Metallica – Some Kind
Of Monster (Documentary)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: B Documentary: B
With so much of Metallica’s DVD showings linked to The
Black Album, including our look at its Classic Albums making of
elsewhere on this site, what could Some Kind Of Monster (2004) possibly
offer? Well, you can think of it as a
sort of Classic Albums in reverse.
Issued in 2004, Paramount of all people have issued this DVD double set
about how the band almost fell apart for good as 20 years of stress and a
lifetime of suppression. Everyone was
having problems, had not made a group album in years and to say all of them
were going through adjustment disorders is an understatement.
Even Dave Mustaine, who created the band Megadeath after
his legendary dropping form the band back in 1982, lands up in therapy talking
about how much that still bothers him despite a string of hit albums with that
band. This is probably because he would
have still liked to stay in the band, but unless he cloned himself, it would
have been impossible to have both bands.
It is one of the most interesting moments here, something directors Joe
Berlinger (see Homicide: Life On the Street elsewhere on this site) and
Bruce Sinofsky luck out in capturing over and over again.
The use of MTV News blurbs is interesting as the story
progresses in a linear fashion, actually showing how bad some of those MTV
pieces really are. The sarcasm and
pseudo-wit is the reason why MTV is not as hip as it used to be and Kurt Loder
can be thanked for the hatemongering there.
It is that attitude that shares the same square root with the band’s
famous battle with the original Napster Internet music downloading service when
it was free. They found out how many
phony fans and friends they really had when they stood up for the integrity of
the ownership of their work and catalog.
MTV, owned by Viacom, one of the few big media outlets that does own a
record company, did not help the situation.
Add all this to their personal problems and it is amazing
they survived at all. This even
extended to overly-powerful radio narrowcasters essentially wanting them to do
some contest promos, then being told they would be essentially blacklisted and
ignored for life if they did not to this “little thing” for the company. All of this is not only valuable to see how
a big band like Metallica survives some of the most unfortunate changes in the
history of the music business, but how other unnecessarily rotten things have
surfaced all at once for reasons too numerous and even unrelated to go into
here. Finally, they did produce the
album St. Anger. Released in
2003, it became a critical and commercial success that proved they were still a
great band. The great bands always
manage to reform their chemistry if they really pull together. You can witness this transformation here,
even when they need a new bassist.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image was shot recently and looks
good, with most of the show being talking heads, so 16 X 9 is not as crucial
here. The Dolby Digital is here in 5.1
and 2.0 Stereo, but it is about the same, except that the music moments benefit
better from the 5.1 mix. Too bad those
were not in DTS, even in a supplement of some kind. Extras include 40 Scenes not in the main program, exclusive interviews
with Metallica about the look at how the album finally came together,
highlights from festivals and premieres, and even a music video on DVD 2. Two trailers and two commentaries by the
director and band are on DVD 1. The
only other irony is that MTV saluted the band with an installment of their Icon
series. Remarkable, after all that
negative press they got.
- Nicholas Sheffo
