.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

As a Canadian and as someone who followed the early hard rock hair bands of the 1970's and 1980's, I was fully aware of the band Anvil. What I didn't know was that any one else knew.

I saw Anvil sometime in the late 1980's somewhere up in the Ontario cottage country. I can't remember exactly the venue but I do remember that these guys rocked - hard. They were the headliner of a bevy of heavy rock bands that night, and I remember their guitars and drums being so loud that I couldn't make out any of the lyrics that lead singer Steve 'Lips' Kudlow was belting out with such channeled energy.

I forgot all about Anvil as I grew older and that is exactly was spurred on director Sacha Gervasi. What happened to the band that used to play with Bon Jovi and Whitesnake? What happened to the band known by name and revered by members of Guns N Roses and Metallica?

Anvil: The Story of Anvil attempts to answer some of these questions as a film crew follows the group as they try and escape their day jobs and return to the glory of their packed arenas and venues with a concert tour in Europe.

References to the mock documentary Spinal Tap are inevitable, but make no mistake about it, these guys are real, their passions are true and their struggles - although at times laughable - are anything but to the surviving members and their families that have given a quarter of a century worth of effort for their passion.

Anvil : The Story of Anvil closely follows lead singer Lips and drummer Robb Reiner. We learn of how they met back when they were barley teenagers and how their zeal lasted decades through triumphs and disappointments tours and bar gigs.

What makes Anvil : The Story of Anvil so engrossing are how the band members survive each disappointment with incredible optimism and how they live double lives as ordinary laborers by day and wannabe rock legends at night.

When you see a truly passionate Steve Kudlow with his child and watch as his supporting wife cries tears of painful support, it is as real as any emotional scene ever filmed. And when the band heads to Europe for concert dates that fail in expectations, you feel for these grown 50-something year olds as they continue to dream a legacy that is now left to the young heartthrobs of American Idol fame.

By the time Anvil : The Story of Anvil is over, you have felt as if you have backpacked across the globe and wearily traveled with the band. You have - at least for 90 minutes - experienced the highs of a successful Tokyo trip and the lows of having an expensively produced thirteenth CD turned down by major distributors.

The year is still young, but Anvil : The Story of Anvil is so far the best documentary of 2009 and it is a film that any aspiring rock band should see before embarking on a life of hardship and heartbreak.