Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005)

   About ten years ago we used to watch a lot of VH1 Classic in our apartment. I worked for the cable company back then, so we had all those digital channels. What reeled us in to the network was their retro programming that included music videos, concerts and on the weekends they would play music documentaries. One of the gems from this period was 2005's Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. A while back I picked up the 2-Disc DVD edition that featured bonus interviews and the like. I was happy to have the chance to finally re-watch this great documentary.

   What makes this movie stand out is that the host/interviewer, Sam Dunn, is not only a lifelong metalhead, but also a trained anthropologist who had just finished his Masters Degree. This adds an extra level to his research and the ability to analyze each of the separate movements from a sociological perspective.  What's great about this is an ability to look at the environments the musicians came from as well as show how their music affects their audience. There is quite a bit of discussion of why we choose to listen to heavy music and identify with the subculture. This level of study legitimized his work while he takes time from the beginning to prove his fan status as well, which is just as important. 

   The centerpiece of the film is a diagram that Dunn uses to establish subgenres starting from classic rock to Norwegian Death Metal. This grid helps to categorize key bands and see what led to them and what they eventually caused. Pretty cool work in my opinion. 

   What I really loved was seeing our fearless filmmakers interview some of metal's biggest icons. You feel like we all got together and picked the smartest fan and decided he should be our spokesperson. Watching him talk to Dio, Toni Iommi and Alice Cooper, just to name a few, you can just imagine how amazing it must have felt to sit down with these true legends. 

   The fact that the documentary is an oral history by the right people (because of how serious and important they treat the subject) makes me happy that this film exists. Knowing how many of the musicians interviewed aren't with us anymore makes me proud of them for making this film at the right time and so well. It does a great job of justifying what most of us already know, which is that heavy metal is more than a fad or musical trend that will disappear when it is no longer popular. Like horror films, metal may wax and wane in the public eye, but the die hard fans are forever.

   I highly recommend the bonus footage and interviews on the special edition. The highlight is an extended version of the section dealing with Norwegian Death Metal and the rash of church burnings that surrounded its origins. Considering this is a branch of metal music that I have only a little knowledge of since I have no interest in it musically, I learned quite a bit from this more in depth look.

   In the end I would highly recommend Metal: A Headbanger's Journey to all fans of music in general, but especially metal. You might even learn something while you bang your head along to the soundtrack. 

imdb listing for Metal

Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

   If you are anything like me, you collect things. I know I started collecting books when I was pretty young (probably thanks to the Scholastic catalog at school). As I got older it became records and tapes. Then I found comic books and eventually I started collecting movies. Of course my original format was VHS tapes. Now if you collect movies like I do, you probably upgraded at some point for Laserdisc, then DVD and maybe even Blu-ray. That is not true for the guys in this movie. And once you find out how much room, time and money they invest into their collections, you may even feel better about your own collecting.

    Adjust Your Tracking (2013 by Dan M. Kinem and Levi Peretic) is a documentary that further investigates the recent trend in VHS collecting. Yes, it really is a thing that people do. While partially based on the nostalgia driven hording of movies that remind of our youths spent at the local Mom & Pop video store, there are some further motivations for this hobby. While there were literally millions (maybe billions or more) titles available on video tape, not all of those movies made the transfer to digital mediums. Most notably, the world of "direct to video" and extremely low budget horror films suffered a massive loss, especially the ultra low budget "shot on video" movies that came out during the video store boom. Some also collect VHS so that they can revel in the cover art and large packaging of the movies. The bigger the better in a world of slipcovers, clam shells and big box (or what we used to call porn box) variations.

   I found myself mesmerized as these collectors discussed video tapes as if they were fine wines as they made sure they found the right editions to add to their collections. Showing off the rooms devoted to their tapes and sharing war stories from browsing through garage sales, flea markets and closing stores, the viewer can't help but relate to their own collecting, no matter what it is you collect.

   The real kicker is the discussions about what came to be considered the rare gems, those crown jewels in the collections of the true aficionados. It is unreal to hear first hand accounts of eBay sales that went up to $700 by the sellers, the buyers and the other bidders. This is truly one of the most bizarre success story of the ages. For those gamers out there, hearing these guys talk about their quest for Tale of the Quadead Zone just made me remember the eBay debacle years ago back when Nintendo's Stadium Events went for thousands of dollars.

   All in all, the story of these collectors, which includes a few filmmakers from that era, is like any other fan-base around an extinct medium. Records and 8-bit video games also give us those warm and fuzzy memories of the first times we encountered the things that became precious to us. They may be outdated, but these tapes can help us to remember simpler times...before Amazon and Netflix. Back in the day when you had to get of your couch to drive down to the store to see if they had the movie you wanted or, heaven forbid, you may have to travel to a different store, even further away if your store didn't carry it. Then you may have even have been out of luck if someone rented it before you got there. These were tough times, people!

   As someone who worked for years at a local video store, I particularly appreciated the portion of the documentary when they asked people for their opinions of Blockbuster Video. They were the big monster that was slowly eating up all of the little guys that made up their competition, only to be devastated a decade later by mail order and now the streaming services of today. But nothing compares to the shared hatred of the interviewed than the topic of Red Box, those heartless vending machines in grocery stores and outside of 7-11. In an age where this small group of die hard collectors are trying to keep hope alive that one day video stores will make a comeback, Red Box even more than Netflix, seems to embody everything they feel is wrong with society today. I get it. I miss the days when I could walk into a store and browse the boxes till I found something that sounded entertaining and then talk to a clerk for a few minutes about movies. As much as I would love for that to happen again, I know it is a part of the past.

   If you find this documentary as fascinating as I did, I recommend the Two-Disc Edition. Disc two has a few short docs on the fall of the video store as well as a piece where the crew gets sidetracked and tries to find the famous spot of the Bigfoot sighting which has a statue commemorating the event. There are also extended cuts of each interview that include even more horror stories and antidotes from the wild and crazy world of VHS collecting.

  I really enjoyed this movie and would highly recommend it to horror fans and collectors of all kinds. If you frequent comic cons or horror and scifi events looking for that piece de resistance for your own collection, you will appreciate this film too.

imdb listing for Adjust Your Tracking