It Might Get Loud: Documenting a unique perspective on the guitar

The guitar is an instrument which has single-handedly transformed music over generations. Depending on the modifications to the instrument itself and the additional effects and amplification it is set up with, countless sounds can be produced from the guitar which has lead to experimentation and emergence of innumerable genres of music and their variations. The musician also matters when it comes down to splendid music because it is only the most skilled guitarists who can produce truly spectacular music from the instrument. It is probably these factors put together that convinced director Davis Guggenheim to make the documentary titled It Might Get Loud.

The documentary opens with Jack White hammering nails on a plank of wood on a farm, plugging it into an amplifier and producing music from it. This is followed by the opening credits which introduce the musicians in the documentary: Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page. A few excerpts from each musician reveals that they are about to meet at a warehouse and what they expect to learn or establish during the course of their discussion. The discussion, held on 23^rd January 2008, was the culmination of the film where the three musicians were brought together to discuss their views with regard to the guitar, each of them being a representative of a different generation and style of music but each being masters in their own right. The documentary was shot over several days before the actual meeting where each musician explained their origins and influences. This footage is spliced between the recordings of the discussion every now and then as the occasion calls for it. The finale of the documentary has the three musicians performing an impromptu acoustic cover of the song The Weight by the group The Band.

Director Davis Guggenheim covers different aspects to the musical instrument which is in the focus of the documentary. He chooses to tell the story through the eyes and words of the three musicians he is interviewing by allowing them to speak of their journey in music which automatically tells the story of the guitar’s timeline over many decades. He follows each musician as they retrace their roots and how they established themselves as the best in the world in a way that is endearing but voyeuristic at the same time. The audience is left in awe of the musician but also able to understand their modest beginnings and rise to fame.

The documentary is segmented into different chapters which chronicle the journey of music as a whole and the transformation of the guitar as well. The segmentation is also based on each musician’s personal experience as they talk about forming a band and breaking away from popular musical styles of their time to be pioneers in rock music. Each artist speaks of influential musicians who impressed them and talk about their own experiences when writing their own music. They speak in detail about their individual guitar playing style and what drives them to constantly strive to be better. During the course of the documentary, each musician picks out one of their songs and teaches the others how to play them to share a moment with their fellow musicians.

It Might Get Loud is a unique concept which documents the world’s favourite musical instrument through the eyes of three men who have mastered techniques to playing it. It is an interesting documentary as a whole but exceptionally enjoyable for rock music lovers.

I.D.: Football hooliganism and the loss of identity

Everyone has their own unique identity. It is something that defines each one of us and makes us stand out from everyone around us. It stems from what we like, love and hate, the culture we were raised in, the people we interact with and much more than that. Every breathing moment our identity changes minutely because of what we experience and this ultimately defines the person that we are and the person that we will become.

England in the 1980s has tremendous problems when it comes to hooliganism; particularly football hooliganism which stems from jingoistic support for favourite clubs and results in violence and uncouth behaviour on the streets. In the Shadwell district, police officer John and his team is assigned to infiltrate the firm (gang of football hooligans) of the local football club Shadwell FC to bring down the top dogs of the group and put an end to the violence. In order to do so, John and his three colleagues are required to go undercover and win over the trust of some of the most aggressive men from the district. Somehow they manage to join the firm but in his attempts to bring down the perpetrators, John begins to empathise with the villains. He faces a big challenge when he is close to completing his mission but actually losing himself in the bargain.

I.D. was commissioned by BBC Films to showcase football hooliganism. It is a period film set in the 1980s and was directed by Philip Davis for a release in 1995. While the film shows the darker side of supporting the beautiful game of football, it really is about a person losing his own identity in one that he has made up for himself. It involves no mental condition or disorientation of any sort, it is purely about a police officer getting too close to his case and adopting his undercover persona for himself as he starts to empathise with the criminals. Unfortunately he loses out on his regular personal life as his wife and friends abandon him when they are unable to understand the change in his personality and he refuses to listen to reason as they try to connect with him. Eventually, he indulges his character so far that he crosses the line and has to face the repercussions.

Football hooliganism has been documented in many films in different forms. Some films focus on the passion of the supporters while others highlight the fact that hooliganism stems from the need for them to do something with their lives to make it less monotonous. This film touches upon the fact that hooliganism grows out of a mutual hatred for rivals which either first starts in the game and then lands up on the streets or the other way around where social hatred results in hooliganism and ultimately courses through every part of their lives including football. Unfortunately, most of the films and documentaries that focus on football and football hooliganism do not attain mainstream commercial success in spite of the popularity of the game. Likewise, this film did not receive much praise when indeed it should have.

Instead of focusing solely on the sport and the passion for it, this film focuses on the individuals that love the sport. It is more of a character story and appeals to a wide audience.

Silver Linings Playbook: A rom-com tale of a bipolar man

Rarely do films depicting mental illness manage to do justice to real life situations that a mentally unstable person would go through. The norm in films when it comes to portraying a mentally challenged individual is to show them constantly upset, overreacting to simple situations with anger and attempts to show what the character is going through by use of graphic visuals which are meant to represent disorientation. Few films really fair well when it comes to handling characters with mental stability problems.

After spending eight months in a mental asylum to be treated for his bipolar disorder, Pat Solitano is released under condition that his parents will tend to his every need and keep him out of harm’s way. Having dedicated the better part of the eight months on losing weight and shaping up, Pat decides to carry on his workout routine outside the asylum in the hope that his wife would take him back on his release. Unfortunately, a violent incident prior to his hospitalisation resulted in his wife getting a restraining order against him and moving away from the neighbourhood in his absence. He reconciles with his best friend Ronnie and is invited over for dinner where he meets Tiffany. The widow of a recently deceased cop, Tiffany has some mental problems of her own which forms the basis of her friendship with Pat. They soon strike up a deal where Pat will partner Tiffany in a dance competition for her help in communicating with his wife in the hope that she will take him back.

