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At the Q&A following the screening of It Might Get Loud, which was attended by Mr. Page and Mr. White (The Edge was on tour in Europe), the director, Davis Guggenheim, explained that the purpose of this documentary was to celebrate the art of guitar with a fresh and unique approach that would set it apart from countless other documentaries on the subject. The idea of bringing on board the legendary guitarist who pretty much invented hard rock, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page was certainly a good start; as for his two protagonists, U2's The Edge and the White Stripes' Jack White, these choices certainly make sense as they both are the symbols of two other generations but I could have thought about a few other choices that could have been more challenging for Mr. Page, from The Sex Pistol's Steve Jones who created the punk guitar sound to Guns and Roses' Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, among others. And by this, I don't mean that Edge and Mr. White are lesser choices. The guitarist of the biggest band in the world, The Edge is known as sound architect with a unique sound and a talent for limpid anthem-like melodies. He is also the less technically talented guitarist in this trio, which is also an asset as the most memorable melodies are often the most simple — and the decades of success of U2 can't deny this. As for Mr. White, he is somewhat the rejuvenator of blues, a true — tortured — artist, a multitalented musician involved in various projects besides the White Stripes — The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs as well as an album for Dolly Parton — and somewhat of a poster boy for hipsters. It Might Get Loud opens with Mr. White creating a primitive guitar with a piece of wood and a bottle of coke. This clearly aims at stating that musicians can make music with anything and, from there, we follow the paths of the 3 artists until they finally meet. At the premiere, Mr. Guggenheim implied that he pretty much let his camera loose to capture improvised moments and this is certainly what we're getting. Without any sense of direction or any thematic narrative, we are stuck with following the 3 amigos, wherever they go, whether it's a mansion where an album was recorded or a school where a first gig was played and whatever they do, from The Edge doing Yoga to Mr. White playing piano, which if I'm not mistaken doesn't really relate to being a guitarist. As a result, most of the moments we're shown look like random footage that might have been assembled for some DVD extras about these distinct bands. Neither does the filmmaker really highlight the influence of these musicians, nor does he give us an inside look at their creative process or technical tricks. And the same lack of direction also occurs when the 3 guitarists meet. Mr. Guggenheim stays in the back, limiting himself to the role of a voyeur, which instead of an explosive meeting results in some kind of "hanging out with Page, Edge and White" static piece. They exchange a few anecdotes, show each other a few chords and that's pretty much it. And this is certainly not the fault of the artists but rather the failure of Mr. Guggenheim as a director — I personally suspect he was too impressed and didn't have the music knowledge to challenge them, which is unfortunate as, a few times during the films, we could perceive threads that could have turned into great thematic explorations. For example, we hear Mr. White say that what matters is your talent at playing guitar, not effects and technology, which are actually the trademark of The Edge. As for U2's guitarist, we hear him state that his band was born as a reaction to 70's bands with overlong self-indulged guitar solos, which is actually what Mr. Page was doing. As a director, Mr. Guggenheim's role should have raised these questions to create some creative discussion among the 3. It would also have been interesting to know what they think of each other's styles and music, which we'll never know. What are we left with, once we got out of the It Might Get Loud screening? Well, not much despite a few enjoyable moments. Neither did I learn anything about guitars and guitarists, nor did I learn anything new about these figures: Mr. Page is a self-absorbed rock icon (in an amusing moment, he tries to explain The Edge how to play a U2 song), The Edge is a nice and humble man who knows his limits and Mr. White is an authentic artist and somewhat of a weirdo. To take on 3 such influential music figures and the art of guitar, It Might Get Loud would have needed somebody who knows their art and is able to talk to them as their equal rather than as a fan, and the two names that come to mind are Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) and Anton Corbjin (Control), two established video directors and filmmakers who would have been able to transcend such a powerful artistic meeting.
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