Review: It Might Get Loud
As a guitar player who loves to hear musicians talk about their craft, you would think that I would have seen this movie on the day of its release. But I kept meaning to see it, eventually forgot about it, then noticed it was still in one theater here when I passed by it the other day, and finally caught it yesterday. I was entertained, but walked out thinking that the filmmakers missed a blown opportunity.
The idea was to get Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White together to talk about the electric guitar. The choice of those three makes perfect sense. A classic rock legend with a deep love of the blues, an innovative sonic architect who came out of the punk/new wave movement, and a relative newcomer who was influenced by the other two.
The problem is that there are too few scenes of the three of them on the sound stage. About 2/3rds of the 93-minute movie deals with them individually discussing their backgrounds: Page in the mansion where Led Zepplin IV was recorded, The Edge in the Dublin high school where U2 was formed, and White in various spots in Detroit. But other than the parts where they’re talking about their influences (the scene where Page plays air guitar to Rumble and The Edge showing his effects set-up are the film’s highlights), there’s not much insight offered into their disparate styles other than “I did this, and everything changed for us.”
As to their personalities, they come across as you would expect. Page is charming and open, The Edge more reserved and studious, and White is the bright student who tries too hard.
Things get better when they’re together, jamming on each other’s work or staring intensely at each other’s hands just like I do when I’m watching a great guitarist. But what I wanted was the conversations that could have happened (or maybe they were edited out), like Jack White discussing the blues with Page, or The Edge telling Page why he was so against bands like Zep that caused such a positive reaction to seeing The Jam on Top Of The Pops, or Page wondering why The Edge hides behind his effects. I wanted more technical, less anecdotal.
More confusing was the closing sequence. As the credits roll, the three of them jam on The Weight by The Band. The performance is fine (The Edge realizing the second chord in the verse was a B minor instead of an E minor was pretty funny) but in a movie designed to celebrate the electric guitar, why did they break out the acoustics? Close out with an old blues or A Hard Day’s Night or something.
It Might Get Loud was a great idea but poorly executed. What could have been a fascinating celebration of the instrument that defines rock, as told by three of its truest believers turned out to be a halfway-decent PBS special.
