Heavy Metal (1981)

I REMEMBER BEING twelve years old at the beach house my parents rented in the summer of ’81 and seeing a commercial on TV for an animated movie…but it sure wasn’t from Disney.

It involved a crazy blend of science fiction, fantasy worlds, and a sword-wielding woman warrior who rode atop a giant bird. It was called Heavy Metal.

Okay, I thought, I am gonna love this. I can’t wait to go see it…

Wait, what? It’s rated R? A cartoon movie? How is that possible?

Plot:

Based on stories and characters from the long-running sci-fi/fantasy magazine, Heavy Metal ties together six vignettes through the presence of the Loc-Nar, “the sum of all evils” – a large, glowing green jewel that, while desired by those who seek it, destroys their lives once they possess it.

Stories include:

• “Harry Canyon” – a noir-ish tale set in near-future New York City featuring a cabbie, a girl, gangsters, and money.
• “Den” – a nobody nerd from Earth gets transported to another world and transformed into a strong, brave warrior.
• “Captain Sternn” – a smug, disgraced officer, on trial for a litany of heinous crimes, thinks he’ll get off because he bribed a witness. Guess again.
• “B-17” – a bomber plane suffers heavy damage in battle, but it gets worse when the Loc-Nar comes on board.
• “So Beautiful and So Dangerous” – two drugged-out alien slackers and a horndog robot attack the Pentagon and abduct a cute secretary.
• “Taarna” – a female warrior seeks revenge against a race of mutant barbarians who have slaughtered the entire population of a peaceful city.

Critique:

In terms of the storytelling, Heavy Metal’s two best segments are its shortest: “Captain Sternn” and “B-17.” Watching Sternn’s paid-off witness turn wildly, violently against him is both funny and exciting, while “B-17” (written by legendary sci-fi author Dan O’Bannon) has the eerie feel of a story from the old EC Comics or Creepshow films.

The last story, “Taarna,” is probably the one most identified with the film. It’s the longest story and, probably not coincidentally, the least exciting. While it does have its moments – the bar fight between Taarna and three mutant barbarians, and her climactic clash against their leader, are both pretty bad-ass – it gets bogged down in extended scenes of Taarna flying on her giant bird, swimming nude, and slowly donning her skimpy armor (all while the people she’s setting out to protect are being killed, I might add).

In today’s age of amazing CGI animation, it’s easy to be jaded against old 2-D animation like Heavy Metal. But even for 2-D, the film’s animation quality is iffy and sub-par on several occasions, though other times it’s impressive in its style and scope.

Despite its title, Heavy Metal has a decidedly un-metal soundtrack, featuring songs by Journey, Stevie Nicks, and Devo next to Nazareth and Black Sabbath. But it’s still a great compilation, and it turned me on to the music of Sammy Hagar, Blue Oyster Cult, and Ronnie James Dio-era Sabbath.

I watched Heavy Metal countless times as a young adult. My buddies and I, during my college-age years, would pop it in the VCR while downing a few brews, enjoying it in a group environment. And surely, I had a better time watching Heavy Metal with my friends when I was 20 and rocking a good buzz, rather than the way I watched it for this review: alone in my living room, in my early 40s, sober, while my family was asleep.

Despite generous amounts of science fiction, horror, boobs, gore, and more boobs, Heavy Metal is uneven in its storytelling and animation quality. But if you’re a guy, it’ll appeal to your inner 14-year-old, and it’s worth seeing at least once. (Avoid the awful sequel Heavy Metal 2000.)

Jeff over at Dinner with Max Jenke summed up Heavy Metal almost perfectly in his comment on my teaser post for this review: Heavy Metal doesn’t hold up very well, but to boys (now men) of my generation, it will always have a special place in our hearts.

Tidbits:
* Heavy Metal co-screenwriter Len Blum also wrote Howard Stern’s biopic Private Parts.
* The boys at South Park do an awesome send-up of Heavy Metal in the episode, “Major Boobage.” Check it out here.
* For the last couple of years, there’s been rumblings of a new Heavy Metal film being developed, featuring segments by A-list directors such as David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, Zack Snyder, and Gore Verbinski. Here’s hoping…

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

Negatory. Despite being an animated feature, Heavy Metal includes gobs of nudity, sexual situations, graphic violence, drug use, and profanity. (The irony here is that Heavy Metal is rated R, but middle-school boys are its target audience.)

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Since the whole Heavy Metal universe revolves around male adolescent fantasy, I’m guessing no…unless she’s big into sci-fi/fantasy adventures.

