Some Kind of Monster

Year: 2005 Rating: NR Overall Evaluation: 6.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 7.0 / 10 6.0 / 10 5.0 / 10 4.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

While the film is unrated it would have definitely been rated "R" for nudity and language alone. These moments are brief and do to some extent serve the purpose of the film and make it realistic (of course it is real life so that's not saying much - I mean hey, it's Metallica, what'd you expect???).

Story

This is a quasi-rockumentary about Metallica's making of their album St. Anger and the difficulties they had to go through in the process. They were followed around night and day from 2001-2003 to create this film which was going to be an Osbournes type thing on VH1 until they decided to release it in this format. As they recorded the album they fought bitterly, sought the counsel of a $40,000 a month psychoanalyst, and the lead singer (James Hetfield) took almost a year off to go through rehab for alcoholism. They also faced the replacement of bassist Jason Newstead who left for personal reasons and the difficulties he faced working with them.

Suppositions

The film is made up of day to day life so it's pretty realistic of course. Naturally not all of the 1200 hours of footage are shown so they can make it sound any way they want but I was impressed by the fact that a lot of dirt was dug up and they were not afraid to release it (even going so far as to show the Metallica spoof someone did against Lars Ulrich during his battle with the Napster thieves - and they were thieves by the way). Unfortunately there is much left wanting in the band's worldview - getting along in order to keep making music seems to be the ulitmate goal of their lives but this is never stated.

Significance

The basic thrust of the movie is demonstrating that with enough help even Metallica can open up and show their emotional sides - while continuing to kick @$$ of course! It was a weird blend to be sure. Anyone who has seen previous Metallica videos will see a huge change in focus. Rather than the up-and-coming metal gods in the early tribute footage of Cliff Em All, or the partying megastars of Year & a Half, here we are given insight into personal struggles and how they were dealt with. On the positive side, Hetfield comes out of his rehab a new man - which is actually a big part of the band's problems in the latter half of the movie. It is a good message but rather vague, and it is clear that what is being done is for the glory of Metallica and not for eternity.