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When I was about fifteen years old, I found out about this list and immediately resolved to see every single film on it. This is no easy task, considering the obstacles in my path. Whether it was a genuine lack of interest (I never got around to finishing Grey Gardens) or, more commonly, that a fairly good number of those films are near impossible to find and watch, I had picked a tough task to complete. But one day I'll finish it - and after seeing Penelope Spheeris's heavy metal rockumentary (the 48th film on the list), I'm now one step closer to that goal. And after four years of waiting to see this bombastic slice of metal life, I was not disappointed.
Like the previous entry in the Decline... series, The Metal Years focuses on a particularly interesting rock music scene busting out onto the streets on L.A. While the original focused on the underground punk rock scene of the late 1970s, The Metal Years obviously focuses on - you guessed it - metal. To be more specific, the subgenre of metal known as either "glam" or "hair" metal, depending on how judgmental you want to be. To this end, Spheeris interviews a wide range of people involved in the scene, however loosely they are actually related to what's going on. They range from the famous (luminaries of heavy metal music such as Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper) to the up-and-coming (a handful of glam bands trying to make a name for themselves on the Sunset Strip) to the nobodies (a veritable army of random fans of the metal scene). Much of the film consists of interviews regarding various subjects that surround the metal subculture - sex, drugs, appearances, the whole gamut really. Spheeris also focuses on the hopeful band members as they talk of how they're going to "make it" in the music world.
The interesting thing about this documentary is just how much of it comes across as very broad comedy. Granted, such exaggeration is to be expected from a musical sub-culture that encourages style over substance, but the subjects of The Metal Years take it to an all-new "high". It's hard not to draw comparisons to This Is Spinal Tap, but that was an intentionally funny and, while you knew it had its root in some truth, you still kind of knew it was fake. Most of the bands in The Metal Years manage to match Spinal Tap in virtually every regard, and the thing that makes it especially golden is that it's all real. The music doesn't even sound that good, even compared to other glam metal stalwarts such as Guns N' Roses or Motley Crue.
The true standout of these wannabe bands is Odin, a band where the lead singer wears pants with the seat cut out and insists that if Odin never makes it big, he'll have no option but to kill himself. Such starkly ridiculous scenes can only really be seen as blackly comic, yet also carry a sense of pathos. After all, with the benefit of hindsight you can see that Odin never made it big, so you have to wonder about it (and the other bands). The same goes for many of the random fans that also get roped in for interviews - several seem utterly incapable of realising that their dreams of being rich and famous (for being a musician or otherwise) might not work out and they'll never reach their lofty goals. Plenty of them lack anything else in their lives but the simple pleasures presented by glam - again, whether this is something to laugh at or pity is never quite clear.
The bigger names in the film are also never quite portrayed as perfect either. Ozzy complains about being ripped off by managers while being unable to pour orange juice, Steven Tyler talks about wasting lots of his money on drug abuse...but all of them pale in comparison to the film's most notorious scene, where Chris Holmes (of W.A.S.P. infamy) drunkenly pours vodka all over himself in a swimming pool while his own mother watches. While there are countless scenes in The Metal Years that show just how vapid the glam scene can be, no other scene truly illustrates just how low it can really sink.
The one band in the film not portrayed as incompetent or gimmicky is the thrash metal juggernaut known as Megadeth. After an hour and a half of effeminate-looking guys forming bands purely as a means to have a fun time by getting loads of money and women, Spheeris gives us Megadeth, the antidote to glam - frontman Dave Mustaine calls out the glam scene and proves that, in the end, it's all about the music. The film ends with Megadeth performing the most exciting gig in the entire film - this is the heavy metal happy ending. The decline has stopped.
While I liked the film enough, I did find myself bothered slightly by Spheeris's presentation. The Metal Years is certainly informative about LA's metal scene circa 1988, and it certainly covers what it's like to be there, but it still feels somewhat biased against its subject matter. This could be attributed the inclusion of countless moments that made the entire scene out to be nothing more than moronic hedonism, yet the fact that Spheeris felt the need to fake Ozzy's juice-spilling moment says something. It's an entertaining moment, no doubt, but undercut by the fact that it's a lie in a film that has otherwise basked in an admittedly silly truth, but truth nonetheless.
I like metal. I make no bones about it. While glam metal has spawned a couple of decent bands, it still remains an admittedly embarrassing sub-genre. If you needed any proof, just watch The Metal Years. It almost counts as "edutainment" as there are still plenty of ideas that are prevalent in any metal scene, plus the unintentionally comedic value of the subjects is always amusing to watch. Insofar as taking a proper journalistic approach to the subject goes, it does feel very rough when compared to Sam Dunn's Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, which has taken up the reins as the go-to documentary on heavy metal. That is not to say that The Metal Years is without merit, as it functions as an entertaining enough documentary.
One last thing - I actually got to see Megadeth live last month. This made the ending ever so slightly more awesome to me.
