It Might Get Loud

It Might Get Loud

It Might Get Loud

source: It Might Get Loud

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.

My summary is about excessive volume leading to permanent hearing loss. When guitar icons like Pete Townshend and Ted Nugent tell the world their partial deafness came from not protecting themselves onstage with the right ear gear, it's not exactly funny stuff. This film is loud, albeit at a more appropriate level. When popular music is thought of, the electric guitar is the standard most base the last fifty years on. And three figures at the forefront of getting a sound out of an amplifier are part of this exploration of the instrument and it's private and public roles in musician's lives. How a riff originally recorded on a cassette can turn into a song millions try to learn on their axe is a long and winding highway. Jimmy Page, David "The Edge" Evans and Jack White are three different generations of players who have a love of music in common. Their places in the guitar's pantheon are firm, but you can just tell they will always be tinkering away in their homes, studios, sound checks and hotel rooms, looking and listening for a way to try established forms another day, another way. The true virtuoso never settles for the easy route when the side roads and dark alleys give them their most satisfying journey. The worlds of Led Zeppelin, U2 and The White Stripes are each crossing over one another in their orbits. How many primary fans of one group on that list are also into the others as well? Page had many influences and in turn influenced many with his style which took in the whole world of sounds around him and whipped them into the quintessential hard edged band model still popular today. The Edge proved less can be more with an approach that's earnest and rooted in the first wave of reaction to overblown supergroups. He uses guitar effects to enhance, not overwhelm his playing. And White gets bloody by harshly rearranging pretty (in other lesser pickers hands) melodies into aggressive, crazed eruptions from the three chord volcano rock is forever flowing from. It would be great to have a television series in this style, with axe wielders from all over the map meeting and playing together. Strip away fashion and the business of entertainment and you'll see most musicians are operating on the same basic principles of wanting less corporate interference and more freedom to just perform without too many strings attached. Can I hope for a film in this style about drummers or bassists too? That would mean so much more than yet another flick about robots or grown men in superhero costumes!

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.

If you're a guitar player, you'll absolutely love this movie. I'm not a guitar player, and I liked it very much. The three players, The Edge, Jack White, and Jimmy Paige, are all equally as intriguing as the three potentially greatest guitarists of their own generations. It's nice to see where and how each of them lives their life and hear some of the stories about their work and how they work. The Edge and Jimmy Paige have the most interesting back stories, the Edge dealing with the Irish violence of the 60s and 70s and Paige's background in early rock and roll, but Jack White's utter talent and creativity still manages to make him as interesting as the other two. If you don't already love these three guys, you will when it's over. If you love them already, it'll only be increased that much more. Personally, I'm a huge fan of them all.

obviously guitar fans and fans of good classic rock will love this, but i think even the casual music lover will get enjoyment from this warm and heartfelt film. taking three very different guitar players from three generations, putting them together to talk about their lives, influences and the guitar. a simple idea and a risky one, but it turns out great as the three in question, jimmy page, the edge and jack white, seem to hit it off and have due respect and admiration for what each of them has done and indeed still do. intercut with that is great archive footage of them, and most importantly seeing hearing and being with them as they talk of their inspirations and motivations. there is great humility and humour and awe, the scene of page putting on link wray's rumble and playing air guitar to it, with such a joyous face, he becomes a boy again with all the fervour of a fan just having a great time, his articulate speech over the record is one of the best descriptions of what music can do i have ever come across, see this in a theatre with an audience and played loud, you will not regret it

After directing Al Gore in the pro ecological eye opener,'An Inconvienent Truth',Davis Gugenheim next undertook his next project, a summit of three guitar players, Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin,The Yardbirds, etc.),The Edge (U2),and Jack White (The White Stripes)to see what would happen to three generations of musicians if you put them together in a room with their guitars,records,etc. The results turn out as 'It Might Get Loud',an exploration of the evolution of the electric guitar (and sometimes the acoustic guitar,too). Gugenheim lovingly turns his camera on not just that summit,where the three conversed,as well as played their collective hearts out,but a brief time line on the three men who made the guitar their lives. Scores of film & video clips of performances of all three grace this very well produced love letter to the guitar. We see Jimmy Page on stage with Zepplin,the Yardbirds,and even some rare early pre Yardbirds photographs & films of Page in his days as a session musician (the footage of a teenaged Page playing in a Skiffle band in the late 1950's are a genuine hoot). We see some very early photos of The Edge with U2,as well as a clip of U2 on Irish television,in their "New Wave" clothes that will have you laughing (it sure did for the audience in attendance I was with---including yours truly),and video footage of White with The White Stripes,as well as his side project,the Racountours. Even if you are not a musician,but love the guitar,this is a "must see" film for all those who care. Rated PG by the MPAA,this film contains a rude word,or two,some on screen smoking, and some distressing photos & video footage of the aftermath of the bombing of Northern Ireland.