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September 25, 2009
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Movie Review: It Might Get Loud

Page, The Edge, White rock guitar film
By LIZ BRAUN - Sun Media
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The same guy who made An Inconvenient Truth now brings you a love letter to the electric guitar: It Might Get Loud.

This Davis Guggenheim-directed documentary features three guitar masters: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge and Jack White of The White Stripes -- different styles, different eras and very different sounds, but it's all about the guitar.

The three musicians talk about their beginnings in music, their first guitars, writing songs and finding inspiration.

Jack White talks about getting his first electric guitar as payment for moving a fridge. The Edge and his brother built a guitar by themselves as adolescents, as music was one way to escape Dublin and get into the wide world. A guitar was left behind in the house in Epsom where Jimmy Page moved as a child.

Talk about fate.

Each of these virtuosi had a different approach to it all. White talks about never having wanted to play guitar because everybody played; once he started, he was determined to keep it simple. The Edge, on the other hand, welcomes all the gizmos and technology available, as long as it all helps him express the music in his head. Page already had so much experience as a session musician as a teen that he gave up touring and went to art school.

Even those not particularly interested in guitar will be seduced by the personal stories these guys tell.

White describes his childhood as one of 10 kids in a family living in a tough neighbourhood in Detroit. The Edge recalls the life-altering moment he saw punk/mod revival band The Jam on Top of the Pops. Page mentions having his guitar confiscated at school, where his stated ambition was to work in "biological research."

It Might Get Loud travels with the musicians as each visits a spot from the past that was influential in his musical choices.

While White seems the enthusiastic junior of the trio and Page the sage old master, the three men manage a terrific camaraderie as they talk about their lives and their music.

Snippets of live-performance footage -- past and present -- are the icing on the cake.

In the end, the movie puts all three together in performance; they play a version of The Band's song, The Weight and it's interesting, but not as interesting as their tales of the journey thus far.

It Might Get Loud is no doubt required viewing for guitar enthusiasts, and a pleasant diversion for everyone else.

(This film is rated PG)


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