METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER - DVD review

Before anyone asks, I must first make it clear that "Some Kind of Monster" is not, I repeat, not a Metallica concert film. It is, however, a surprisingly candid and enlightening documentary that gives us mere mortals a rare and unprecedented access to what goes on behind the scenes, as heavy metal's biggest and most successful band struggle--both creatively and personally--to record their latest album, aptly titled "St. Anger". Directed and produced by the duo of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, "Some Kind of Monster" was filmed over a period of two years and was initially meant to be a by-the-books rockumentary that would follow and film the band as they prepare to record their latest album. However, the ensuing series of explosive events that nearly ended with Metallica disbanding caught everyone by surprise and was certainly unplanned by either the band or the filmmakers. Thank goodness for life's uncertainties because without it, "Some Kind of Monster" would have been just another unoriginal reel of film that only scratches the surface without ever exploring other interpersonal complexities of the very three people who ultimately make up the band.

Even if you are not a follower of heavy metal music, the name Metallica will probably be familiar to many of you. The original masters of speed-metal or thrash-metal, Metallica started out, like many other bands, with an ad placed by drummer Lars Ulrich in 1981 on a local SoCal paper looking for musicians. Soon after, Ulrich was joined by singer/guitarist James Hetfield, Ulrich's friend Ron McGovney on bass and Dave Mustaine on lead guitar. As their reputation among the heavy metal community expanded both in the U.S. and Europe, Metallica's demo tape, titled "No Life ‘Til Leather" got picked up and the band was signed to a record deal by Megaforce, which led to their debut album, "Kill ‘Em All". At this point, the band's lineup changed--with Cliff Burton from the band Trauma replacing McGovney at bass and the ousting of Mustaine (who later founded rival band Megadeth), who was replaced by Kirk Hammett from Exodus.

In support of the band's third album, "Master of Puppets", Metallica went on tour, opening for Ozzy Osbourne. It was during the Scandinavian leg of that tour when tragedy struck in September 1986. The bus that the band was riding in skidded out of control and crashed, killing bassist Cliff Burton. Subsequently, the band auditioned many bassists to replace Burton and settled on Jason Newstead from the Arizona band Flotsam and Jetsam. For more than a decade after that, the foursome of Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Newstead brought Metallica to new heights with many milestones like the self-titled Black album, Load, Reload and culminating in their unique collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony orchestra for a blowout 2-night concert date. In early 2001, rumors that were floating around the music industry and among fans finally came true when Jason Newstead announced his departure from Metallica.

And this is the point in the band's history where the cameras start rolling for what will become the documentary you see here. It is 2001 and everything seems hunky-dory at first, with Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett getting back together in full spirit and setting up shop at the abandoned army barracks in San Francisco called the Presidio to work on their next album. The long days at the studio drag on and soon, the guys find themselves disagreeing among themselves at every turn. With the loss of Newstead still striking a nerve and Ulrich's ill-conceived crusade to go after Napster causing a fan backlash, Metallica finds itself on the verge of implosion. So, what is a monster heavy metal band that prides itself on a ferocious image for drenching their songs with raw and unbridled emotions, to do? It may seem poetic but after years of exuding an image of total anger at the establishment and fighting the norm, Metallica find itself in a most unlikely situation. Just like about every other American nowadays, Metallica finally have to seek therapy!

All right, I'll take a step back for a minute and let you readers take a collective deep breath. Is this a joke? Metallica in therapy? Hey, I kid you not. You know, if it is OK for Tony Soprano, then it should be A-OK for the rock gods, right? I guess what's good for the mobster is certainly good for the rocker. So, enter Phil Towle, psychiatrist extraordinaire and shrink to the rich and famous, whose specialty is counseling sports teams. Metallica, although not a sports team, is in dire need of help to settle their many differences and to find ways to smooth out the working relationships among themselves so that they can get back to the business of making music. Moreover, at $40,000 a month, Dr. Towle better be worth it!

