[Dogstar]

Ok, I got to see it tonight in Philly courtesy of njcreedite, who won passes! Anyway, as Lith said, a very good film about relationships and surviving...here's a li'l recap:

These guys had serious b*lls to put it all out there the way they did. Very intense film. They basically let the cameras follow them through the making of St. Anger and the therapy sessions they had with this performance therapist (he counsels sports teams as well). It's basically two years of time, which includes James Hetfield's rehab for alcoholism. They seemed pretty honest about stuff. It was really interesting to see the dynamics of a band, the egos, the coming to agreements, a few very testy moments, tender moments and all. You really see where the roles are divided.

One of the most interesting parts for me was watching the music come together, and all the technical stuff involved and how unbelievably time-consuming it can be. They followed a couple of St. Anger tunes from start to finish, from just playing riffs and recording that to how they all sat around trying to come up with lyrics. I found that all very fascinating. It was quite a little window into the creative process. It was amazing how much influence their producer, Bob Rock(?) had in the creative process. The songs at the start did not sound like the songs at the finish. Just a really cool look at all of that.

The movie also touched on Lars' fight with Napster and the whole who-will-be-the-new-bassist situation. I didn't realize how many guys auditioned for that, among them Jeordie White (Twiggy Ramirez) from APC and Marilyn Manson. It was really cool to watch parts of their auditions. Here's something that was wild. When they picked Robert Trujillo, they told him there were giving him $1 million up front as incentive to kick ass...A million fricken dollars?!!!??? They must be seriously rolling in dough. Also, they were paying their therapist 40 grand a month to help them straighten out.

Another thing I noted was how friggin funny these guys are. Lars and James have great senses of humor and it was clear that Kirk was the peacemaker of the group. There were some very funny comments from them all. They also interviewed Dave Mustaine, who seemed really bitter that he never got a second chance at straightening himself out before he got booted from the band. It was really sad listening to him. He was still pretty angry with Lars and James (at this point, James was in rehab, so there was no confrontation with him and Dave and Dave made it clear he was not happy about not talking to James). I mean, he's done pretty well with Megadeth, but he basically said it sucked being No. 2 in the metal category. Jason Newstead also was in the movie, talking very frankly about why he left. He didn't go into details, but it was pretty clear to what he was referring.

There were a couple of cornball moments, but all in all, this was a really cool flick. I will be buying the DVD when it comes out...