One of the funniest and saddest films I’ve ever seen!
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
Directed By: Sacha Gervasi
The Prologue
Rock-n-roll is a hell of a thing. For the most part people do it because they love it not because they make money from it, because to be honest, most of the people that do it don’t see much of anything from it. It’s also hard to even get noticed or get any recognition. It’s a business of broken dreams and false promises. It’s corrupted and at the same time you love it no matter how corrupted it gets. Pretty much being a rockstar is just like being a blogger! So as I watched this modern day classic about a band that never really made it called, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, I realize rocking and blogging isn”t THAT different. Well, Anvil probably still gets more groupies than I do. I think you have to be a female blogger to get those.
The Movie
At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the “demi-gods of Canadian metal, ” influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, despite never hitting the big time. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams. We see them at the highs and the lows and it can be at times just as funny as it can be sad. Overall a very fun film and one of the best documentary films I’ve watched.
You know to have twelve albums to your name, and to have done shows with the likes of Bon Jovi, it has to suck to still not be rich. You’re in a business that kicks out all but a select few when your time expires and to find yourself at a stage of life when you are in your fifties and still trying to do what you love and actually make a living with it, I can only imagine how heartbreaking of a situation that can actually be. As we watch this film we see just how bad it can be on someone trying to accomplish what these guys are trying but we also see just how fun and even heart warming of a journey it can be. It also helps the fact that Anvil is a band made up of very likable guys and you really REALLY want to see them succeed and get satisfaction.
The film, This Is Spinal Tap, was a funny but fake look at the life of a rock band. This film has a lot of very odd and funny things happening to the band in it as well, but it’s all real. The anchor of this madness however is the bother-like relationship between Anvils front man Lips and drummer Rob. They fight, they bicker, they look like they are ready to rip one another’s head off. But then they are there for each other to help the other and always have the other’s back just as well. Going through what these guy go through and being forced to be in the spot they are in could make you probably resent and hate the people you’ve shared years with trying to make it in a shady business, but these guys still love one another. They may hate each other to, but that’s what makes this film fun to watch.
Lips has an almost childish innocents to him, even in his fifties. His dream is to be a rocker, and that dream never fades even after twelve albums and many many years pass him and his band-mates up resulting in them all having to have normal jobs. They try to gets tours going, they play shows where they don’t even get paid and that’s not counting the times nobody hardly shows up. All that together could make for a very depressing film, but you happen to think while watching Lips stay strong, that if he can handle it and it’s happening to him, then surely you can watch this madness on the screen. And it’s good that you do because there’s enough comedic value and rewarding turns to the story to make it a feel good film at the end of the day. It’s a world on screen where a moral victory may be the only victory, but it’s still a victory.
In this film nothing seems to drag, nothing seems to have too much focus and time spent on it besides the overall theme and plot, so you never get bored. It’s got moments that make you want to get a little teary eye’d and it has stuff that makes you smile from ear to ear. And the one thing that remains from start to finish in this movie is you will be rooting for Anvil and that’s just what I did as I watched this. It’s hard sometimes to sell a documentary to a lot of people, but if you’ve ever really had a passion or cared deeply about any business or profession, this is a can’t miss film.
The Conclusion
Well obviously I think it’s a great film, and I think I feel strongly enough about it to say that if you give it a chance, I think you’ll find it great as well. It’s hard to find nice guys in the rock business and that’s because all the nice rockers usually are the ones that never made it for whatever reason. I’m happy to see Anvil finally getting there name out there and I think this film about them is one everyone should see a least once.
The Rating (8/10)
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