As the bickering in the studio continues to grow nastier, we find the band in the unusual position of taking part in therapy sessions with Towle and the band's record producer Bob Rock, who is also the acting bassist. It is certainly sobering for fans of Metallica to see their idols pouring their heart out as they try to work out their creative differences. If you look at when the band first started in the early 80's and compare them to their lives now, it is like night and day. Back then, they were young rebels going up against the establishment with their angry music that inspired legions of their fans. More than twenty years later, these guys are now married and have become fathers, an important fact that is sometimes lost on the fans, who still regard the guys in Metallica as demigods. With age, comes more responsibilities and of course the immense pressure to maintain the band's dominance in the metal scene keeps mounting with each subsequent album that they release. "Some Kind of Monster" smashes the illusion that our idols are invincible and can do no wrong. They are, after all--gasp!--just human.

Like in any social group, there are the dominant characters and also the submissive ones. In Metallica, it is very clear that Hetfield and to a certain extent, Ulrich, are the dominant players while Hammett mostly just goes along for the ride, contributing only whenever the other two lets him. As a result, Hetfield and Ulrich often butt heads when they each don't get their own way. After more than twenty years together, the constant bickering between Hetfield and Ulrich seems more and more like an old couple's spat, brought on primarily by their own insecurities and their familiarity with knowing which are the right buttons to press in order to get the other guy going. For example, in one scene when Ulrich calls Hetfield's guitar playing "stock", you just know he is purposely stirring a hornet's nest with his bare hands looking for trouble. Most of the arguing do not go anywhere but just adds to the misery of the recording sessions.

Hetfield, the de facto frontman of the group, has a take-charge attitude that is coupled with an almost mule-like stubbornness and is argumentative to the point of just arguing for the sake of winning. As revealed by both Ulrich and Hammett in one of their sessions, Hetfield's total inability to let his other bandmates contribute to the creative process of, for example, writing song lyrics (a task which Hetfield guards with jealousy), takes a huge toll on lowering the integrity of the other members of the band. A solution was devised where all the guys gather around and are given a chance to come up with their own lyrics. This, however, led to more problems because everyone, especially Hetfield, whose reputation as the band's lyricist is on the line, now feels the added pressure of coming up with the best lyrics. Oh well, back to the drawing board!

The band's problems are further exacerbated and things finally come to a head when Hetfield storms out after an argument with Ulrich and doesn't return for nine whole months. Apparently, Hetfield checked himself into rehab in an unknown location and excommunicated himself from the rest of the guys throughout that entire time, presumably to get away from Ulrich. At this point, the future of Metallica is very much in doubt and in complete jeopardy. It is also at this juncture that the audience realizes that this is no longer an ordinary rockumentary but has morphed into an engaging documentary that is part reality TV and part psychodrama of the highest order.

"Some Kind of Monster" runs for a whopping 140 minutes, just way too long to be able to keep my attention the entire time. Most of the scenes are relevant to tell the story of the band in crisis but some, especially the ones with Ulrich's father, Torben are quite unnecessary and do not add anything to the ongoing narrative. There are also many instances of unintended humor throughout the film but one that really stands out to me is when the guys, towards the end of the film, finally break it to Towle that his services are no longer needed. You can immediately see Towle's facial expression change as he tries to regain his composure. However, the more Towle tries to cover his disappointment, the more he comes across as a guy that has just been asked to leave the band, even if he is not in the band! I don't know, maybe Towle is in need of some of his own therapy! Also of great interest are the band's recording sessions and Ulrich's revealing visit with Dave Mustaine (whom the guys pushed out before the band made it big) to hash out their previously unaired differences.

