Anvil! The Story of Anvil

The Canadian heavy metal band Anvil played some of the biggest stages in the world in the eighties and influenced bands like Anthrax and Metallica. Then they fell off the map. The film follows the guitarist Steve Lips Kudlow and the drummer Robb Reiner, both in their fifties, through a disastrous European tour. It is not interested in failure. It is interested in the friendship of two men who will not quit: they fight, they make up, and thirty years on they are still chasing the same dream. Both the pain and the comedy come from that persistence. The form belongs to the rockumentary tradition, but it is full of scenes showing how closely real life can resemble This Is Spinal Tap: a train getting off at the wrong station, a gig attended by thirteen people, a fee that never gets paid. The connection behind the film is personal. The director Sacha Gervasi met the band after a London show in the early eighties, introduced himself as England's number one Anvil fan, and worked as a roadie on their tours. The man who made the film is the kid who once carried their gear. Slash, Tom Araya, Lemmy, Scott Ian and Lars Ulrich also speak in it. Who it is for: anyone who likes music documentaries and stories of endurance, including people who do not listen to metal. Who it is not for: viewers wanting a portrait at a distance. The director has a side, and the film softens the band's faults with affection.