Interview: Sacha Gervasi Rocks Out With Massively Successful ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’

Submitted by BrianTT on May 1, 2009 - 2:17pm

CHICAGO – Sacha Gervasi, the director of the great “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” likes to use the word awesome. When we talked about his brilliant love letter to his favorite band, Gervasi couldn’t hide the super-fan inside that is just loving the rock show that has built up around Steve “Lips” Ludlow and Robb Reiner.

The story around “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” is nearly as interesting as the movie itself. Made by a talented director who still remembers the first time he saw the band in September of 1982, the film has evolved into a bonafide phenomenon. Open to the contents page of the newest Rolling Stone and you’ll see a picture of Anvil. The film about them is expanding to over 200 cities and the band is even going to be included in a new Rock Band download and playing the Monsters of Rock festival in England. If you have yet to jump on the Anvil bandwagon, what the hell are you waiting for?

Anvil co-founder and lead guitarist Lips strums for concertgoers in a scene from ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL.
Photo credit: Brent J. Craig

Gervasi vividly remembers the first time he saw the band play “Metal on Metal” in a bondage harness and playing their guitars with dildos. “It was mind-melting,” says Gervasi. “People were like, “What the f**k is this?” It was just mental. And I was so blown away. Like a lot of people, I was in silence after the performance. It was so amazing.”

Twenty-five years later, Gervasi hooked up with Lips again when he spent some time with him in Los Angeles. The idea for a “Spinal Tap”-esque documentary was born. Sacha would follow the band on tour and intercut it with archival footage and interviews. Gervasi says, “And then as the film developed, the structure changed because they were going to record another album.”

“Initially, it was just going to be the tour with the personal stuff. And, again, a lot of the personal stuff I didn’t know. I had no idea that Robb’s father had survived Auschwitz. Even Lipps didn’t know. It was just something that Robb decided to open up and tell on camera. There were so many things that we discovered in the process. I had a vague idea it would be about a tour and that we’d cut in with what went wrong and how they were still trying to make it but that was it. You can’t really know more than that. Then the album came up and all the things that happened. Telemarketing, the family stories - they were happening once we had already committed to making the movie.”

Gervasi spent two years with Anvil and ended up with 320 hours of raw footage that had to be shaped into an 80-minute film. He spent laborious hours in the editing room shaping the final project. Quite simple, “It was a lot of work.”

After the film was compiled, Gervasi went back and crafted a brilliant prologue, a section where Anvil’s peers discuss in nearly awed tones the band that never made it big. It started with Scott Ian of Anthrax, who “…was an old fan of Anvil. He had seen them when he was 17. In fact, Anthrax had begun as an Anvil cover band. He was playing “Metal on Metal” six nights a week with the boys who would eventually become Anthrax. And he was awesome. Basically, what happened was that he called up Lars and called up everyone and made it happen. And I knew Slash and he was into it.”

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Photo credit: Ross Halfin

Now Anvil is playing with those rock legends again. Something Gervasi takes great pride in. “I feel really good about it,” Gervasi says. “How could you not? I’m a FAN of the band originally. I became a filmmaker after I was a fan of the band. It’s sort of a beautiful story for all concerned.”

If you already love Anvil, the story is far from over. Gervasi told me that there’s “so much great sh*t” planned for the DVD including over an hour-and-a-half of deleted scenes and the full interview with the loquacious Lars Ulrich. Anvil has been performing in association with the film and a lot of that and the band Q&As have been recorded for some format, possibly on the DVD, possibly online, possibly even in a follow-up film.

Gervasi revealed that the film was original intended as a companion piece for a live performance, something that helps explain why there’s not a lot of actual music in the film.

“The original concept was…I said to Lips, “I’m going to do the movie and then I want you guys to literally jump out of the screen and play.” It was originally going to be answered by a live performance at the end. That was the concept. And we’re doing that in some cities. I wanted to create the mystery of people wanting to see the band. I didn’t want people to think, “Oh, I’ve seen that.” I wanted you to feel like, “I want to see Anvil.” And I think that’s how most people feel.”

Despite the ready availability of Anvil albums, some people still think it’s all a scam, refusing to believe that a band with songs like “Show Me Your Tits” and “Pussy Poison” could possibly be real. Gervasi loves the joke within the reality. “They think it’s fake. I think it’s AWESOME. I think it’s great because I know the truth and when people figure it out, generally they’re minds get blown. Isn’t it awesome?”

Anvil co-founders Robb Reiner (L) and Steve “Lips” Ludlow contemplate their band’s future in a scene from Sacha Gervasi’s feature documentary, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil.
Photo credit: Brent J. Craig

Gervasi admits that it will be difficult to leave Anvil and their fans behind but he’s going to move on to a project that could be just as crazy as “The Story of Anvil,” a biopic of Herve Villechaize, the star of “Fantasy Island”. He’s working on the script and when asked for details, he gave perhaps the best pitch line of the year - “I’ve described it as like Citizen Kane meets Boogie Nights meets Scarface…with a little person. It’s pretty f**king crazy. We’re putting it together right now. Hopefully, we’ll know in the next couple months but it’s going to be a crazy, crazy movie. Because Anvil wasn’t crazy. (Laughs.)”

Sacha closes with advice that could apply to both young filmmakers and young rock stars. It’s something we should all take to heart and clearly what drove not just this very talented young director but the rock Gods who inspired him - “Don’t do what other people tell you to do. Only do what you believe in. If you’re coming from the heart, whatever you’re doing, you can’t really fail.”

“Anvil! The Story of Anvil” is playing in most major markets right now and expanding around the country over the next few weeks. Don’t miss it.

‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ was directed by Sacha Gervasi. It opened in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre on April 24th, 2009 and is also playing already in other major markets. It will continue to open around the country in coming weeks. It is not rated.