‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’ film review

One of Canada’s premier heavy metal bands of the past two decades has fallen on hard times. Will they pull it together to record their umpteenth album and achieve their dream of playing in front of thousands of people again? A heartwarming story of human endurance.

Director

Sacha Gervasi

Plot

We follow the ups and downs (mostly downs) of a legendary underground heavy metal band as they try and revive their careers and record a 13th album.

Verdict

A magnificently heartwarming tale of human endeavour, one’s belief in human spirit will be considerably strengthened after watching this. This is a film metalheads and non-metalheads alike can and should enjoy.

Review

There are two ways you can watch this documentary. One way is how some of my fellow journos at the press screening viewed it: with amused superiority; with sniggers and snide comments about the juvenilia and general dumbassery of heavy metal musicians and heavy metal fans. They giggled at the song titles like “Sweaty Betty”. They cracked up over band names like “Anthrax”, “Slayer”, “WASP” and “Megadeth”. This was, to them, the 2008 version of ‘Spinal Tap’ (1984) – ‘Heavy Metal Parking Lot’ (1986) updated to the new millennium, but with the practitioners and protagonists still stuck behind in the halcyon days of metal back in the eighties. These smug, self-satisfied, cynical people with their infallible sense of irony, don’t get it. They didn’t get it, they won’t ever.

‘Anvil: The Story of Anvil’ is a story about rock ‘n roll. It is set in the context of heavy metal: the scene, the genre, the music, the lifestyle, the musicians, the fans. Anvil are a Canadian heavy metal band that never struck it big in their 30 year career, not even back in the day when heavy metal was in the public eye. Some of their contemporaries went on to become legends: Iron Maiden, Motorhead, KISS and Judas Priest, and later bands like Metallica. In the metal world, the name ‘Anvil’ has always been around but never mentioned in the same breath. Yet no one denies their longevity, their persistence. Director Sacha Gervasi aims to bring that to our attention, and by doing so, tells a very real, very human story.

This is the way I watched ‘Anvil’. I make no apologies for being a diehard metalhead, and my treatment of the subject matter, so very close to my heart, will inevitably be coloured by it. But I am adamant that this documentary will appeal to anyone, anyone who ever dared to dream a dream, anyone who ever faced any obstacles in their life, anyone who ever fought for what they believed in, any one who stuck it out, blood, guts, sweat, tears and all. This is their story, this is an ode to the fighters in life, the never-say-dies.

Anvil’s two main men, guitarist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner from Toronto, now in their fifties, work dead-end low-paid jobs, but still harbour dreams of making it big. We pick up their story now, in the present, but we could have joined them at any point in time post-1991. They get an email from a tour promoter in Europe saying that she can book them a full European tour with a sampling of metal festivals thrown in. They are excited, understandably, and they gear up to go. The tour is an unmitigated disaster, they are not paid, they play in front of two hundred people (or five). Returning from the tour, they are motivated to record their 13th studio album – but will it crack them into the big time? Will they even reach the recording studio?

This is not ‘Spinal Tap’: there are no over-the-top japes or general buffoonery framed mockingly. This is not ‘Detroit Rock City’ (1999): there are no tales of crazy backstage mayhem or wild anecdotes of hedonistic practices (no Marianne Faithful and Mars Bars). This is ‘Almost Famous’ (2000) in name only; no groupie swapping or drug fuelled tantrums. This is a heartwarming story about two normal men who believe in themselves and their band. They are spurred by the thought of finally ‘making it big’, which in their parlance means tours, a record deal, and acknowledgement from the wider public for their contributions to music.

There are bitter-funny moments. At Sweden Rock festival, Lips and Robb wander around backstage like excited fans – as a metal writer, I too covered festivals, and I know the feeling of being star struck by your idols. It was painful to see Lips ask Michael Schenker (The Scorpions, Michael Schenker Group, UFO) whether he remembered Anvil, and it was heart-breaking to see Lips try and jog Brian Robertson’s (Thin Lizzy) memory of a tour they did together years ago. Likewise with Carmine Appice (Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck) who played in one of their favourite bands, Cactus. In contrast, the joy on Lips’ and Robb’s faces when Jay Jay French from Twisted Sister recalled Anvil was beautiful, and pathetic at the same time. This is the delicate touch of director Gervasi in manipulating our emotions, and it’s not long before the audience starts to twig it – these guys are simpatico, we are behind THEM!

A word of warning: there is a lot of angst in this movie, there are a lot of tears, a lot of emotional talking heads. There are interviews with the Reiner and Kudlow families, revealing their difficult histories (Reiner’s father was a Hungarian Jew who survived a German concentration camp). The despondent, snow-driven tone of the entire documentary is contrasted with the determined cheeriness of the two main men – their utter refusal to face up to ‘reality’ and accept that they are stone-cold, total, utter, complete failures by society’s standards. They sincerely and totally believe in themselves, and that’s what makes it so painful to watch at times. But never once do they crave pity, only recognition. We see this in the finale, but make your own minds up as to whether they have achieved ‘success’.

This in essence is the story of Anvil. Writ large, this is human struggle at its finest, and its basic message is: do what you believe in, and fight for it. The mighty Manowar sang: “Stand and fight/Live by your heart/Always one more try/I’m not afraid to die”, and this is the spirit of heavy metal. Defiance. Courage. Optimism. Visionaries Anvil are not. Originators, certainly not. Good musicians? A matter of opinion. But heroes? Absolutely. And you cynics can stick that up your Baudelaire-quoting arses.

Originally written for the Biography Channel, and can be found here.

~ by hanntu on November 15, 2008.