In the opening sequence of this documentary, we see a laundry list of heavy metal bands that toured Japan in 1984, all of which went on to sell over a million records, except one: Anvil.
“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” tells the tale of the one that got away with the help of metal icons such as Slash (Guns N’ Roses) and Tom Araya (Slayer), who retrospectively praise the group. Lars Ulrich (Metallica) even goes so far as to say he thought that “these guys [were] going to turn the music world upside down.”
Everything that follows shows just how wrong he was. While Anvil sounds like a watered-down Motorhead with a one-note Ronnie James Dio on vocals, their music is only the frame to the real subject of this documentary.
“Anvil” focuses on the lives of the two original members — Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner — as they work their day jobs, play in near-empty European clubs and record their new album, all in an effort to achieve the recognition they long for. Whether they get there or not doesn’t matter; it is the portrait of optimism and humanity in “Anvil” that does.
Throughout all of his troubles, Kudlow remains na?vely hopeful. In one such scene, the viewer learns about Anvil’s European tour — which Kudlow describes as their best opportunity in 20 years — and listens as he eagerly awaits the supposedly packed venue the group will perform in. Unfortunately, we get a taste of dramatic irony when we see the sparsely occupied venue of a half dozen people. “Anvil” continually provokes sympathy for Kudlow as a man doing the best he can at what he loves, even though he will never gain traditional success.
The film marks the directorial debut from Sacha Gervasi, an original Anvil fan. “Anvil” has the feel of a fan’s home video dedication with choppy editing and little artistry in camera work. It is visually unimpressive, with pseudo-artistic, clich? shots of Anvil’s hometown during a Canadian winter, a clearly staged close-up of a ringing cell phone when Kudlow gets good news and the maudlin, slow-motion circular shot of Kudlow and Reiner standing in the streets of Japan scored by soft piano music that ends with a Kudlow joke.
While “Anvil” is a feel-good movie, it is also strangely funny. Kudlow has a wide, goofy, gaping smile that gives off the impression of a clown without makeup, and Reiner looks like a long-haired Henry Winkler.
As a rock documentary, “Anvil” has to be compared to Metallica’s “Some Kind of Monster” and VH1’s “Behind the Music.” It ranks as a middle-class mishmash of each, with an argument that devolves into a band therapy session and the patented second-act failure with third-act redemption. However, there isn’t any high-priced therapist or auctioning of the drummer’s valuable abstract art collection like in “Monster.” This is a movie about two fighting best friends,, a tour of Reiner’s paintings (including an absurd anvil monument) and working day jobs in construction and catering to make ends meet. This is certainly a more sober shot of reality than Metallica, but Kudlow cannot be deterred from doing what he loves. He’s the kind of guy who quits working as a telemarketer after eight hours and decides to take the financial risk and record a new album, and it’s that passion that you can’t find to the same extent in “Monster.”
“Behind the Music” — known for its structure of a meteoric rise, an apex of glory quickly followed by a tragic downfall and a high note ending — is unintentionally parodied here. Anvil never rose very high, and its moment of glory is a slow-motion drive in a convertible, soundtracked by their new single (Kudlow had been driving an old van for the rest of the movie), followed by a record company’s rejection, and the ultimate redemption of self-releasing their album and playing a festival before thousands of people in Japan more than 20 years after they had first done so.
Overall, this was a story that needed to be told. And even though the path the filmmaker takes to unfurl the story passes through some cinematic clich?s, , its compelling tale redeems those flaws.
3 stars out of 5.
