In the beginning we saw the downfall of the band members. However, this "fallen" is not entirely material. They have simple and basic jobs, normal families, and can support basic living expenses through physical labor. And in a country like Canada, I believe this status is not too shameful. Most of their "depression" is still spiritual. This reminds me of a
scene from the movie The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: During World War II, a German officer's son is injured playing in the yard, with no adults around, except for a Jewish servant who is assigned to peel potatoes all day. The older servant took the child back to the house, wrapped it up, sat down and continued peeling the potatoes. Some worried children asked him: Why don't you need to go to the hospital? You are not a doctor. The servant half bowed his head and said with a complicated expression: Yes, I am. The child said: No, you are a potato peeler. The servant said: I was a professional doctor, before... I came here. The child thought about it and said: If you are a doctor, you must be a very good doctor. A smile appeared on the servant's face. I believe that part of that smile is tolerance and love for children. More, it came from the dignity and comfort that were rare to him at the time.
For historical reasons, Jewish doctors were reduced to prisoners to peel potatoes, and could only get relief from a naive child by chance. What about our metal heroes? Working on an ordinary job, I can only get relief and satisfaction from friends and a small number of local loyal fans, and from the limited number and scale of performance opportunities. (And that includes throwing a bunch of people on their own birthday parties.) That's far from enough for what they're capable of.
What happened to the Jews seemed unquestionably "all other people's fault." But how about these people? I dare not draw any conclusions here. Like a story in a movie. The band did a small tour in Europe with a fan with some managerial skills and connections. Because I am not familiar with urban traffic, I did not arrive at a bar in Prague on time for a performance. Not only was there not a lot of audience left during the performance, but after the performance, the bar owner didn't even pay. The reason was that they were too late and the guests were gone. Lips insisted that we should be paid when we work. If you want to give money or not, you should say yes before we go on stage to perform. Just as they were arguing and the grumpy Lips even started to do it (the problem of poor language communication added fuel to the fire), an audience member who had previously been offstage got involved. He gave the band members his business cards, telling them in English that he was a lawyer. He persuaded Lips and them a few words. Lips didn't lose his temper, insisting that we should be paid commensurate with our abilities. At this time, the little character in the film actually said a few touching words. He said that with your abilities, you should at least perform in front of a thousand people, not in a small bar like tonight. You shouldn't be on this stage at all. Clean up your face! (Reputation is used in the original sentence, I think it is more appropriate to understand it as a face.) Lips was a little stunned when he said it, and he was a little angry: It has always been like this, and it was like this 20 years ago. It's been like this for twenty years. The lawyer went on to say, then you should ask yourself why!
This is the magic point of the documentary. The real experience of life actually happened like the plot of the novel and the plot of the movie. The mantras spit out by a few drunk men in the bar (in that case, those who don't drink look almost like drinking) are as direct as written lines. And doesn't the above paragraph sound familiar? How many frustrated people complain about the same thing, and they often get the same kind of advice. However, even if you re-examine your past as the counselor thinks, can you really find the crux of the problem? Even if I find it, will it really help in the future?
Anvil returned to his hometown without getting a penny after the tour. I can only express my heartfelt gratitude to the fan who enthusiastically helped them organize the tour, even though a lot of bad things happened to them along the way. The uncles were disappointed and wanted to try another way, so they sent the newly recorded demo to an old friend "CT" in the UK. CT is a successful producer, having recorded for their early albums. CT was very optimistic about their new song, but decided to record a new album, which is also Anvil's thirteenth album, requiring the band to raise another 13,000 pounds.
When Lips returned to his hometown, in order to make more money, he tried working for a music fan's telemarketing company. In the end, he went there three times, and worked eight hours in total, without a single achievement. It's heart-wrenching to hear Lips make promotional calls in that husky voice of the frontman. With the help of my sister and the concerted efforts and cooperation of every member of the band and their families, the new album was finally recorded. Finding a company to issue it has become a problem again. Because there is no agent, all these things require Lips and Robb to go to the house by themselves. We must be familiar with the following scene: the front desk lady of the company is very polite in the face of your hospitality. As a result, the materials you handed over that are important to you are stuffed into the pile of materials under the table that she may not be able to handle at all. At the same time she told you: I guarantee the boss will get your materials. Even back in Canada, the two uncles had the opportunity to meet higher-level personnel at EMI. The sophisticated white-collar worker turned off the stereo after less than a minute of listening to a song on the CD. Said some outrageous and unpredictable words to the two of them, and sent the two to go home and wait for the mail.
