Jimmy Page, Jack White, and the Edge are the stars of It Might Get Loud. They are three completely different legends from three rather different eras, collaborating on something incredible. But the film is not about them. It’s about the instrument and the art itself—the art of guitar playing as explained and performed by the genius war orphan, the brutish young prodigy, and the regal prince of innovation.
How do you follow up an Oscar-winning global phenomenon—one that achieves within 90 minutes what scientists and environmental groups have been trying to convey for thirty years, redirects the career path of a swindled politician, and ultimately results in a Nobel Peace Prize?
Well, actually, if you’re Davis Guggenheim, maker of An Inconvenient Truth, you make a movie about kids’ soccer. But after that, you make a seriously good documentary about guitars. It Might Get Loud is probably my favourite documentary since Taxi to the Dark Side.
Do you remember that SNL sketch from the 90s where Dana Carvey as George H. Bush and Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton take turns making confessions? And Clinton admits that Ishtar was his idea, that he figured if he stuck Beatty and Hoffman in a desert, something good was bound to happen? The theory behind It Might Get Loud runs along similar lines. Guggenheim rounds up three completely different guitar wizards from different generations, sticks ’em in a sound stage, and we all get to watch what happens.
And what happens is amazing. The footage of Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White talking about music is intercut with private interviews in England, Ireland, and the USA. The Edge leads the documentary crew into his old high school and shows them the concrete pad on which U2 had their first gig. Jimmy Page rocks the air guitar listening to Link Wray. And a MacGuyveresque Jack White thumps a nail into a board, slides a glass Coke bottle under the wire wrapped around it, and starts to play.
If you love music, you’ll love this movie more than the average Joe. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something for everyone. This is as much a movie about art, commitment, luck, and creativity as it is about first instruments, amps, effects pedals, and superstardom. Neither biography nor simple retrospective, the film explores passion and dedication to craft, free from any geographical, political, or ethical discrimination. White talks about fighting for his music. The Edge talks about how he could have been working in a bank instead of touring with the biggest band in rock today. Archival footage shows James Page talking about how he wants to grow up to work in medical research. When it comes down to it, these are just three people who love their instruments, not unlike any of the casual strummers (or drummers, or painters, or writers) in the audience. The randomness is part of the charm.
