Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Documentary on electric guitar pulls the wrong strings
GIVE him this: documentary director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) had a nifty idea to examine the history of the electric guitar in rock music, centred on a "summit" meeting of practitioners from three distinct eras.
A gentlemanly Jimmy Page represents the '60s and '70s. U2's The Edge cops to exploiting audio technology for the band's library of the '80s, '90s and today. And an upstart Jack White (of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs) represents the most contemporary approach to the instrument, up to and including bleeding all over it in a graphic demonstration of punk esthetic.
MOVIE REVIEW
It Might Get Loud
Featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White
Cinematheque
G
2-1/2 stars out of five
Pity that the summit meeting was apparently a bust. Very little footage of this meeting is actually used, save for a climactic jam session in which the guys collaborate on a rendition of the Band's standard The Weight.
Fortunately, Guggenheim uses lots of more entertaining footage in documenting each of his subjects on their own, including Page waxing rhapsodic over an early recording of Link Wray, and White likewise smitten with an old recording of minimalist blues man Son House.
White is especially cinegenic. It was no accident he was cast as Elvis in the rock 'n' roll parody Walk Hard. The camera loves him.
But he might be better served in his own documentary. (Coming soon: a doc on the White Stripes' Canadian tour, Under Great White Northern Lights.) And Guggenheim might have better served if he weren't so enraptured of rock stars and instead sought out more articulate exemplars of the instrument, such as those versatile session musicians.
I'd be more interested in hearing stories from a Larry Carlton or a George Benson,
Oh, I forgot, they're not as famous as The Edge.
How inconvenient.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 27, 2009 D6
- Rate this

-
-
We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high. If you thought it was well written, do the same. If it doesn’t meet your standards, mark it accordingly.
You can also register and/or login to the site and join the conversation by leaving a comment.
Rate it yourself by rolling over the stars and clicking when you reach your desired rating. We want you to tell us what you think of our articles. If the story moves you, compels you to act or tells you something you didn’t know, mark it high.
The comment period for this story has ended.
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Movies
-
Working in Winnipeg
A close-up look at the jobs people do and why they do them
-
Helping Haiti
Where to make donations
-
Open Secrets
Red River students mine government data banks
-
Ski with WFP
Register here to ski Asessippi with the Winnipeg Free Press
-
Random Acts of Kindness
Your encounters with goodness
Poll
Most Popular
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Should have been listening, Tiger
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Body found in Delta airplane wheel well after arriving in Tokyo from New York
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- Footprints in snow lead to stolen goods
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Storm warning issued
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- City streets very slippery; several vehicles involved in crashes
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Extended family pulls together
- Two dead after crash on Bishop Grandin
- Water pressure drop caused by power outage: city
- Avoid Perimeter: RCMP
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Winter storm warnings issued for Winnipeg, southern Manitoba
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Cheap Vancouver rentals, if tiny's OK
- Larger garbage carts may become available
- Take one downtown, fill it with people
- No support for Winnipeg's 'Homeless Hero' in days before attack: stepdaughter
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Got more trash? It'll cost you
- MPI playing politics with poll question: Tories
- Bombers sue over cancelled Aerosmith concert
- Murder charges against top CFB Trenton officer leave military community reeling
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Prominence proving costly to Hall: friend
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Sick days spike during blizzard
- Woman arrested in Faron Hall beating
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- Car stolen at gunpoint recovered
- Shielding buyers, or 'cash grab'?
- Bad cocaine results in grave illness, hospitalization
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- 300 pounds of marijuana found in semi
- Girl not a bully, shouldn't have been suspended, says mom
- Arrest tape kills auto-theft case
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Don't dock students for missing deadlines: NDP
- Alleged mobsters seek to stay
- RCMP investigating after video shows police beating suspect
- U.S. fighter slams Canada's 'Third World' health system
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Drunk cop crashes motorbike, gets fined
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- Iran playing its hand
- Checking out sex show all part of journalist's job
- Falls from operating table prompt new procedures at hospitals
- First female boss for Destination Winnipeg
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- No peace for dead girl's mom
- Steamy weekend
- Real-estate association's rules challenged by federal competition watchdog
- Footprints in snow lead to stolen goods
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- 26 cats too many, woman told
- A super-lab to fight superbugs
- Hutterite biography to debut despite legal chill
- Pilot burnt plane as signal before walking to shore
- Built-in text messages ruined life, says city man
- Happy 111th birthday to oldest Manitoban
- Site for parents' sore eyes
- 'Tough guys' wanted as film extras
- Nylons still smooth as silk
- Bath & Body Works coming to St. Vital
- Cat came back: 14 years later
- Little boy left cold, crying outside locked daycare
- Guns N' Roses show a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle
- Winnipeg desserts are a piece of cake
- LaPolice named as Bomber head coach
- VIDEO: A winter wonderland?
- Harper really is dangerous
PREVIOUS

0 Comments