"It Might Get Loud"

Director: Davis Guggenheim

I saw a preview screening of this documentary with a question and answer session with the director a few months back in NYC. This film blew my mind. It started off slow and I worried it was going to be boring. Then, everything completely changed. This is the story of 3 different musicians sharing a mutual love and respect for the guitar. Simple concept but the director takes it to a deeper, more personal level with the musicians. From the director of an “Inconvenient Truth”, Davis Guggenheim, “It Might Get Loud” follows the stories of Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) and Jack White (White Stripes). The film documents each artist’s individual journey that leads him to an obsession with the guitar. The director said in his Q & A session that he purposely chose these three musicians because they were from different eras and they had completely different sounds.

The documentary follows Jimmy Page from his beginnings as a studio session guitarist, to the English countryside house where Led Zeppelin IV was partially recorded. There, Page takes the viewer inside what it was like when the album was created. The Edge goes back to where U2 began, back in an Irish school where he answered an ad on a bulletin board looking for a guitar player. Jack White takes the viewers back to Detroit where, as an upholsterer and drummer, he discovers the guitar and his love for the blues. After each musician describes his background and what leads him to the guitar, they come together to share their stories and to teach each other their signature cords. The result was an inevitable jam session.

Highlight Scenes (for me): Jimmy Page describing “the thunder” of John Bonham recording the beginning of “When the Levee Breaks.” And, be sure to pay attention to the faces of both The Edge and Jack White when Jimmy Page plays the beginning of “Whole Lot of Love” for them. It gave me goosebumps.

On DVD: December 22, 2009

Photo from and Trailer seen at http://www.sonyclassics.com/itmightgetloud/