Um...was it something I ogled?

Heavy Metal
* Director: Gerald Potterton
* Screenwriters: Dan Goldberg, Len Blum
* Stars: John Candy, Rodger Bumpass, Richard Romanus, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy
* MPAA Rating: R


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Full Metal Village (2006)

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, my interest in documentaries has significantly increased. I’m not sure why; coincidentally, my choices in books have largely leaned in the same direction: non-fiction and autobiographies have ruled my reading list.

But while my interest in documentaries has been relatively recent, my love for heavy metal spans nearly three-quarters of my lifetime – from the moment my neighbor played me cuts from AC/DC’s Back in Black and the Scorpions’ Blackout back in the early ‘80s.

So, when I saw there was a documentary about what happens to a quiet German town when a monstrous, three-day metal festival rolls in, I stuck my devil horns up with one hand and thrust up a lighter with the other (well, figuratively speaking…at my age, throwing both my arms in the air like that could land me in traction).

Plot:
Through interviews and visual montages, Full Metal Village examines the lives of the residents of Wacken (a small German town of 1,800 residents) as they prepare for the upcoming annual Wacken Open Air Festival – a three-day concert featuring some of the heaviest metal bands on the planet…as well as 50,000 of their most loyal followers who infiltrate Wacken to attend the show.

Critique:

Based on Full Metal Village’s subject matter of rock-meets-rural, immediate comparisons to Woodstock (both the event and documentary) come to mind. However, unlike the Woodstock doc, Full Metal Village doesn’t jump right into the organization and execution of its concert. In fact, filmmaker Sung-Hyung Cho uses the first hour of her 90-minute film to give us a feel for the town and its inhabitants even before the concert grounds are shown, the stage is constructed, and the fans arrive.

Cho interviews roughly a dozen residents of Wacken, including:

• several cattle farmers, featuring a married couple whose banter throughout the film is quite comical
• a pair of elderly women who’ve heard stories about the supposed evils of the festival
• a couple of teenage girls (and aspiring models) anticipating the festival
• a founder of the original Wacken festival who now regrets not staying with it

Wacken’s sweeping farmlands, countryside, and small-town lifestyle are all beautifully shot by cinematographer Marcus Winterbauer – from the sprawling fields of farm crops to the tracking shots of the town storefronts. He also does a commendable job of capturing the essence of the festival and the throngs of concertgoers to close out the film.

Unfortunately, all the quiet quaintness of Wacken translates into a slow movie at times. A more balanced amount of screen time between the townfolk and the festival (or maybe glimpses of what we’ll see at the festival) could have helped liven things up.

Aside from the occasional metal riffs, Full Metal Village features a quirky, simple score by Peyman Yazdanian when Cho shows us Wacken and its people – though it’s hard to say whether the score is endearing or mocking in its tone.

Despite its promised premise of the little town of Wacken being overrun by thousands of metalheads, Full Metal Village is more about the villagers than the metal – it’s essentially a series of character studies with the impending festival as the backdrop. (We don’t see the influx of concertgoers converging on Wacken until the last 20 minutes of the film.)

Ultimately, Full Metal Village is interesting, watchable, but probably not a contender for repeat viewings. Rent it in the most metal way possible.

Tidbits:

• Watch for the funny scene near the end, featuring metal fans from the festival banging their heads at a nearby concert of a German fire department’s marching band.
• There’s practically no footage of the bands that played at the festival (I suspect lack of permission from the concert organizers). If you’re interested in who performed, a complete band list is here.

German, with subtitles.

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

Full Metal Village is unrated, but I’d put it in the PG category due to some minor offenses:
* Some mild profanities in the translation
* A brief glimpse of a male concertgoer’s bare butt
* One of the teen girls plays a computer game where the goal is, as a male sheep, to fornicate with as many female sheep as possible. (To quote South Park’s Stan: “Dude, what the f**k is wrong with German people?!”)

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Even if she’s not a metal fan, she may enjoy Full Metal Village. At its essence, it’s more about the people of the town than the festival, the music, or the fervent fans.

Ich bin ein crowd-surfer!

Full Metal Village
* Director: Sung-Hyung Cho
* Screenwriter: Sung-Hyung Cho
* Stars: Uwe Trede, Lore Trede, Klaus H. Plähn, Irma Schaack, Eva Waldow
* MPAA Rating: N/A (mild profanity, brief nudity)



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Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009)

IN CASE YOU haven’t gathered from earlier reviews (Sunshine, Mongol), I’m a longtime fan of British heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Amidst the glut of glam bands in the ‘80s, Maiden were thinking-man’s metal – each of their songs told a story or delivered a message. And I completely idolized phenomenal bassist Steve Harris, who wrote many of Maiden’s best songs and played his bass as a lead instrument, giving the band a large chunk of its distinctive sound.

