It Might Get Loud

Overview

Just imagine it: Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and The White Stripes’ Jack White are on a soundstage, their electric guitars within reach. It will get loud, there’s no doubt about it.

Academy Award winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim brought producer Thomas Tull’s brainchild to life in this extraordinarily energising love letter to the electric guitar. Guggenheim traces the creative backstories of these three incredible artists and the three distinct generations in which they came of age. This takes the director and his subjects on journeys of self re-discovery, as each return to significant locations from their musical upbringing and ponder the love, tenacity and serendipity that buoyed their voyages into the heady seas of rock ‘n roll.

Yet the documentary also unites these very different artists in a common past swimming against the tides of the musical status quo. This lead to the Edge and his ear for effects, Page’s self taught mastery embracing the beginnings of punk and White’s tenacious, almost antagonistic adherence to discovering the laid bare aesthetic of the blues. Respecting the past while carving out your place in the present became a calling card of each musician.

It Might Get Loud is not a self-indulgent fan-boy romp, nor is it a warts and all fetishisation of the rock‘n'roll lifestyle. Instead what Guggenheim presents is a revealing investigation into the creative spirit. Through intriguing intertitles, brilliant archive footage and excellent pacing that climaxes in the group jam session, the film ponders what it is to create, and what it means to pursue artistry.

Consequently you don’t necessarily need to be a rock aficionado to really enjoy this documentary. Much like his Oscar winning film An Inconvenient Truth, Guggenheim manages to bring wide appeal to a seemingly boutique topic. The result is an insightful, captivating tribute to creativity as experienced by three virtuoso musicians and one wonderfully talented documentarian.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5sBLir8H2zM