Metallica: Unauthorized Documentary
by Dan Upton

"This documentary contains no original music by Metallica. It is not authorized by Metallica, their record company or their management." Such is the way I am greeted as I start up the new unauthorized Metallica documentary, subtitled "Out of the Loop" on the DVD face and the jacket, but subtitled "Dark Souls" in the actual DVD footage. The promo text lists "The complete and unauthorized biography of Metallica," "Over 40 minutes of in-depth interviews with the band and those close to them," "exclusive and previously unseen film footage," and "insider revelations on all band members."

Wow, all of this information, spanning the full 20+ year career of Metallica, crammed into 1 hour and 1 minute.

So what do you actually get? As far as the actual documentary, film and interviews cover from Lars and James's childhood, their meeting, and early shows with Dave Mustaine and original bassist Ron McGovney. It then moves to snagging Cliff Burton from Trauma, firing Dave and taking Kirk Hammet from Exodus, losing Cliff and hiring Jason Newsted, all the way up to Jason quitting and them hiring Robert Trujillo. 

There is very little film footage with the actual band members--a few interviews with Lars, a few with Kirk, and a few minutes with Jason after having left the band.

Who actually is interviewed then? Mostly seemingly random people connected to the band early on, including the band's original photographer Harold Oimoen, the founders of Rampage Radio and Metal Mania, Kirk's brother in law, singers from Angel Witch and Testament, the band's lead truck driver, and a producer and presenter from Reality Check Television. In addition, Elena Luciano, also featured on 2004's Some Kind of Monster, talks a little about her experiences competing for a chance to play with the band. Most of the actual "footage" of James, Kirk, Lars, and Dave are just pans or zooms of still photos.

The DVD's special features include an interactive trivia game, which I believe had all of 11 questions, and a complete discography of full albums, singles, and live bootlegs. I feel like the Metallica trivia thing has been done better before, and the discography, while nice, is really only for the die-hard fan. That really describes this DVD in general: if you're a die-hard fan and collector, then you'll probably want to have this in your collection. On the other hand, if you're only a casual fan, or you want something more current and with more interaction with the actual band, track down Some Kind of Monster instead.

Metallica - Out of the Loop: Unauthorized Documentary
 

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