It Might Get Loud

Movie Title-- It Might Get Loud

Release Year-- 2009

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 38 Minutes

Film Type-- Documentary

Film Director-- Davis Gugeenhiem

Cast-- Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White

Three musicians, Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge and Jack White, meet on January 23, 2008 to discuss the one thing they have in common, the electric guitar. This documentary showcases the electric guitar, how the blues guitar influenced early rock and roll and made it what it is today. It also shows how these three men got their start in rock and shows how each of their own personal lives were shaped by the electric guitar.

I love this film! If you are a rock and roll fan or a fan of Led Zeppelin, U2 or The White Stripes, you will love this film too. For anyone that is not a fan of rock and roll or you have no idea who Jimmy Page, The Edge or Jack White is, let me tell you about them before I go anywhere else with this...



Jimmy Page was born in England in 1944. When he was young he moved into a house with his family and there was a guitar left behind in the house that they moved to and that was his first experience with a guitar. He started his career as a session guitarist and then became a member of The Yardbirds in 1966 until 1968. In 1968 he decided to start a blues rock band, something that had never been tried before and he founded "Led Zeppelin". Led Zeppelin was together from 1968 until 1980 when drummer Jon Bonham died unexpectedly. He is considered one of the best guitarist in the world.


The Edge was born in 1961 in England. When he was one year old, his parents move to Dublin, Ireland. He answered an advertisement to join a band 1976 and in 1978 after a few name changes, U2 emerged. Their first album was released in 1980. In 1981 he almost left the band but was persuaded to stay in the band. U2 is still together to this day.



Jack White was born in 1975 in Detroit, Michigan as Jack Gillis. He was the youngest of 10 children, most of whom were very musically inclined. He married Megan White in 1996 and decided to take her surname, becoming Jack White. Meg began playing the drums in 1997 and Jack decided to start a band, hence The White Stripes was born. When the two of them were interviewed they told people they were brother and sister, although not long after the start of the band it became widespread knowledge that they were husband and wife, although they still insisted they were brother and sister. They were divorced in 2000 and in 2005 Jack finally admitted that the story of them being brother and sister was so that people focused on the music and not their relationship. He has also been in the bands The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and has also done some solo work, one work being the film "Cold Mountain" where he played the part of "Georgia".


The beginning of the film is really cool. It starts out showing Jack White building a guitar from wood, wire, nails, a glass coke bottle and an amp, it is pretty sweet. Then it goes into introductions and show the three men on their way to the studio where it was filmed. Once they are together it cuts in and out of personal, one on one interviews with each man. It also shows each man talking with one another in their own personal jam session. These three men had never met anyone before January 23, 2008 and I read an interview with Davis Gugeenhiem saying that he was worried when the three men got together because that said at first the men sat together just talking back and forth, asking each other what kind of guitars they used. It wasn't until Jimmy Page stood up and started to play "Whole Lotta Love" that Gugeenhiem knew that magic was being made.

The set was composed of a kind of platform, with a few plush chairs, a small table and amps set up around them, as well as mics and guitar stands. It is obvious that each men had guitars brought in for this session, Jimmy Page even had his famous double neck guitar (that was created specifically made for "Stairway to Heaven") there. The men played some of their own songs for the others as well as playing all together. The film shows each of them in their own elements as well. We go with The Edge to his high school where he found the note tacked on a bulletin board advertising for band mates and where the band would conduct rehearsals. We see Jack White in Nashville with his son and Detroit where he was born and that gave him the spark to start his musical career. Jimmy Page takes us to Headley Grange, the house where Led Zeppelin III and the best Led Zeppelin album of them all, Led Zeppelin IV was recorded, as well as letting us into what I can only assume is a "music" room in his house, filled with all forms of recorded music, from records to CDs and everything in between.


The men also go over how they each were inspired to play the guitar and there is also some talk about how blues music influenced their own style of play, however, Jack White does most of the talking when it comes to that subject. If you are a big fan of any of the three of them, there is footage of all three bands, my favorite being the footage from Led Zeppelin (in recent years I have become a huge fan of Led Zeppelin, so I am slightly bias when it comes to their music). Each men played their own music; Jimmy Page played "Ramble On", "The Battle of Evermore" and "Whole Lotta Love", The Edge played "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" and as Jimmy played I could almost hear Robert Plant's cool, bluesy wail singing along with the guitar riffs or Bono's smooth and strong voice to compliment Edge's "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

This movie is a stand alone piece of art that could not have been made by anyone less than these three men. They bring their own styles and sounds together so that each man can understand where the other is coming from. It is amazing hearing their stories and watching them play together. Anyone watching this can tell that these men are comfortable with what can only be described as a passion of theirs. Jimmy Page even says that a guitar is like a woman, you have to be passionate about something to be able to humanize it like that. WATCH THE CREDITS ON THIS ONE!!!! As the film ends, the men are playing a song called "The Weight" by The Band and as the song and the credits come to a close, the camera pans out to show the film crew standing in a large group just listening to these three men playing together, it is truly amazing.

This was a wonderful film, I would recommend it to anyone that is interested in REAL music, not the hip hop and rap that people claim is music but really is only loud noise. "It Might Get Loud" is for anyone that likes real music, music that comes from the heart and soul. Jack White even says something in the film about how auto tuning isn't really music, just a quick way to make a record. I agree with you Jack White, auto tuning is crap, real guitar riffs and soulful rock music is where it is at. Check this one out and don't forget the popcorn!!