ANVIL
This movie had the makings of a modern day This Is Spinal Tap, making the audience wonder the whole time, 'Is this for real?' and 'Is the band (Anvil) in on the joke?' Turns out it's really a for-real documentary on one of the first big bands that were part of the heavy metal awakening that blew up, thanks to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in 1980-1982. These guys are from Canada, so they don't quite fit the NWOBHM tag, but stylistically, they were right there, if not near the top of the pack of that revolutionary musical movement. The movie starts off gloriously with stadium show footage in Japan, followed by lots of interview cameos (Slash, Tom Araya, Lars Ulrich, Lemmy). They never quite got the breaks that a few of the metal bands from around that era did (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, even Saxon), and they kind of slid into obscurity ... but they never stopped playing.
"It can't get any worse," states lead vocalist/guitarist Lips, who appears fully nude with his guitar in one still image, "but if it does get worse, at least it's all been said and done." The cameras are invited up close and personal to follow Steven "Lips" Kudlow and his bandmates, including drummer Robb Reiner, and various family members. We see their daily life and we see them dealing (or not dealing with) the inevitable end of the band. The hopes of the band's future get put into a studio recording with legendary producer, Chris "CT" Tsangerides (Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Tygers of Pan Tang) at his home studio in England. Interviews with one of his sisters shows the "they should give it up" camp; while others, like wives and an older sister that loans the band 13,000 Pounds for the studio recording, are of the supportive side. The band goes on a rough tour of Europe, where all sunder of things go wrong. There's fights between Lips and Robbo, labels keep turning the album down for a deal, but they somehow get invited to a nice-sized festival in Japan, and the film gets a nice bookend beginning and ending.
Some profound quotes get uttered by the band in the movie's end:
"Life flies by."
-Robb Reiner
"The most valuable things are relationships, people you know, and experiences you've had."
-Lips
This last quote inspired me to play hooky from SXSW the next day and spend it with my family, which turned out to be real good.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at March 18, 2009 02:54 PMYou do not love God Jehová and you do not love Jesus and you do not nothing about them because you do not understand what God wants for ours life He does not want us to waste the time playing rock or any kind of music, no you are so wrong, Jesus want us to talk to people about his love through his wonderful power, but you are confused, I am telling you, Now I hope you get it, and you get arround to open your eyes and you can look the true of our father, God blees you Jesus love you .
Posted by: salvador at March 24, 2009 11:36 AMI'm sorry. You are so wrong.
First of all, to tell me Who I don't love is like me telling you: "You don't love your mom. You don't love your dad. You don't love anyone."
I'll cut you some slack due to the language barrier. Perhaps there's room for misunderstanding there.
But you are so misunderstanding of art and pleasure and entertainment. Why did God give us tastebuds? Simply to distinguish between poisonous food and healthy food? Come on! Think about it. God created us to live life ... and Jesus set us free to live life abundantly, free from sin. The gnostics spread a philosophy like what you seem to be espousing. It's basically: spirt=good; flesh=bad. It was exposed as a heresy. Don't buy into it. You'll miss many of the reasons why God has you here.