It Might Get Loud

Three guitarists meet in a studio: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2 and Jack White of The White Stripes. They talk, they teach each other parts, and they demonstrate how they play. Between the sessions the film goes back into each of their histories. Davis Guggenheim directs. The opening states the idea. Jack White nails a string, a nail and a pickup to a plank, builds an electric guitar, plays it, looks at the camera and asks who wants to buy a guitar. The three represent three approaches. For Page the guitar is a question of recording; he goes to Headley Grange and explains how the drum sound on When the Levee Breaks was got. For The Edge it is a signal chain; he shows how different it sounds without the pedals. For White it is resistance; he says he hates instruments that are easy to play and chooses gear that will fight him. The best passages are not the conversation but the three of them playing together, and Page's reaction while listening to his own record is the most quoted scene in it. Who it is for: guitar players and anyone interested in rock history from a technical angle. Who it is not for: the documentary makes no argument. There is no genuine conflict or disagreement between the three, and the film never forces one.