It Might Get Loud premiered in 2008 in the Toronto Film Festival and subsequently it made its way to the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival in 2009. The film has received positive reviews for the most part. The film is a fine tribute to rock’s most loved instrument, the electric guitar.

Music has always been one of the favorite past times, whether you sit at home and listen to some albums or on your way home from work. Music is what makes the time go by. For some music is their life. Music is a way to express their mind and speak for them. Music is used to make a statement. Whenever you think you have heard everything someone else comes up with a new rhythm, new tunes, new lyrics, etc. that will either change the way you think. Over the decades we have also witness the evolution of rock, the change in the way one artist to the next will play the guitar. It Might Get Loud captures the style, the influences, the stories behind three great musicians that live to play the guitar. These three musicians have left their names in rock history, more some than others, and will always be remembered.

It Might Get Loud brings together Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jack White (The White Stripes), and The Edge (U2) for a sit down conversation and idea exchange. It’s probably a bad idea to summarize the film in a single paragraph without giving a proper examination to each individual participating in the film. We can begin with Jack White who recalls his childhood in Detroit where it was ‘uncool’ to play instruments. According to Jack it was while working as an upholsterer that he finds his niche. His main interest in blues and roots music has been his inspiration behind his music; his insistence in challenging himself has helped him find way to creatively play the guitar. Throughout the film there’s various clips of his past performances as well as his innovative guitars.

By now it’s very difficult to find someone who doesn’t know who Edge is, the guitarist of one the most popular rock bands to ever set foot in the stage, shares his thoughts, talks about his style of playing, and much more. Edge goes into detail about how he eliminates certain chords while playing guitar. He also points out the reasoning behind using delay and echo effects to “fill in notes that aren’t there”. He recalls his childhood and forming U2 while attending Mount Temple Comprehensive School. The film shows how Edge spends his time experimenting with guitar effects for the riffs on “Get on Your Boots”. Lastly Edge discusses how he got the inspiration for “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.

The third musician appearing on this film is non-other than Jimmy Page. Name doesn’t ring the bell? Really? Well let’s just say that there’s one golden rule of rock YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PLAY STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN! Jimmy Page’s guitar solo in “Stairway to Heaven” is unforgettable and in various clips he explains his technique and style used to achieve the solo. Jimmy Page describes how the skiffle and blues music influenced his guitar playing. He recalls that at some point he felt that he was playing someone else’s music and began writing and playing for bands like The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.

It Might Get Loud is not only aimed at rock fans or guitar fans only, it’s a fine documentary that takes the viewer into the lives of the man behind the instrument. The interviews are so in depth and incredibly engaging, it truly shows the human side of these three musicians. It is very enjoyable to get a chance to see how something affects the life of someone, in this case music, and how their lives have changed thanks to it. The documentary does not have a narrator as is mainly told by the main participant’s of this film, which allows them to freely express and tell the viewers some of their anecdotes.

The culminating portion of this film is when the three musicians finally make their way into jamming session. They play a couple of songs together while sharing tips, talking about their techniques, and styles. All in all the film captures the passion that each of these individuals have for their profession. This documentary achieves what it sets out to do, simply show the human side of these true artists.

It Might Get Loud arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The portions of the film in which White, Edge and Page are featured together are perhaps the most detailed. There’s a very clean image, colors have a natural tone and when called for some are very vibrant, the black colors are deep and inky. There are several old footage included in the film as part as the as the recalling of each musician’s early beginnings. In no way can this be used to cause the rating to go lower as is understandable that the footage is quite old. Although is worth to mention that many of those scenes contain many problems including; banding, jagged edges, oversaturation, etc. One last thing the film does expose some heavy grain throughout the film. Overall the film has a solid video quality certainly one of the best documentaries around.

It Might Get Loud with an impressive 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless audio track. While it is not the loudest audio track it does deliver every strum and guitar riff with such clarity and immersion. Several concert footage brings immersion to the viewer and is one of the things this audio track excels at. Other than the previously noted, there isn’t really much more to comment on. The track is solid and achieves an impressive music reproduction.

The extras found on this release are not many, but the few that are included are entertaining as well as insightful. I feel that there’s enough content to keep you entertained once the film is over. Check below to see what’s included in this release.

Audio Commentary – This commentary features Director Davis Guggenheim, Producer Lesley Chilcott, and Producer Thomas Tull. The trio share stories from the film, provide some more information about the musicians involved in the film, and provide an interesting conversation.

Deleted Scenes – There’s a total of 11 deleted scenes.

Toronto Film Festival Press Conference – This features the production team and the musicians in a question and answer session.

Theatrical Trailer

Previews – Featuring: Blu-ray Disc is High Definition!, Soul Power, An Education, Persepolis, Every Little Step, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, and Michael Jackson’s: This Is It.

movieIQ – This features the track list of the film, the user can select song and they will receive an email containing the tracks selected.

BD-Live – Access many more trailers and downloads

It Might Get Loud is an excellent documentary set to take the viewer through the life of three excellent musicians. The film captures the passion each possesses for their instruments and gives us an insight behind their inspiration. The music played in the film will touch your soul, it simply sounds that good. This film should make its way into everyone’s collection and it comes highly recommended.