Review of It Might Get Loud (2008) by Walter C — 31 Jan 2010

As a documentary devoted to the guitar and featuring two of my idols, this film was always going to have me gushing.

Opening in silence to Jack White hammering nails into a small piece of wood, he goes on to make a single string guitar made of nothing more than the bit of wood, a coke bottle and a single pick-up. Plugged into a cheap practice amp he proceeds to play a short piece on it that sums up everything he is about: creating music from the humblist of materials.

Him being at the forefront of guitar innovation in our day and age, he is complemented by the presence of Jimmy Page - the man that did it all first 40 years earlier with the worlds most influential rockband.

Jack is full of love and adoration of his musical forefathers, the roots of guitar music and, whilst willfully embracing outdated instruments and technology, brings his music to lfe in a very, uniquely, modern way.

Jimmy is the old master, recalling his intentions towards the guitar and music and in the process showing what a natural gift sounds like. Seeing him playing "Ramble On" in an empty studio is a joy to behold.

Where the film faulters is in its choice of 3rd protagonist...

By way of contrasting the old and the new we are joined by U2s The Edge. Someone who strives to push the instrument through a wall of twinkling lights and gadgets. He wants to strip the guitar back to its basics and create sounds through electronics and computers in a way that can't be done without a bank of footpedals and a processor rack to rival the most hitech music studio.

This is all very well and it is interesting to see his angle. But what becomes apparent very early on is that The Edge is presented as somewhat of a patsy.

His claim of stripping the guitar back to its basics by playing single notes/chords and have it electronically altered is missing the point entirely - a point that was made shockingly clear in the films brilliant opening of Jack and his makeshift guitar. What The Edge is doing is stripping away any emotion, joy and any real talent. Jack sums it up perfectly when he says:

"Technology is a big destroyer of emotion & truth, it doesn't make you a more creative person. Its something you have to fight in any artistic field: ease of use".

Seeing Jack White bashing away at an out of tune, beat-up old guitar, trying (and succeeding) to emulate the old bluesmen that began it all is truely going back to basics, free from modern interference but totally loaded with passion and feeling.

More over, The Edge, devoid of his gadgets and gizmos, looks visually uncomfortable and totally out of his depth when jamming with Jack & Jimmy throughout the film, to the point that I started to feel sorry for him.

Whilst I would personally have liked to have seen the likes of Tom Morello or Matt Belemey chosen to show the angle of guitarists who use technology AND talent to push the guitar, the joys of listening to and watching Jack White and Jimmy Page far outweigh this.