Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Dir: Sacha Gervasi

2008

*****

Sacha Gervasi's wonderful 2008 documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil is somewhere between This is Spinal Tap and Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, except this isn't fictional nor a fake-documentary, this is all real. First time director Sacha Gervasi first met the band at a gig in England in 1982. When he was introduced to them he proclaimed himself to be their biggest fan and soon became their roadie and worked on their '82, '84 and '85 tours. Twenty years later, he got back in touch with the band to see how they were doing and started to record them as they struggled on. In their heyday they were playing to huge audiences, at Japan's infamous Super Rock Festival they shared a stage with the likes of Whitesnake, Scorpions and Bon Jovi but they never quite managed to find the same level of success as them. Apart from a small hard-core fan base, the band have almost been forgotten in rock history. Gervasi found them still playing to very small crowds but working as truck drivers and in construction. They were still recording music but were selling the albums themselves, again to very small numbers. Gervasi followed them on a last-ditch attempt of a come-back when they receive a letter from a promoter in Europe who wants to book them on a European tour. It is a spectacular disaster, both painful and hilarious to watch but more often rather heart-breaking. Band mates and old friends Steve Kudlow and Robb Reiner are instantly lovable and both open up to Gervasi about the struggle they've had. They both love and hate each other, fight and make up, with Reiner quitting the band several times throughout the film. Shot over a year, this documentary really does show the life of an aging rock band, warts and all. The real beauty is in the fact that they refuse to give up when everything around them tells them they should. Just as all seems lost, the band finally get lucky in what has to be one of the best finales to a film ever. It's funny, it's sad, it's often tragic and it's utterly uplifting and it's probably the most inspiring documentary I've ever seen and one of the best films of the last few years. It's utterly brilliant, I absolutely love it.