Anvil! The Story of Anvil
January. 18,2008 NRAt 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
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Reviews
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
everything you have heard about this movie is true.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
This was a real movie, with a story, an arc and an uplifting message. Seeing these good old boy canuck-heads in my home town of Toronto, slugging it out for their dreams in their 50s was something really close to my heart. The characters are real down to earth sweethearts with great personalities and good souls and you can't help but root for them and wish them some measure of success through all the hard work and struggles they have to endure in their lifelong quest.The ending had me as close to tears as I ever get for movies. It was so poetic, touching and fulfilling. Perhaps the makers tweaked reality a little bit for the desired effect, but it worked, dammit. I was moved. And I don't even like heavy metal.If you only watch one metal band doc in your life, make it this one.
Japanese fans are the best fans in the world. In all genres, Japanese fans are LOYAL. They are the best best fans. Yes it was a well manufactured part of the film but to see that one moment in Tokyo when the band stepped out onto the stage and to see the audience and reception that the band received......it was like the complete healing of all the band's wounds disappointments sustained over many years. That is the Japanese and that is the kindness that Japan can show to outsiders. And the music that showed those "deje vu" moments of the band brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it ans watch that portion of the film as I still await for the day that I also may return once again to one of the greatest places on earth.
Let's be clear - ratings of this film should not be about Anvil's talent.Rather, ratings should focus on the unparallelled tenacity, heart and passion of Lips and Reiner. Anyone who denies these gents their well-deserved props after tirelessly and near thanklessly rocking for 30 gruelling years, does not understand the plight of the human spirit.And as depressing as playing to a 3-person audience in Middle-of-Nowhere, Slovakia might be, these boys still rock out solid set after solid set based purely on their passion for the music - a trait few and far between with many passing prima donnas who think regurgitating an 80s song should somehow catapult them to stardom.Anvil, particularly Lips and Reiner, on the other hand, could write a book on following through on your dreams...and what musical passion is all about.
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi, 2008) is a sweet little documentary about the forgotten '80s metal band, seen playing to audiences in double figures, still waiting for the break that never came. It's been hailed as one of the best films of recent years and the best documentaries of all time, which is frankly pushing it, but it's a fine film, with plenty of heart alongside the abundant humour. And though it begins like a spoof - drummer Robb Reiner even shares his name with the director of This Is Spinal Tap - by the end you'll be willing the group to succeed, rather than smirking at their increasing ill-fortune. The film's focus is on frontman Lips - an eternally optimistic dreamer who rocks by night, but delivers children's school lunches by day - and childhood pal Robb, the band's drummer. As they tour Europe then travel to London to record their 13th album, we pay witness to their deep and lasting friendship, punctuated as it is by bouts of yelling and violence.There's one particularly telling, hilarious moment when Robb speaks about the gold drumsticks he wears round his neck, given to him by his father, an Auschwitz survivor. "My father was a jeweller and he gave these to me when I was 13 years old, as a gift. And I've never had them off from round my neck since they were given to me," he says. "Except the odd time I've had a few scraps with Lips and he's ripped them off my neck and stuff, but I've always repaired it, you know." Later on, they come to blows in the kitchen of their recording studio and Lips decides he's had enough, petulantly telling the director that Robb is "fired". They're a likable pair, with a passion for music that's truly invigorating - even inspirational. A particularly memorable passage has Lips bothering his heroes at a rock festival. "Do you remember that? I played with a woman's vibrator," he tells guitarist Michael Schenker, in a way that somehow makes those words endearing. Schenker gives him a bemused smile.Directed by fan and former Anvil roadie Gervasi, the film also finds time to meet the band's loyal followers. They include a sales executive - responsible for sponsoring Lips' short, unhappy sojourn into the world of telemarketing - and the Swiss-Italian Tiziana, who appoints herself as the band's manager via email and organises the European tour, complete with a gig to just 17 people and another where payment comes in goulash. Their fervour - like that of the band - is truly infectious, backed up by insightful interviews with the group's families. The scene where Lips' elder sister forks out the money for their new album, saying that all she has ever wanted "is for him to be happy", adds further weight to a film positively crammed with pathos.The whole thing climaxes in truly winning fashion. I didn't go in expecting to find myself desperate for a happy, heartwarming ending, but having been through the wringer with the band, I was. My only real quibble is with the brevity of the film: more than 300 hours of footage condensed into 80 minutes. It covers the main ground well, sometimes delving deeper than you might expect, but is slightly lacking in context, detailing little of the band's decline from 1984 to 2005, and is inconsistent in where it decides to elaborate. Despite that slight shortcoming, Gervasi has collected a veritable treasure trove of footage and is a skillful storyteller, transcending his film's apparent limitations to confound non-metal fans (myself included) with his portrait of hopeless, dildo-wielding dreamers.