The White Stripes: Pretty good looking (for a rock doc)

Under Great White Northern Lights

The Showtime debut of Under Great White Northern Lights, a music documentary about the White Stripes touring small provinces in Canada, performing impromptu shows and digging local culture, requires a few words.

The White Stripes have a history of success with moving pictures, notably working with French film director Michel Gondry on music videos — yeah, that one with the legos.

Jack White has continuously expressed passion and preference for outdated technologies like the CD and vinyl. One reason White founded Third Man Records was to bring an “aesthetic back into the record business.” The tagline for Third Man Records: Your Turntable’s Not Dead. So, it’s no surprise the band produced a music documentary, another seemingly antiquated music art form. The genre has limited notoriety, with a few exceptions:

Emmet Malloy’s direction on Under Great White Northern Lights deserves the attention of anyone who enjoys music television. He successfully and artistically translates the simultaneously grandiose and minimalistic identity of the White Stripes onto film.

“Don’t waste your time,” a friend advised. “It’s no Gimme Shelter.”

I’m not quite sure if this doc measures up to the best in its genre, but maybe we use that measurement too often for this genre. We don’t necessarily compare every drama to The Godfather.

I’d suggest enjoying UGWNL the same way my friend Jackie uses Zeppelin’s How the West Was Won — great background entertainment during a small shindig.

UGWNL made the independent film festival tour awhile back, and the Canadian experiment recently morphed into the UGWNL box set, which includes (among other things):

The UGWNL box set is an extension of Jack White’s belief that music is predestined to be tangible — a turntable, a CD, anything. It’s also about the idea that it’s more meaningful to roll into Euclid Records than double click “Are you sure you want to buy…?”

Vintage Vinyl is a building block of culture. Amazon.com is not.

I’d reference Meg here, but in the film she’s like De Stijl’s truth — doesn’t make a noise.

Watching hazy clips of Hendrix or Jefferson Airplane at the Monterey Pop Festival, a majority of my generation incredulously ponders, “Can you imagine what it would have been like to be there?” And watching UGWNL, you’ll get a similar feeling that you missed out.

The irony of the box set is that very few brick and mortar stores will likely carry such a rare and expensive product. Or, as you might hear it: “We just ran out.” In the meantime, catch the doc on Showtime, where it comfortably rests “on demand,” a few clicks away.

Posted by | September 3, 2010 | Culture, Music | Comment 

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