Silver Linings Playbook was adapted from a novel titled The Silver Linings Playbook which draws its name from the protagonist mentioning the silver lining on every dark cloud every time he is faced with a challenging situation and his discussions with his therapist who insists he start making a playbook by which to live his life. It was written for screen as well as directed by David O. Russell. The film is mostly a drama which borders on the edges of a romantic-comedy.

The protagonist is established as a mentally ill person from the beginning. Unfortunately this paves the way for recurring aggressive behaviour throughout the film on his part. Although he is shown to have bipolar disorder he shows very few traits of the disorder itself; he does not seem to have constant mood swings between depression and happiness. Instead he seems to have violent outbreaks when things don’t go his way. Another unnecessary feature is the love interest of the protagonist also having a mental condition. The film seems to propagate a belief that mentally unstable people can only get along with other mentally disturbed people.

The story is easy to predict from the first instance that protagonist Pat meets his future love interest Tiffany. Unfortunately the story doesn’t gradually progress in the direction of the obvious. Pat is seen to be deeply in love with his wife the entire time that he is rehearsing for a dance competition with Tiffany. At the end of the film we suddenly find that Pat, who has been obsessing over his wife the whole film, realises that he isn’t really in love with her in a convenient climax.

The film doesn’t have too many ebbs and surges in the plot. It is mostly a drama with very few instances of dry wit humour. The only refreshing point of the film is the humour which is sparse unfortunately. That aside, the film is quite dry and depicts mentally unstable people far too stereotypically.

Django Unchained: A role reversal on slavery and a bloodlust quencher

Everyone learns from experience. To watch, hear and read is an important part of how we reproduce material in our own way. Paying homage to those that inspire and influence us comes naturally when we have reached a certain pedestal and want to show our gratitude. It was probably the same sentiment which influenced Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 film Django Unchained which shows heavy influence of an erstwhile film style, the Spaghetti Western.

The year is 1858 and it is approximately two years before the American Civil War. Django is a black slave in southern America who is about to be sold off in one of the biggest slavery auctions in the land. While being escorted the convoy is intercepted by Dr. King Schultz, a German dentist. Schultz bargains with the two brothers who own the slaves and when the discussion turns sour, Schultz kills one of the brothers and strong-arms the other to sell him Django. Schultz later confides in Django and admits that he is a bounty hunter looking for some men that only Django can identify. They agree to make a deal where Django will help Schultz claim his bounty in return for his freedom. Django himself confides in Schultz about his wife Broomhilda and they make another deal for Django to be his deputy in return for Schultz’s aid in freeing Django’s wife. They discover that Broomhilda is owned by Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner who has a knack for violence. Together they hitch a plan to free Broomhilda from Candie’s snare.

The film was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Based on the prominent slavery problem in southern America in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, this film divulges from historical accuracies as the plot takes its own route. The central peg of the film is slavery, flesh trade and the general mistreatment of black people before the American Civil War in 1861. The protagonist of the film is named Django, a black man who joins forces with a German to hunt down and kill his former owners and the current owner of his wife. It is implausible that a black man would be allowed to go about hunting down and killing powerful white men across the southern states at a time when black people were treated horribly for no fault of their own. The film’s historical inaccuracies are a major downfall for the plot.

The film is clearly an homage to Spaghetti Westerns. Tarantino is well known for his action sequences involving gunfights and Mexican standoffs. He takes it a step forward in this film with extremely violent gunfights which are peculiar of Spaghetti Westerns. Also reminiscent of the genre are the characters in the film – southern Americans who dress in suits and speak with a distinct accent. The portrayal of the characters as cowboys is also picked up from westerns with the protagonist riding a horse, carrying a pistol and wearing a hat most of the time. The soundtrack of the film, one of the most defining features of a Spaghetti Western, is also a nod to the genre with similar music being implemented. However, few songs stray away from the typical Spaghetti Western style every now and then with the usage of rap and hip hop which leads to the film breaking out of character.

There are moments when the film seems to drag on with the exhaustive plot. There are many slow moments of conversation which seem partially inconsequential to the main plot. However, one of these breakaway moments does produce a moderately amusing scene as Tarantino takes a pot-shot at the stupidity of the Ku Klux Klan and their initiation of white hats. Tarantino himself appears in this scene briefly, as is his director trademark. He also returns later in the film as a slave owner who comes across the protagonist and wants to help him. Another trademark of Tarantino’s directorial style is the use of grotesque gunfight sequences and with the liberties that Spaghetti Westerns allow, he went all out in the penultimate action sequence in an attempt to make a blood splatter analyst’s job as difficult as possible. The blood splatter in this sequence is particularly hard to comprehend with the walls getting painted red with every gunshot that hits a human body; quite unnecessary apart from just being a director indulging himself. The actor-director relationship between Christoph Waltz and Tarantino does seem to be growing with this film as the actor provides a breath of fresh air with his performance. Leonardo DiCaprio also does a stellar job in his respective role.

Django Unchained has a slow moving plot and a confusing character which is neither Spaghetti Western nor contemporary. The film has its boring moments, is historically inaccurate, fairs moderately as a tribute and just seems to be a finished product of a filmmaker indulging himself with as many uses of the word ‘nigger’ as possible.