When the movie began, I almost reached for my earplugs. Not because of the film's title, "It Might Get Loud," but because a guitar was roaring from the get-go.
That's the way it should be with this documentary. Crank it to 11 because "It Might Get Loud" is the best movie ever made about guitars. Heck, it is one of the best rock docs, period.
You don't have to be a guitar geek to appreciate the three guitar heroes from different eras featured here: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, 65; U2's the Edge, 48, and the White Stripes' Jack White, 34. But if you like guitar-oriented rock, you must see this.
Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") tells the trio's stories by visiting their old haunts -- Page at the haunted Headley Grange manor where "Led Zeppelin IV" was recorded; the Edge at the Dublin school where U2 met; White in a rundown Detroit neighborhood.
The one-on-one interviews as much as the guitar playing are what make "Loud" work, even though White, true to his colors, seems to be doing a little posturing with his persona. Guggenheim deconstructs their styles: Page plays air guitar to a Link Wray record; the Edge demonstrates how he uses technological effects to get different sounds; White makes a one-string guitar to prove his love of the primitive.
In the end, all three meet for a summit. It's awkward at first, until the guitar giants play their instruments. Page leads them through Zeppelin's "In My Time of Dying," and the trio switches to acoustic guitars to tackle an unfamiliar song, "The Weight" by the Band.
Unplugged or with earplugs, "It Might Get Loud" will rock your world.
Jon Bream • 612-673-1719
