who've re-invented the electric guitar for a generation discussing music. Profound insight happens along the way, but that's not as important as the little things.

Page cursing a bum chord in their final jam. White reacting with astonishment to a Son House song he's heard 1000 times. Edge searching for a sound, warning the camera crew "it might get loud".

Such small moments make up the bulk of what's to like in It Might Get Loud. It's not about the guitar or the guitarists, or music for that matter. It recreates the experience of all three while never directly reproducing them. It's unique unto itself and should be part of the new required viewing for music-, documentary- or film-lovers everywhere.

Despite his deeply silly stage name, I've always been a fan of The Edge, and spent what felt like a good part of my youth trying to figure out his riffs. So it was a revelation to me to see him switch off his effects and make fun of how banal his "original" (un-enhanced) riffs really are. In another scene he points to a concrete platform on his former school where he and what was to become U2 first performed; he casually remarks "I was standing on that side" and then it dawns upon him "... and that's been my side ever since." There are a lot of quiet but magic moments like that in this documentary, that make it so captivating.

I also found the segments on Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page fascinating. When he started out, people didn't yet make a living as rock stars (I remember a BBC session when Led Zeppelin's members were asked what they were "really" doing). Wild boy Jimmy Page got his first guitar by accident, because somebody'd left it behind in the house his family was moving into, and later he had a pretty mundane career as a session musician, where he was playing stuff nobody'd dream of associating with him today.

To me, the odd one out was Jack White. Certainly a good musician, a great specimen of a still relatively young guitarist, but he seemed to me rather grandiose, egocentric and attention-grabbing, his self-stylisation as a white bluesman with tie and pork-pie hat was just plain silly, and his attitude "I don't play big-name guitars but cheap junk and it's still great music" started to grate after a while.

The movie was best when it was just following and listening to the guitarreros. The segments when they are supposed to intimately discuss guitarish matters and "just forget that the camera's even there" don't work so well. There are lots of cute design ideas which liven up the movie and keep it together. The movie works less well when it tries to summarise and explain; a particular gaffe was when The Edge complains about the self-indulgent guitar solos of the 1970ies, and the movie ignores the blatant fact that self-indulgent soloist #1 at the time was none other than Jimmy Page.

You know who was really missing from this movie? The late, great Les Paul. I would have loved to be able listen to his side of the story.

Finally, I took a lot of heart from the final scene when all three musical heavies play The Band's "The Weight" together -- and it doesn't sound that convincing. Just like when I was jamming with my mates!