Top 10 Greatest Guitar Movies
Not surprisingly for the Holiday Season, it’s been a pretty slow week for guitar news. So, I thought I’d make a list of must-see guitar-related fictional movies. I’ve listed them in order of my preference, with #1 being my favorite. If you’ve got more, post ‘em in the comments section and I’ll update the post with honorable mentions.
10. Decline of Western Civilization Pt. 2 (No longer available?)
Were it not for the fact that this movie is a documentary (and therefore technically not eligible for my list) it would be higher. But, I felt I couldn’t have a list of great guitar movies without at least mentioning this must-see documentary. It may as well be fiction. At the very least, consider it a dire warning if you’re losing friends by promising them that you’ll pay the rent when your band hits it big. My favorite scenes include Chris Holmes (WASP) pouring vodka all over himself in his pool while his enabling mother gazes on with a bewildered smile on her face, and Ozzy Osbourne at home cooking eggs (watch very carefully when he pours himself some orange juice).
A Cameron Crowe masterpiece that manages to capture what I imagine touring with a kick-ass 70′s rock band would have been like. This movie doesn’t feature the guitar as prominently as some of the others, but that’s not the point. 70′s rock, Creem Magazine, and Rolling Stone are guitar, and that’s why it makes the list.
8. Rock Star
Who doesn’t dream about this? Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) is Steel Dragon’s biggest fan and a rocking singer who is drafted to replace the band’s closeted gay lead singer, a la Judas Priest. Sure, there have been better movies, but any movie about an over-the-top metal band guest-starring Zakk Wylde and Jason Bonham is worth seeing.
7. Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown is a Woody Allen mockumentary (mostly) about the “second greatest guitar player in the world, ” Emmet Ray (Sean Penn). Emmet is an eccentric Gypsy Jazz player with a Django Reinhardt fetish. A clever, funny movie that manages to be jazz-centric without being pretentious.
6. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
If you’re a super-fan of Tenacious D like me, chances are you’ve already seen this one. Jack Black is in my opinion one of the few true rock scholars. He just gets it. Call me what you will, but I saw this one 4 times in the theaters and bought the soundtrack the day it came out. Very few movies appeal to me like this one. Yes, it’s sophmoric. Yes, it’s crude. And rude. But it rocks. Hard.
The second movie in the Bill and Ted franchise didn’t quite capture the attitude and sheer awesomeness of the first one, but it had a killer soundtrack featuring Kiss, Slaughter, Faith No More, Megadeth, King’s X, Neverland, Winger, Primus, Ritchie Kotzen, and, of course, the great Steve Vai. The soundtrack alone was worth the ticket price.
4. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
What more does a guitar player need than a movie about two slacker teenage kids who dream of having an arena rock band and playing like Eddie Van Halen? Not much. This first Bill and Ted movie is just good, old fashioned guitar happiness. Plus, I think this was the movie that turned me on to Nuno Bettencourt (of Extreme fame). The band contributed Play with Me
School of Rock is one of my all-time favorites. As a guy, I hesitate to say that it’s sweet, but that’s what it is. The music is great. The kids are great. Jack Black is great. All it’s missing is Kyle Gass.
This movie has so many great lines and gags that I won’t even try to list them here. It’s a rocker classic. Anyone who plays guitar and loves rock must see this movie. A thousand times. It must be memorized line for line. It’s a right of passage.
And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for. Lights please…
1. Crossroads
The winner. Normally, I’m not much of a Ralph Macchio guy, Karate Kid and The Outsiders not withstanding (“Stay gold, Ponyboy!”), but Mr. Macchio, Jamie Gertz, and Joe Seneca earned reserved seats in my heart forever after I saw this for the first time. The soundtrack is incredible thanks to the slide-blues guitar magic of Ry Cooder. But nothing, and I mean nothing in American movie history compares to the scene at the end when Eugene battles satanic guitarist Jack Butler, played brilliantly by Steve Vai. Pure guitar gold.
Update: Feb. 2, 2009
Honorable Mention: Back to the Future
Stuck at home with a bad cold, I decided to watch all 3 Back to the Future movies. I had forgotten all about the guitar scenes in the first of the series: the beginning scene when Michael J. Fox blows the giant amplifier with the tiny guitar, when his band, The Pinheads, tries-out for the school dance, when he scares his young father with some Van Halen in the middle of the night, and, of course, when he busts into some hack EVH tapping at his mother’s Enchantment Under the Sea dance. For this, Back to the Future deserves honorable mention.
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