This-Is-Anvil!
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) is a documentary about an 80s Canadian heavy metal band that opened for many big name rock bands but never made it successful on tour or with their own albums. In many ways, this documentary is like a true life This is Spinal Tap story. Although it’s not made as a comedy, there are funny parts throughout, even where not indented to be. Most fans of This is Spinal Tap would enjoy this documentary movie, but The Story of Anvil is less about the band’s music and mostly about the two founding band members dealing with life continued effort to pursue their failed dreams.
The primary reason that Anvil never made it big is that the quality of music overall wasn’t high enough to gain the level of success to sell albums or to increase their tours for live performances. They never were able to create one big hit that put them over that success bar. Many early 80s metal bands that were on the harder and faster rock side were influenced by Anvil, but were able to create better songs to gain success where Anvil didn’t. There are only a few live performances in the movie, and never playing through a complete song. I think the biggest flaw of the movie is that fact, and if they would have played more complete songs live in the movie (like This is Spinal Tap), it would have made it more entertaining and done more to promote the bands music to new potential fans. It’s often like a reality TV show, but done well and never boring.
The movie website with trailer and city showtimes is at http://anvilmovie.com. Their official website is http://anvilmovie.com, which is a poorly designed website that also plays the trailer when you visit the page without hitting play. Their website is much like their music, much more heart but lacking in quality. The founding band members Lips and Robb Reiner grow on you throughout the movie despite heir flaws and failures, and this documentary may end up doing more to create new fans than their music itself.
