Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

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flyonthewall2983
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Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#1 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue May 12, 2015 12:14 am

I purchased the recent Blu-ray a few weeks ago and watched it for the first time in quite awhile. I'm a moderate fan (though watching it again has kind of re-sparked my interest) but I have always been fascinated by how nakedly it shows what they were going through and how the experiences of that time were applied into their new music and the re-birth of their bond as a band and as people to each other and those within their circle. The St. Anger album has it's obvious problems but I recognize that the songs had much deeper lyrical content than a lot of what had been done previously.

Not sure how much cache it holds here (don't know how many genuine metalheads we have here though I'm not one myself, let alone Metallica fans), but I'm basically posting this because I'm curious if it holds up for anyone else like it did me.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#2 Post by Raymond Marble » Tue May 12, 2015 10:46 am

Oh yeah, I think this is an excellent movie. (Really, I'm a fan of all of the films Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger collaborated on.) I'm not a Metallica fan myself, though I do hold a certain respect for their music, but this movie is well done to the point that my general non-fandom of the band is moot.

I had the good fortune of attending a promotional screening in London in 2004 just before its theatrical release, and Berlinger was on hand for a Q&A afterward. In reference to Lars Ulrich's one big, angry scene in the movie, where he gets up in his bandmembers' faces and yells, Berlinger admitted that when he was filming that, part of him felt like a kid watching his parents fight, and part of him was REALLY EXCITED that he was getting what would be such a great scene for the movie. Which it is, of course. But I always thought that that was funny.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#3 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue May 12, 2015 11:15 am

I'd go as far to say that unless you really don't like their music and/or thought less of Ulrich after the whole Napster debacle, it would be something I would suggest to fans of documentaries even if they are rather secular when it comes to Heavy Metal and Metallica in particular. A creative entity in crisis is always fascinating to watch. That's certainly the case here, even if there are some rather "Spinal Tap comes to life moments" (like when Ulrich and Kirk Hammett see Jason Newsted's new band and lament on their future, or the infamous art gallery scene). At certain points throughout I felt bad for all of them, but the strongest moment to me is seeing their producer Bob Rock's thousand-yard stare during one of the therapy sessions when something is said second-hand that indicates he's thought of more as someone on the business end than the creative.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#4 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat May 16, 2015 6:27 am

The deleted scenes on the 2nd disc are a treat, too. The directors said they had 1,600 hours of footage shot, and knowing that makes me appreciate what was done here more because it must have been difficult getting it into shape. Especially when at one point the band's record company wanted a reality show out of it. Kind of glad that didn't happen, though it would have likely meant more footage. Keeping it as a feature film retains an integrity that something seen as following the coattails of The Osbournes would have not.

The scene where Berlinger and Sinofsky come out from behind the camera is one I like a lot, especially where the idea of there not being a film is brought up. For something that on the surface seems like a safe subject for a documentary (especially the commercial value it would have compared to their other work), I got the impression they took a lot of chances with that being the biggest one. To me it seems obvious that's not what they wanted ultimately (they show the band an assembly of their footage in one of the deleted scenes, something they'd never done before along with appearing on camera, in hopes to convince them and particularly James Hetfield of their sincerity in what their intentions were) but to be the ones to bring it up themselves seemed like a brave choice.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#5 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:16 am

This is on Netflix now, coupled with the piece Berlinger did later around the time of Through The Never which is a special feature on the Blu-ray edition.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#6 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:17 am

James Hetfield will appear in Joe Berlinger's upcoming Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, marking his acting debut. I wonder if this is a first, for a documentarian to later cast someone who was a subject of an earlier film in a dramatic role.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#7 Post by Drawingoflamporstick » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:35 am

A weird one off the top of my head is that Werner Herzog cast physicist Lawrence Krauss in a dramatic role for Salt and Fire after he appeared in the doc Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. There's got to be more well known examples out there.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#8 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:50 am

