“It Might Get Loud” Gets Loud

Just saw a great doc I would like to recommend, It Might Get Loud by Davis Guggenheim, director of An Inconvenient Truth.  It is actually very similar to that film: primarily centered around a live shoot of a simple talk, some bio clips and VO to give color and background, but about Jack White, The Edge, and Jimmy Page instead of Al Gore.

The camera gets each of the guys alone in their respective domains, which is also compelling: Jimmy Page’s room of records and videos, or Jack White’s cows who are his grazing test audience.  The Edge’s walking tour moments around Dublin recounting how U2 came together is reason enough for any U2 freak to see this.

But the film focuses on craft, persistence, and the innovation that comes through making your limitations work to sound like your vision.  It is greatly encouraging to hear each of these prolific, accomplished masters talk about their frustrations and doubts as songwriters.  I would say this is worth seeing in a theater for the sound alone.  The trio discuss their instruments and their riffs with each other, and try out songs together.  There is not a real super-jam nexus, but as these guys handle their old favorite guitars and try out each others’ famous riffs, the sounds and specific tones are the details, as in “God is in the details.”  Just a little longer than it had to be at 1:45, but so unforgettable and privileged, it is worth the indulgence.