So it was with equal parts excitement and apprehension that I sat down to watch Iron Maiden: Flight 666…
Excitement: I was going to see a lot of what goes on with Maiden backstage and on the road (something the notoriously private band never allowed in their heyday).
Apprehension: Would they still enthrall me with their metallic, musical storytelling like they did in my youth?

Plot:
• It’s January 2008, and Iron Maiden is about to embark on the first leg of their Somewhere Back in Time tour. The goal: 21 cities, in 12 countries, on four continents…in six weeks.
• How will they accomplish this? By flying the band, crew, and gear on their own private 757 – with lead singer Bruce Dickinson, a licensed pilot, at the helm.

Critique:
• Flight 666 is essentially one continuous ride-along – lots of cameras trailing the band members from one destination to another, interspersed with concert footage from the various stops on the tour.
• Directors Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey) capture the energy and sheer scope of Maiden’s international crowds – thousands of people singing and jumping in unison to songs whose lyrics they probably don’t understand. (Concert crowds in other countries put U.S. crowds to shame in terms of unified participation.)
• While it’s true that watching a concert on TV is nowhere near the same as seeing it live, the film does a commendable job of making you feel like a crowd member at each of Maiden’s shows. The energy levels of the concerts are through the roof, and the band’s musicianship is still as tight as it was 20 years ago.
• Some of the stage sets, and the costumes worn by Dickinson, may seem a bit Spinal Tap-y to the uninitiated, but for Maiden fans it’s all as serious as a heart attack.
• Also in the Spinal Tap vein: During a golf game between shows, drummer Nicko McBrain suffers the most un-metal of injuries: a welt on his wrist from a rogue golf ball.
• Songs performed in the film: “Aces High,” 2 Minutes to Midnight,” “The Number of The Beast,” “The Trooper,” “Can I Play with Madness,” “Powerslave,” “Run to the Hills,” “Heaven Can Wait,” “Fear of the Dark,” “Iron Maiden,” “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”
• All you ‘80s metalheads, pay attention to the backstage scene at Maiden’s L.A. show. It’s a who’s who of metal, including Ronnie James Dio, Kerry King (Slayer), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Vinny Appice (Dio, Black Sabbath), and of all people, WWE superstar Chris Jericho. (HA! I just checked Jericho’s Twitter page, and one hour ago he tweeted, no kidding: “Listening to Rime of the Ancient Mariner with my three kids and everybody is rocking! No Wiggles in this house!”)

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 is an eye-opener for fans and novices alike. And 23 years later, Adrian Smith’s solo on “Wasted Years” still gives me goosebumps (3:10 mark).

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Will your kids want to watch it?

• If they’re interested in discovering new music – music that’s new to them, at least – here’s your chance to give them a Maiden education. (Also see my playlist below.)
• However, that education may need to be limited to the playlist if your kids are pre-teens. While I watched the edited version of Flight 666 on VH1, apparently there is a bit of offensive language and a handful of scenes unsuitable for young ones. See the IMDb's parents guide for details.

Will your FilmMother like it?

An appreciation of metal will probably help your FilmMother enjoy Flight 666 more, but it’s still an engrossing documentary aside from the music. If you’re a Maiden fan, maybe it’ll help give her insight as to why.

The British are singing! The British are singing!

Essential “Maiden 101” Playlist:*
“Running Free” (from Iron Maiden)**
“Wrathchild” (from Killers)**
“The Number of the Beast” (from The Number of the Beast)
“Run to the Hills” (from The Number of the Beast)
“Hallowed Be Thy Name” (from The Number of the Beast)
“Flight of Icarus” (from Piece of Mind)
“The Trooper” (from Piece of Mind)
“Aces High” (from Powerslave)
“2 Minutes to Midnight” (from Powerslave)
“Powerslave” (from Powerslave)
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (from Powerslave)
“Wasted Years” (from Somewhere in Time)
“Can I Play With Madness” (from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son)

* Yes, Maiden fans, there are many other great songs beyond this. This is just a primer for newbies.
** With original vocalist Paul Di’Anno

Iron Maiden: Flight 666
* Directors: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen
* Screenwriters: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen
* Stars: Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, Nicko McBrain
* MPAA Rating: N/A


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