A Coke bottle. A Les Paul. A wall of delay pedals.
Jack White, Jimmy Page and The Edge get in the same room to plug in for “It Might Get Loud”.
Thx to Daniel Seriff for moving this up in my queue.
Trailer for “It Might Get Loud”
Watch “It Might Get Loud”
You can watch “It Might Get Loud” by renting it on Amazon, Apple, YouTube et al. ($3.99 last I checked).
You can find the latest streaming options at https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/it-might-get-loud
Ratings:
- My Rating: 88/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 85/100 (Users); 79/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Davis Guggenheim directed this 98-minute doc. He’s known for “An Inconvenient Truth” (which I rank 92/100); “Waiting for Superman,” “He Named Me Malala,” “From the Sky Down,” and “The Dream Is Alive.”
Release Date: “It Might Get Loud” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2008, and was released in limited theaters on August 14, 2009.
My Review of “It Might Get Loud”
The Setup
What happens when you put three guitar legends—Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes)—in a room together with nothing but their instruments and stories? This doc isn’t just a guitar lesson; it’s a love letter to the electric guitar, framed by the lives of three men who changed the sound of modern rock.
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- Jack White builds a slide guitar from a plank of wood, a Coke bottle, and a single string—and plays it like he’s summoning demons.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Jimmy Page air-guitars to Link Wray’s “Rumble,” transforming from rock god to giddy fanboy in seconds.
- The Edge reveals that many of U2’s iconic guitar sounds come from a galaxy of effects pedals—he keeps dozens in rotation, not from his playing technique.
- Each guitarist gives a tour of their roots: Jack White revisits his Detroit childhood home and his old upholstery shop.
- Jimmy Page takes the cameras through Headley Grange, the house where Led Zeppelin recorded parts of their fourth album, including “Stairway to Heaven.”
- The Edge returns to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin where U2 formed after responding to a notice on a bulletin board posted by Larry Mullen Jr.
- There’s a moment where Page pulls out the “Whole Lotta Love” riff and you can see both White and The Edge visibly geek out.
- Guggenheim cleverly jumps between decades of archival concert footage and intimate solo jam sessions.
Cameos
This one’s light on celebrity interviews—Guggenheim wisely lets the trio be the stars. But vintage footage features glimpses of Robert Plant, Bono, and Meg White in action.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Jack White reveals he deliberately uses difficult-to-play guitars and sets his amp far away so he has to run to adjust it mid-song, making things harder on himself.
- The Edge’s nickname came from his sharp features and even sharper mind, but he also once used a screwdriver to create percussive effects on his strings.
- Jimmy Page started out as a session musician at age 15—he played on recordings by The Who, The Kinks, and even Shirley Bassey before joining Led Zeppelin.
- The Edge keeps detailed journals of every guitar effect combination he’s ever created, cataloging them with precise technical notes.
- Jack White confesses that as a teen in Detroit, he refused to play electric guitar because he thought it wasn’t authentic enough—until he discovered Flatted Fifth blues.
Wrap Up
“It Might Get Loud” is less about showing off and more about showing why these men fell in love with their guitars. If you care even a little about music, this doc will get your fingers twitching.
Retry
3.7 Sonnet
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc