It Might Get Loud stands as an effective primer into the world of rock 'n' roll that holds plenty of appeal for hardcore fans and neophytes alike.
It Might Get Loud (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:85
Fresh:66
Rotten:19
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: An affectionate tribute to rock's most distinctive instrument, It Might Get Loud is insightful and musically satisfying.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for mild thematic elements, brief language and smoking.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:Aug 14, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $1,234,300
Synopsis:
Who hasn't wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it...
Who hasn't wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it does more. Such is the premise of It Might Get Loud, a new documentary conceived by producer Thomas Tull.
It Might Get Loud isn't like any other rock'n roll documentary. Filmed through the eyes of three virtuosos from three different generations, audiences get up close and personal, discovering how a furniture upholsterer from Detroit, a studio musician and painter from London and a seventeen-year-old Dublin schoolboy, each used the electric guitar to develop their unique sound and rise to the pantheon of superstar. Rare discussions are provoked as we travel with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White to influential locations of their pasts. Born from the experience is intimate access to the creative genesis of each legend, such as Link Wray's "Rumble’s" searing impression upon Jimmy Page, who surprises audiences with an impromptu air guitar performance. But that's only the beginning.
While each guitarist describes his own musical rebellion, a rock'n roll summit is being arranged. Set on an empty soundstage, the musicians come together, crank up the amps and play. They also share their influences, swap stories, and teach each other songs. During the summit Page’s double-neck guitar, The Edge’s array of effects pedals and White’s new mic, custom built into his guitar, go live. The musical journey is joined by visual grandeur too. We see the stone halls of Headley Grange where "Stairway to Heaven" was composed, visit a haunting Tennessee farmhouse where Jack White writes a song on-camera, and eavesdrop inside the dimly lit Dublin studio where The Edge lays down initial guitar tracks for U2’s forthcoming single. The images, like the stories, will linger in the mind long after the reverb fades.
It Might Get Loud might not affect how you play guitar, but it will change how you listen. The film is directed and produced by An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim, and produced by Thomas Tull, Lesley Chilcott and Peter Afterman.
Page --© Official Site
Starring: Jimmy Page, Edge, Jack White
Starring: Jimmy Page, Edge, Jack White
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Producer: Thomas Tull, Lesley Chilcott, Peter Afterman, Davis Guggenheim
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
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Reviews for It Might Get Loud
Getting inside any creative process is fascinating and these three prove surprisingly articulate and candid in discussing their craft and their love of what they are doing.
The resulting jam session ought to be a music geek’s wet dream, but there isn’t enough common ground to produce more than a few flashes of inspiration.
Guitar god? Check. Sex god? Absolutely. Jimmy Page effortlessly exudes sex - at 65.
Depicts wood, lacquer and hardware the way Hugh Hefner depicts Miss September. Guitar nuts will be turned on, but everyone else will have a good time, too.
While that sounds like a fantasy for rock aficionados, the scenes lack dramatic tension or cinematic enlightenment. It just kind of happens, and then the all-star jam fades to black, leaving few remnants of the filmmakers' initial intentions.
...isn't just some vanity piece for boomer rock fans...It asks how music gets made, and occasionally why.
Required viewing for guitar enthusiasts, and a pleasant diversion for everyone else.
[A] sideways glance at the electric guitar by way of profiling three generations of guitarists: Jack White of The White Stripes, the Edge of U2, and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.
As we get to know each of these three guitar gods, what impresses isn't what draws them together, but what separates them. As such, the central conceit of having the three meet doesn't really work...
...a must for the rock music fan, especially you guitarists out there.
The film is a nice chronicle of each guitarist's rise to fame, but the much touted jam summit itself is the disappointing part, lackluster enough to function mostly as mortar between the bricks.
[A] meeting of musical minds that should thrill lovers of rock music, allowing this movie to easily fit on the shelf along with the rest of their records and CDs.
Fortunately, only a third of the film is devoted to Jack White. It's not enough to spoil the pleasures of this rocking little treasure of a movie.
A God-like experience for the rock music fan, this documentary contains both amazing music and insight.
It's as enchanting to watch them listening to each other as it is for us to listen to all three.
Guggenheim weaves the 3 stories around and through each other in perfect counterpoint. He virtually disappears into the eye of the camera, allowing us to take it all in from the best seats in the house.
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