Saw Anvil: The Story of Anvil, a documentary about the struggling metal band Anvil. They are acknowledged as influential and talented by a montage of famous metallurgists but alas the world is not fair and the record industry doubly so. As Slash remarks, everyone ripped them off and now they sound just like a pale imitation of everyone else. But they kept at it deep into their 40s and 50s, getting older and shaggier and yet still dreaming of that one break that never seems to come.
This film is tragicomic, oscillating rapidly between pathos and humour, sometimes compassionately showing the lead singer struggle to keep his dream alive and other times cruelly contrasting his ambitions with his reality. At one point they play a wedding. The camera lingers on bored faces and kids clamping their hands over their ears. The film is like a real-life Spinal Tap (there's even an amp that goes to 11.) At times it's very touching but at other times hilarious. I feel like the film is being slightly cruel sometimes, but (if wiki is to be trusted) the film launched them to TV spots and album re-releases, so maybe it was all for the best.
The Anvil band members are tremendously sweet and winning. They seem devoted to their families and sensitive and kind, but they have this madness driving them, this high-school dream of making it big. It would be delusional but for that opening montage.
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