It is fair to mention that the filmmakers had two years worth of material (with about 1,600 hours of footage) to edit and the final version we see here, on some narcissistic level, does do justice to one of the planet's biggest metal bands that, for many of its fans, is so very much larger than life. The genius of the band partly lies in its own dysfunction. How can one write songs and sing about anger when that very raw emotion is absent from one's life? You know, maybe Metallica did not need therapy after all. If that is the case, then this film is a sham. Functioning in a dynamic environment that tests the limits to their own authority and challenges them artistically probably help them write better songs. After all, they are still Metallica, the biggest heavy metal band in the world.

What else can they possibly be?

Video:
"Some Kind of Monster" is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 or 4:3, filling up the entire screen of a regular television set. According to IMDB, the original aspect ratio for this documentary film is 1.85:1, which is the ratio for its theatrical release. From what I understand, this film was originally shot in fullscreen (1.33:1) and then later, windowboxed into 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. Maybe someone who has seen it during its theatrical run can confirm this for me. The video images are crisply shot on a 35mm film format (not in DV, like many indie documentaries nowadays) and the transfer remains clean with only a little grain present and no dirt or scratches. The colors look natural without any signs of bleed. Subtitle options on this DVD include English and Spanish.

Audio:
Two English language audio options are included on this DVD and they are in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0. As usual, the 5.1 discrete channel option is the way to go with this documentary over the 2-channel option. The dialogue is very clear without any distortion and the music powers its way through brilliantly.

Extras:
"Some Kind of Monster" comes in a 2-disc set. The first disc contains the film itself and also two audio commentaries. The first commentary is by Metallica (Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett), who recorded it on the road during the band's 2004 "Madly In Anger With the World" tour. The other commentary is by the two filmmakers, Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger. Now, before any Metallica fan starts whooping for joy about a commentary track by the band, I have to say that it is not a track that would hold your attention for very long. Instead of any new insights about a particular scene, all three guys only offer fleeting comments that are too few in between and throw in some jokes just to fill up the time. One would be better served to listen to the next commentary track done by Sinofsky and Berlinger. It is a total opposite of the Metallica one where both filmmakers offer enormous amounts of information about the filming and what happened during a particular scene and also why a scene was left in the film and why some others were taken out. Overall, a very informative and interesting commentary.

The rest of the bonus material can be found on the second disc. First, there are two features that offer deleted scenes. In "Additional Scenes", you can peruse through a massive total of 28 deleted scenes (five of them come with optional commentary from Sinofsky and Berlinger). Now, these guys have a lot of material to begin with and editing it down to just over two hours must have been a monumental achievement. The deleted scenes here are very interesting and shed new light into the inner workings of the band. In fact the footages here are so fascinating that they could be cut into a whole new film of outtakes. The other feature that offers more deleted scenes is called "This Monster Lives", which offers 13 more such scenes, with five of them coming with the optional filmmakers' commentary. Now you would ask, why are the deleted scenes broken up into two sections? Well, the answer is simple--marketing. You see, Joe Berlinger wrote a companion book to go along with this film called "Metallica: This Monster Lives" and additional insights into these 13 scenes can be found, where else but in the book.

Next is "Festivals and Premieres", a look at the band at several premieres of the film and also interviews with the press. It is divided into five sections: "Sundance Q&A", "Sundance Press Conference", "San Francisco International Film Festival", "New York Premiere" and "Metallica Club Screening".

Also included is a music video of the band playing "Some Kind of Monster", a single from the album "St. Anger". Finally, we have "Filmmaker Bios" for both Sinofsky and Berlinger.

Packaging:
"Some Kind of Monster" is packaged in a double-disc keepcase with a glossy hard cardboard slipcover. This release does not come with an insert.

Film Value:
It is not everyday that fans get to see their once-invincible idols fall from grace and become human, if only for two hours and twenty minutes. "Some Kind of Monster" is an eye-opening documentary that goes deep into the psyche of a very successful heavy metal band as they try to cope with fame and all the pressures that come with the territory. At the very least, this documentary will serve its true purpose--as a kind of therapy for the rest of us mere mortals, saying, "Hey, things are really not that bad."

Just some food for thought.