Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009)
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009): 8.8/10
Anvil: The Story of Anvil is a riveting, extremely personal documentary about the trials and tribulations of a metal band from the 80’s who are trying to get back the stint of fame they had early in their career.
It starts out with one of the films few missteps. My understanding from a friend who has dedicated his life to metal much in the way I have dedicated mine to film, explained to me that while Anvil was certainly a decent metal band, they are not revolutionary in the way that the beginning makes them out to be. Overlooked maybe, but not nearly as important as the film makes them out to be right from the start. Although he does concede to the fact that their output has been uncommonly consistent which is a nearly impossible feat to any band to sustain any sort of quality for 30 years (look at U2; they suck now. Seriously, what happened?) It is an understandable strategy for the film though. The more legendary that they come off, the more epic their story will seem and the more we will root for the band to succeed. They do not need quite this much hype though because once we meet the two remaining original band members who are the stars of the film, it is difficult not to root for them.
The films strongest aspect is the depicted friendship between lead singer and guitarist Steve ”Lips” Ludlow and drummer Robb Reiner (yes you read that right). These two have been friends for around 40 years. They started playing music together at the age of 14. The history between these two is very strongly felt. The two of them brought me to tears multiple times. Their friendship is also rocky. Ludlow is so comfortable with Reiner that he frequently takes his anger out on him because he is the only one that he feels comfortable enough freaking out on. The two are sort of opposites. Ludlow is like a child. He smiles like a child, he has the naive ambition of a child and he refuses to let anyone tell him what he can and cannot do. He is also incredibly emotional in both good ways and bad. Reiner is always calm and while he has the same amount of ambition that Ludlow he is much more of a realist with his feet more cemented to the ground.
The film presents a well rounded view of their efforts, their failures and how their life choices effect the people around them. Interviews with their wives touch upon the sacrifices they have made for their husbands’ dreams. Interviews with their families show either their dissapointment or lack of hope for their son/brothers success despite their obvious love for them. We see the day jobs of both Ludlow and Reiner. Ludlow delivers school meals and Reiner is seen working on a demolition job. Nobody at Ludlow’s job knows that he was ever even in a moderately successful band. We learn that their band never had proper management and had pretty bad production values as well. Their new manager gets them a tour around the world which goes disasterously wrong. They travel for 5 weeks and are not paid. Not only that but many of the venues barely have anybody show up. Then there is the new album that they record which they are allowed to because Ludlow’s sister puts up the money. Then they need to find someone to pick it up for distribution. It goes on and on.
There is a lot going on in the film but the great thing about it is despite what anyone might think of the music, the ambition, history and sacrifice and hope taking place between these two people is inspiring and very emotionally moving. There are a lot of scenes that resonate because of the way Ludlow and/or Reiner talk about life passing by and about how they truly believe in themselves. These two have been together for life and it is difficult to watch to people dedicate so much time and effort for something that has not paid off the way they have wanted to. They refuse to give up and the way they describe the music as being what keeps them going really hits the viewer.
The film is not perfect from an objective standpoint. It sets up situations for the viewer sometimes that are unsubtle uses of manipulation for the audience. The film is almost too perfectly structured wth a climax and all but I’m not sure if this is a complaint really.
I obviously already knew while watching Anvil: The Story of Anvil that they had a massive resurgence in popularity due to the success of the film. So even though parts are very depressing, fortunately there was always they joy of having that knowledge before embarking on this film. Still, Anvil: The Story of Anvil is an intensely human and emotional experience that shows ambitions refusal to die in two men who are willing to give up everything for their music.
P.S - See this even though the Academy blows for not putting this on the shortlistfor documentaries. Fuck you Oscars. Honestly...what the fuck? Was it because the hard to respect VH1 was involved? Was it because it was aout a metal band? Also, I must mention that on awardsdaily.com people seemed way more upset about the absense of this than the absense of Capitalism: A Love Story. This makes me very happy.