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART II:
THE METAL YEARS
(Penelope Spheeris, 1988)
THE METAL YEARS
(Penelope Spheeris, 1988)
When I was about fifteen years old, I found out about this list and immediately resolved to see every single film on it. This is no easy task, considering the obstacles in my path. Whether it was a genuine lack of interest (I never got around to finishing Grey Gardens) or, more commonly, that a fairly good number of those films are near impossible to find and watch, I had picked a tough task to complete. But one day I'll finish it - and after seeing Penelope Spheeris's heavy metal rockumentary (the 48th film on the list), I'm now one step closer to that goal. And after four years of waiting to see this bombastic slice of metal life, I was not disappointed.
Like the previous entry in the Decline... series, The Metal Years focuses on a particularly interesting rock music scene busting out onto the streets on L.A. While the original focused on the underground punk rock scene of the late 1970s, The Metal Years obviously focuses on - you guessed it - metal. To be more specific, the subgenre of metal known as either "glam" or "hair" metal, depending on how judgmental you want to be. To this end, Spheeris interviews a wide range of people involved in the scene, however loosely they are actually related to what's going on. They range from the famous (luminaries of heavy metal music such as Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper) to the up-and-coming (a handful of glam bands trying to make a name for themselves on the Sunset Strip) to the nobodies (a veritable army of random fans of the metal scene). Much of the film consists of interviews regarding various subjects that surround the metal subculture - sex, drugs, appearances, the whole gamut really. Spheeris also focuses on the hopeful band members as they talk of how they're going to "make it" in the music world.
The interesting thing about this documentary is just how much of it comes across as very broad comedy. Granted, such exaggeration is to be expected from a musical sub-culture that encourages style over substance, but the subjects of The Metal Years take it to an all-new "high". It's hard not to draw comparisons to This Is Spinal Tap, but that was an intentionally funny and, while you knew it had its root in some truth, you still kind of knew it was fake. Most of the bands in The Metal Years manage to match Spinal Tap in virtually every regard, and the thing that makes it especially golden is that it's all real. The music doesn't even sound that good, even compared to other glam metal stalwarts such as Guns N' Roses or Motley Crue.
The true standout of these wannabe bands is Odin, a band where the lead singer wears pants with the seat cut out and insists that if Odin never makes it big, he'll have no option but to kill himself. Such starkly ridiculous scenes can only really be seen as blackly comic, yet also carry a sense of pathos. After all, with the benefit of hindsight you can see that Odin never made it big, so you have to wonder about it (and the other bands). The same goes for many of the random fans that also get roped in for interviews - several seem utterly incapable of realising that their dreams of being rich and famous (for being a musician or otherwise) might not work out and they'll never reach their lofty goals. Plenty of them lack anything else in their lives but the simple pleasures presented by glam - again, whether this is something to laugh at or pity is never quite clear.
The bigger names in the film are also never quite portrayed as perfect either. Ozzy complains about being ripped off by managers while being unable to pour orange juice, Steven Tyler talks about wasting lots of his money on drug abuse...but all of them pale in comparison to the film's most notorious scene, where Chris Holmes (of W.A.S.P. infamy) drunkenly pours vodka all over himself in a swimming pool while his own mother watches. While there are countless scenes in The Metal Years that show just how vapid the glam scene can be, no other scene truly illustrates just how low it can really sink.
The one band in the film not portrayed as incompetent or gimmicky is the thrash metal juggernaut known as Megadeth. After an hour and a half of effeminate-looking guys forming bands purely as a means to have a fun time by getting loads of money and women, Spheeris gives us Megadeth, the antidote to glam - frontman Dave Mustaine calls out the glam scene and proves that, in the end, it's all about the music. The film ends with Megadeth performing the most exciting gig in the entire film - this is the heavy metal happy ending. The decline has stopped.
While I liked the film enough, I did find myself bothered slightly by Spheeris's presentation. The Metal Years is certainly informative about LA's metal scene circa 1988, and it certainly covers what it's like to be there, but it still feels somewhat biased against its subject matter. This could be attributed the inclusion of countless moments that made the entire scene out to be nothing more than moronic hedonism, yet the fact that Spheeris felt the need to fake Ozzy's juice-spilling moment says something. It's an entertaining moment, no doubt, but undercut by the fact that it's a lie in a film that has otherwise basked in an admittedly silly truth, but truth nonetheless.
I like metal. I make no bones about it. While glam metal has spawned a couple of decent bands, it still remains an admittedly embarrassing sub-genre. If you needed any proof, just watch The Metal Years. It almost counts as "edutainment" as there are still plenty of ideas that are prevalent in any metal scene, plus the unintentionally comedic value of the subjects is always amusing to watch. Insofar as taking a proper journalistic approach to the subject goes, it does feel very rough when compared to Sam Dunn's Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, which has taken up the reins as the go-to documentary on heavy metal. That is not to say that The Metal Years is without merit, as it functions as an entertaining enough documentary.
One last thing - I actually got to see Megadeth live last month. This made the ending ever so slightly more awesome to me.