Scorsese cast his parents in Goodfellas after making Italianamerican about them

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#9 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:22 am

matrixschmatrix wrote:Scorsese cast his parents in Goodfellas after making Italianamerican about them
Actually, Scorsese's parents were cast in most of his films...and also appeared in a number of other New York-based films such as Godfather III, Wise Guys, and Moonstruck. But are you are correct that most of these screen appearances happened after Scorsese's 1974 documentary.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#10 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:48 pm

And they're his parents. Seems like everyone who was ever able to, has put their own folks in small roles in their movies.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 200

#11 Post by knives » Tue Feb 13, 2018 2:15 pm

King of Kong guy has a cameo in Horrible Bosses.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#12 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Aug 16, 2023 8:35 am

Feels like the next logical step is a biopic. The band as it was in 1983 before driving cross country to New York City, firing Dave Mustaine and only affording to go back to California on a Greyhound bus would be a perfect dramatic analogy for America in that time frame. If treated more in the manner of almost a documentary approach with maybe little in terms of dialogue and more just guys on the road in that situation things can generate amongst the right four actors for those parts to play.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#13 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:55 am

The bumping of this thread reminds me to add a link to the Todd In The Shadows video about St. Anger, which works as kind of the essential coda to this documentary.

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Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#14 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Aug 17, 2023 1:10 pm

I get the hate for St. Anger—it’s unlistenable. What I don’t get is the contemporaneous (and ongoing?) praise for the follow up, Death Magnetic. I remember the widespread sentiment, echoed even by people like John Mayer, that it was the album everyone had been waiting for since …And Justice for All, a full-throated return to thrash metal. When I did finally listen to it five years later, it was a bland, lifeless album without a spark of creativity or even a memorable track. It had none of the fire or energy of good thrash. What were people on about?

Hard-wired to Self Destruct had more bright spots but was similarly bland, and I haven’t been able to make it through a single track in their new album, and not just because they’re all brutally long. So I agree with Todd: with St. Anger the band was done.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#15 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:13 pm

Some of the songs on Death Magnetic hit a nerve for me personally, and I like some of the songs on Hardwired… too. They’re still great live if their constant sharing of live clips from their current tour is anything to go by. But I have to admit that other than listening to the new album once with my brother (his favorite band), nothing from the new album struck me personally.

He’s the true believer, my best friend thought they were sellouts for the Napster thing. He’s since come around, citing like I do the sheer endurance they’ve shown as a live act and now a legacy band. “Enter Sandman” is on oldies stations now, but part of what they do seems ever so vital to culture now. It’s an often misunderstood one and overlooked for the emotional thing but for me they at their best hit on something emotional. Even today.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#16 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Aug 17, 2023 8:29 pm

Stranger Things definitely gave them a renewed cultural relevance, and I think they're all over youtube Reaction channels. But in terms of the actual music they're putting out these days, there isn't much to talk about.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#17 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 10, 2023 5:44 am

I’d say they’re an interesting case study of a rock band as four human beings, behind the icons of metal they worked so incredibly hard at being. I can easily identify with parts of Hetfield and Hammett’s stories of distant and abusive fathers, as a way of how they dealt with these issues and the inferiority they may have all felt regarding masculine norms, something which Lars has always had a pretty healthy (and more specifically a European point of view about it then even a Californian one) take on.

But the Metallica movie must be about Cliff I’m sure. Their earliest years are the most fascinating, I think the whole trip from California to NYC they took would be a good enough set piece to surround what could be a decent character drama with the musical elements front and center, considering how much the heaviness of their sound reflected the collective disaffected youth shortly before they blossomed into artists.

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Re: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Berlinger/Sinofsky, 2004)

#18 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Sep 11, 2023 12:12 am

colinr0380 wrote:
Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:55 am
The bumping of this thread reminds me to add a link to the Todd In The Shadows video about St. Anger, which works as kind of the essential coda to this documentary.
I would add U2’s homage

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