Despite being a Gonzo-esque rockumentary following the fortunes of Iraq's one and only heavy metal band, Acrassicauda, Heavy Metal is actually a moving and impassioned account of the middle-east crisis.
Despite being a Gonzo-esque rockumentary following the fortunes of Iraq's one and only heavy metal band, Acrassicauda, Heavy Metal is actually a moving and impassioned account of the middle-east crisis.
VICE Magazine co-founder Suroosh Alvi and VICE Films head Eddy Moretti embark on a gonzo journey to meet Iraq's only heavy metal band in a freewheeling documentary focusing on youth culture in war-torn Iraq. In the summer of 2005, shortly after Saddam Hussein's brutal rule came to an end, Iraqi heavy metal group Acrassicauda (named after an especially venomous breed of black scorpion) teamed with VICE Magazine to stage a sold out rock concert. Over a year later, VICE co-founder Alvi and
filmmaker Moretti travel back to the Middle Eastern country to find out how the war has affected the band. What they find upon arriving for their reunion with Acrassicauda is especially disturbing. These are the images that the network news refuses to run - the story of an entire generation who risk their lives simply by standing in the open, and who are driven from their homeland by bombs and machinegun fire. In order to even practice, the band would have to risk their lives by exposing themselves to both Iraqi snipers and suspicious coalition forces. Then again, after your studio has been bombed into the ground what's the point in rehearsing anyway? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The low-budget movie's technical qualities aren't always the best, but considering the conditions under which the filmmakers worked, it's amazing that Heavy Metal in Baghdad was made at all.
The dangers these musicians experience every single day are bound to impact any audience. This is what it really looks like to bang your head against the wall.
More than just another Iraq-doc, Heavy Metal is a surprisingly up-close look at the toll of the war on young people, and how they still have dreams and still want to jam, party and get down.
The movie reclaims metal's appeal to the powerless as well as its threat--when you can get shot for wearing a Slipknot T-shirt (talk about "Death, be not proud")... raising those devil horns isn't an empty act of aggression.
Pic's chief drawback is onscreen narrator Suroosh Alvi (co-helming with Eddy Moretti), whose fratboy glee at their 'crazy mission' segues to such probing questions as, 'What's the vibe now?'
Watching the disintegration of Baghdad alongside the band members' aspirations makes this an enlightening and impassioned account of the Middle Eastern crisis.
Heavy Metal in Baghdad is one of those sneaky documentaries that starts out a light-hearted look at a semi-serious subject, and then suddenly turns into something far more moving and profound.
Though they struggle to build a fan base, and end up seeking refuge in Syria, their dreams persist, still blazing fiercely at the close of this chastening and inspiring film.
This ill-starred four-piece are the heroes of a flawed, fascinating documentary, shot on digital video by two excitable gonzo-esque journalists from Vice magazine.
The guerrilla-movie-making ethic of the directors is reflected in the band members, who sport goatees and speak excellent, hipster/metalhead-inflected American English.
The film's at its strongest when Moretti and Alvi make it to Baghdad, but it suffers from a focusing too much on the music and not enough on the band's circumstances.
Concentrating on the story of Acrassicauda, Iraq's sole metal band, filmmakers Moretti and Alvi reveal the heart-wrenching circumstances for the people caught between the occupiers and the militias.
Acrassicauda means 'black scorpion' in latin. It's also the name of the only heavy metal band in Iraq. Needless to say, heavy metal is frowned upon by the fundamentalist authorities, who see their music as a form of Western propaganda. The journey of filmmakers finding this controversial band allows the audience a very
unique point of view into the Iraq War. The film is about the effect of the war on the ordinary working people of Iraq. People like you and I who might want to play the music they like, and raise families.They might not be the most talented metal band in the world, but unlike some American musicians who like to boast about how they'd "die for metal", this is one band that looks everyone dead in the eye and means it, and for that, they immediately earn the respect of the entire metal community, not to mention casual viewers worldwide.
March 11, 2009
El Hombre Invisible
Super Reviewer
The daily struggles these guys go through to conquer even the simplest of tasks is incomprehinsible.
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