METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER
***
Director: Nimród Antal
Screenwriters:
Nimród Antal
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Principal cast:
Dane DeHaan
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Kyle Thomson
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 93 mins.
Australian release date: 10 October 2013
Metallica: Through the Never features those godfathers of heavy metal, Metallica, still delivering the goods three decades and over 110 million album sales after their formation. But this is no ordinary concert film because their high-tech stage show is intercut with the weird adventures of a roadie called Trip (Dane DeHaan). Trip is sent on a mission by the head roadie to get something vital from a truck that has broken down across town and bring it back to the band before the concert is over. The object turns out to be a MacGuffin and it takes the drama into a very weird space.
The director, Nimród Antal, together with the cinematographer, Gyula Pados (who also worked on the same films with Antal), and the designer Mark Fisher (who created the exclusive mind-blowing set for the film – and, incidentally, was awarded an OBE in 2002), have managed to bring this at times muddled, but intriguing visual delight, to life. It will be embraced by not only heavy metal fans but also special effects aficionados. Fisher worked on some of the best rock ‘n’ roll sets ever for bands like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, and even the Queen’s Jubilee Party at Buckingham Palace. On this occasion, he goes a step further in setting up a huge LCD stage in Roger’s Arena in Vancouver, where the band performs in the centre of their audience while flanked by huge coffins and crosses and electric chairs. The stage doubles as a massive screen manipulated by lasers, projection LED’s, pneumatic hydraulics, trap doors and pyrotechnics. All in 3D!
In the meantime, Trip heads off and, before long, he is being confronted by marauding gangs of zombies and one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while wandering the streets after his van is hit by a car at a set of traffic lights. The fact that he popped a pill before setting out makes you wonder if perhaps it is all going on in his head (Trip - Geddit?), especially when Metallica break into their fabulous rendition of Nothing Really Matters and from then on, everything seems to explode… As Bob Dylan once sang “Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?” And neither do we but it doesn’t really matter either.
When interviewed about the film, Antal said he drew some of his ideas from Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist, where the circular narrative appealed to him and he was able to link Metallica’s lyrics to the narrative of the film. Well, you’ll just have to go and check this out for yourself for this ain’t only rock ‘n’ roll, this is heavy metal, where violent and fantastic imagery reigns and the latter makes it worth the trip to the cinema. Oddly enough, though, the best bit is the band jamming through the end credits, after all the pyrotechnics have been exhausted. Brilliant!
Screenwriters:
Nimród Antal
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Principal cast:
Dane DeHaan
James Hetfield
Lars Ulrich
Kirk Hammett
Robert Trujillo
Kyle Thomson
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 93 mins.
Australian release date: 10 October 2013
Metallica: Through the Never features those godfathers of heavy metal, Metallica, still delivering the goods three decades and over 110 million album sales after their formation. But this is no ordinary concert film because their high-tech stage show is intercut with the weird adventures of a roadie called Trip (Dane DeHaan). Trip is sent on a mission by the head roadie to get something vital from a truck that has broken down across town and bring it back to the band before the concert is over. The object turns out to be a MacGuffin and it takes the drama into a very weird space.
The director, Nimród Antal, together with the cinematographer, Gyula Pados (who also worked on the same films with Antal), and the designer Mark Fisher (who created the exclusive mind-blowing set for the film – and, incidentally, was awarded an OBE in 2002), have managed to bring this at times muddled, but intriguing visual delight, to life. It will be embraced by not only heavy metal fans but also special effects aficionados. Fisher worked on some of the best rock ‘n’ roll sets ever for bands like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, and even the Queen’s Jubilee Party at Buckingham Palace. On this occasion, he goes a step further in setting up a huge LCD stage in Roger’s Arena in Vancouver, where the band performs in the centre of their audience while flanked by huge coffins and crosses and electric chairs. The stage doubles as a massive screen manipulated by lasers, projection LED’s, pneumatic hydraulics, trap doors and pyrotechnics. All in 3D!
In the meantime, Trip heads off and, before long, he is being confronted by marauding gangs of zombies and one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while wandering the streets after his van is hit by a car at a set of traffic lights. The fact that he popped a pill before setting out makes you wonder if perhaps it is all going on in his head (Trip - Geddit?), especially when Metallica break into their fabulous rendition of Nothing Really Matters and from then on, everything seems to explode… As Bob Dylan once sang “Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?” And neither do we but it doesn’t really matter either.
When interviewed about the film, Antal said he drew some of his ideas from Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist, where the circular narrative appealed to him and he was able to link Metallica’s lyrics to the narrative of the film. Well, you’ll just have to go and check this out for yourself for this ain’t only rock ‘n’ roll, this is heavy metal, where violent and fantastic imagery reigns and the latter makes it worth the trip to the cinema. Oddly enough, though, the best bit is the band jamming through the end credits, after all the pyrotechnics have been exhausted. Brilliant!