It sucks to see unfortunate news in the mail you've been waiting for. It is really helpless and depressing to see the customary words like "Good luck to your future" at the end. Robb, who is not good at speaking, complains as he fixes his switch: I hate the record industry. Those people don't take the time to listen to you at all. In the pile of works sent by others, being picked by him is like winning the lottery.
This is business. Business brings competition. Competition means that someone succeeds and someone fails. And the recipe for success isn't necessarily what we think it is.
In addition to these, there are often sincere family and friendship in the film, which brings emotion and warmth to people in addition to the sadness. For these unconventional uncles, the relationship with parents, brothers and sisters, and wives and children needs to be handled carefully. What we see is more support and understanding. And it's real support. The funds for the recording were borrowed by Lips' sister, and at the time, everyone knew that recording this album was a bet on winning or losing. No one can expect the money to be paid back.
The friendship between Lips and Robb that started in their teens also makes me feel a little relieved when I hate this "geeky" era (what I hate is that many people talk about "geek" like gossip) . The two have their own families, but everyone around them knows that these two are closer than brothers. Robb always wears a necklace given to him by his father who was a jeweler when he was thirteen. The necklace has only left him a few times, all because it got ripped off in a fight with Lips. It was later repaired and put back on. During the recording of their thirteenth album, the two had another serious conflict because they were dissatisfied with the quality of each other's work. An angry Lips even said he was going to find a new drummer to replace Robb. But he said in his apology to Robb: "I know I'm a little emotional. But when I can't express myself properly and I lose my temper, what do I get?
My understanding is: because you never have to worry about losing anything in front of your closest people.
In the end, the thirteenth album did not find a company to release, and they made a thousand CDs and sold them directly to the desired fans at a price of 1.5 Canadian dollars. Lips insists that selling a thousand copies or 10 million copies doesn't affect his view of his work. In his opinion this is a great record.
At the end of the film, Anvil's thirteenth album still gained some influence among fans. The band got the chance to go to Japan for a big show. Facing the crowd of crazy metal fans, they performed their signature track "Metal on Metal". However, how can every fanatical fan on the scene know the behind-the-scenes stories? How do you know that the band is in such a predicament and how ecstatic to be able to play here? How can they know how worried they were about the possible cold session when they learned that they were scheduled to appear first (after 11:00 in the morning)? One by one independent lives are linked together because of common hobbies at this time. At that time, A may be sitting in a university classroom with headphones and despising the teacher on the podium, B may put on a suit and obediently endure the long-tired working life, and C may still be looking for fun with his young capital and singing every night. Ding may have been struggling for many years, and will only silently look at those who used to be.
And what about our metal heroes? The film was released in 2008, and the credits at the end said they were writing songs for their fourteenth album. And now, according to Wikipedia, the fourteenth album has been released. I don't know what's going on with this band that I didn't know anything about before. Of course, I wish these uncles who do not succumb to life easily have a good return. But if they do achieve the popularity they want, get the public recognition and record sales, and get what they want, are they still them? A lot of us, aspiring music fans, or ordinary people, are looking for a failure rather than a success, and the anger that failure brings. Seems to find a similar situation to himself in others. Then a lot of people named it "spiritual" together. Afterwards, he will have spiritual sustenance.
It may be that this short review took too long to write (I wrote it from 11:30 to 2:00 now), and when I wrote this, I suddenly felt a kind of blurred life process. Behind the glamorous stage, a band has so many stories, as well as the joys and sorrows of several people and their families. Then this is only a matter of two or three years from 2005 to 2008. How much of a person's life you and I don't know. How much of each of us has to bear alone forever, until it is brought into the soil with the flesh? A famous artist has become a legend, and countless descendants have studied it day and night, but they cannot fully understand it. And what about most mortals who are poorly articulated and unnoticed?
At this point, we have read a legend of Anvil. How many similar "Anvil" exist in the world? Thinking about how mediocre and "down" everyone can be, thinking about the question I asked before: "It's all other people's fault" or "think about yourself", thinking about the things that everyone depends on to survive Feelings, I think this film is good because it is about a band, but it tells the story of everyone. And I'm afraid that what I want to write at this time is not just a movie review. What I want to say is that countless people outside the camera have the same mission to accomplish. A mission that cannot be accomplished by shouting a few words of "XX spirit". A mission that requires long-term forbearance and perseverance, silent efforts to complete.
And in the end, the few successful ones will have the opportunity to step into the camera. And most of the mediocre or losers have to stay out of the camera and endure a lifetime of loneliness. There may be you, there may be me.
View more about Anvil reviews
