Review: the story of love -- Anvil! The Story of Anvil

* link to the Japanese website.
** link to the website written in another language including English.

I saw a documentary movie about a long-careered Canadian Heavy Metal band ANVIL Anvil! The Story of Anvil** at Baus Theater*, Kichijoji town.
I saw the movie on the today's last time starting from 7 p.m.
And at this theater the ticket for adult costs 1800 yen and for student 1500 yen every day except the ticket for men is 1000 yen on Monday (for women on Wednesday) every week (and of course today is Monday).

I have seen some documentary movies about Heavy Metal, for example, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005) and Global Metal (2008) both directed by a Canadian anthropologist Sam Dunn (I have also DVD of the former) and a German movie Heavy Metal auf dem Lande (en: Heavy Metal in the Country) (2006) which is the story about a Heavy Metal record company Nuclear Blast Companies and a German country town Donzdorf where Nuclear Blast is located.

This movie is directed by Sacha "Tea-bag" Gervasi who is also a screenwriter of a movie The Terminal (2004) starring Tom Hanks and has been a friend of members from ANVIL for a long time ("Tea-bag" is a nickname which they gave him because he was British according to the booklet of this movie).
And the main persons of this movie are Steve "Lips" Kudlow (Vocal & Guitar) and Robb Reiner (Drums) who have been best friends and lead ANVIL since 1973 for over 30 years.
In the first half of the 1980's they had a great influence on their junior bands, for example, METALLICA, MEGADETH, ANTHRAX, and SLAYER who are all big and famous bands now and had come to Japan to play their music on the stage of Super Rock '84 in Japan* (the year when I was born) with BON JOVI, THE MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, SCOPIONS and WHITESNAKE.
And then they were expected to be as big, famous and successful as these bands...but in fact now they are not so at all.
They have kept the band now and go on a tour around the world during their vacation while Lips as a deliverer of Choice Children's Catering** (学校給食の配達人) and Robb as a construction worker have labored in order to feed their families because they cannot earn money by the band.

This movie is the story about beauty of their friendship and of the relationship with their families, the story of love.
Their families have been surprised a little at their passion for the band but have not given them up.
They have supported Lips and Robb mentally and materially (for example, Robb's sister lent them 15000 UK pound (about 2 million yen) in order to make their new album "This Is Thirteen" with a famous producer Chris Tsangarides) and more or less still hoped ANVIL to be big.

The Japanese subtitle of this movie is: the guys who cannot give up their dream (夢を諦めきれない男たち).
A lot of Japanese are very sympathetic toward the story like this.
Lips and Robb are innocent like young boys and might be fools but fools we should love.
I would not like them to be very big worldwide like BON JOVI but would like them to be a band who can make some money to feed their families by music and tour, and to be a band close to fans.

However, we would have to focus on the negative side.
The movie starts with a scene that ANVIL was playing their music in front of a crowded audience on the stage of Super Rock '84 in Japan and ends with a scene that the band was welcomed by a crowded audience in a fever and was playing in front of them at Loud Park '06*.
That is, this movie starts with a scene from Japan in the past and ends with a scene from Japan at present.
With this composition the director would like to assert that the band was in the past and is now, or has been for a long time, (very) popular in Japan.
But this could not be true.

Also I joined Loud Park '06 and it is one of Metal festivals where many bands come to play and Metal fans do not always come to see only one band that is their favorite.
That is, it is true that there was a crowded audience there and then but not all of them came to see ANVIL.
In the booklet of this movie Marty Friedman (ex. MEGADETH) tells it is absolutely sure that American or European Rock musicians long to hold a show in Japan. So also ANVIL loves Japan.
But the truth might be that a lot of Japanese Metal fans have forgotten this band for a long time.
(Of course they, at least I am as one of Metal fans, are very happy that ANVIL has been existed in the Heavy Metal world.)
And it is a little doubtful whether the Japanese Metal fans would accept their present music.
Their music might surely have been cool in the past but could not be cool for the Japanese Metal Fans now.

As well as in Japan there are a lot of earnest Heavy Metal fans in Europa, especially in German, more than in North America so you should go on a tour and hold shows there. In Europa there must be fans who love old-school Heavy Metal music like them.
And I would like to ask Sam Dunn how about ANVIL if possible.
(I caught him out at Loud Park '06 in front of the stage of NAPALM DEATH when he was covering and filming this festival. He might have seen ANVIL's show there.)

By the way, it is very interesting that Lips is of Jewish origin as well as Robb.
On the movie Lips' brothers told that their family was a normal Jewish one.
And Robb's father was born in Hungary and was captured in Auschwitz concentration camp when he was 15 years old.
Moreover on it Robb's mother spoke English slowly and not fluently, her English pronunciation does not sound like her children, like the native English speaker. In other words, she could have been born in a country where English had not been used as a mother tongue and her mother tongue could not be English.
It is interesting because I have studied the theory of some of Jewish philosophers, for example, Theodor W. Adorno, Hannah Arendt and others, so I am interested in the Jewish culture.

And below is under construction...