Um, Jack White is a "guitar hero"? When the hell did THAT happen? LOL

These are musicians. They are not "tough" or "bad boys" or "troublemakers".

They're prissy arty performers. The Edge is a geezer and wears a watch cap because he's bald. Jack White is a Johnny Depp wannabe.

They play guitar pretty well. That's enough.

I'll admit to being somewhat mystified at what justified the criteria for picking these three. Page is a given - brilliantly gifted with amazing tone and talent.

The Edge proves that a little can be a lot. His playing is not on the same level as Pages, but he knows how to make the guitar sound so big with so little. Guitar effects to be sure, but he is probably the best at it.

Jack White is a bit of a head scratcher but in the trailer for the film, he makes me want to know more about his thoughts on the guitar or anything else. Hell, he produced a Loretta Lynn album, he's got to have a lot of stories.

So what (or who) is a legend. David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and the list goes on and on. What about those gifted "Who?" players like Eric Johnson, Steve Morse or John Petrucci. I've always been partial to the "number 2" status of some bands. Alice Cooper's Michael Bruce, David Bowie's Mick Ronson or Tom Petty's Mike Campbell.

I guess you could make a 20 hour movie and still not include all those deserving. This movie should be a good start.

These people are song writers. Jimmy Page is the only one who warrants any guitar-related attention, and even he isn't that great at the actual instrument, his song writing aside. There are dozens of guys who can play circles around these guys. Listen to Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan, Borislav Mitic, Michael Lee Firkins, or Steve Vai. Those are people who are actual guitar HEROES, those who can play with such energy, dexterity, and with great feeling. It is an offense to any guitarist, such as myself, to hear people proclaim these guys as heroes when two of them couldn't play their way out of a wet paper bag. Not to mention the fact that this is another example of the watered down lameness that pervades music today where names are used to sell music.

Have some shame.

Page - maybe. But Jack White? The Edge? Pul-leeze. Billy Childish deserves a movie before these embarrassments.

If the maker of this film loves rock n' roll guitarists so much, why didn't he make a movie like this a few years back, when some real "legends" were still around - like Link Wray, R.L. Burnside, Ike Turner, or Bo Diddley, to name but a few? Oh, because that would require the filmmaker to know something about rock n' roll and its history, and to care.

The guys I mentioned probably would have had something interesting to say, in addition to making some timeless music that won't be embarrassing to hear a few years from now. And they wouldn't have "jammed" on a mediocre tune by a mediocre band, either.

Bo Diddley never got a movie, but Jack White and the Edge are "icons"? Fuck. You.

P.S. - Ivy from the Cramps is still around, though sadly without Lux. She's another one of many guitarists, past and present, who deserve to be featured in a movie before these three. There is no justice.

are what inspired Guggenheim to bring the three together. Three very different approaches to the guitar, not 'the three best guitarists' which, as we've seen, brings out the haters.

Anyone who has ever fought through that damn ten hour workout (not even talking about the 30 hour one) or just understood where the Spyder exercise came from (so ubiquitious, so many variations, same goals and concepts that Vai set) understands that Vai is far more important here than WHite or the Edge. Angularity and his other ideas influence guitar playing in ways the WHite and the Edge can not even touch. I'd put Eddie Van Halen's tapping over WHite and the Edge in terms of influencing technique/sound as well. The poster upstream with about 20 more guitarists has a point.

I wish the author had defined "guitar legend." Is it the playing and the way that conception of playing influences other people (like the use of the Lydian scales by bluesmen and the idea of making feedback a part of the song?) Is it the songwriting? Is it the iconic lick? Technical prowess? Creativity bordering the edges of psychosis?

What definition brought us this documentary? Because I can't figure out if I want to see it without the definiton, and I didn't get it from the article. This combination just doesn't fit together for me the way, say, BB King and Son House do, or from BB King and Les Paul to Hendrix to Page, etc. What thread makes the Edge and WHite equal to Page?

What? No Esteban?

I seem to recall he needed a spanking.

One thing about this movie that didn't come out in this review - the director wanted to pick a cross-generational set of guitarists. He also wanted people who didn't already know each other, so that there could be some surprises when he brought them together. So obviously once he had Page, Clapton wasn't an option.

You can quibble about his choices of the Edge and Jack White but they make some sense. There are a slew of othe guitarists from the Edge's generation who are more flamboyant and may be more skilled, but it makes sense to bring in someone who contrasts with Jimmy Page, and the Edge certainly does that.

In the case of Jack White, there are obviously more talented guitarists in his generation, but not many have had success playing such a variety of different styles.

Finally, the director and producers of this movie had to attract some money to get it a decent release. So they needed to pick "name" guitarists that people have heard of. And in the Edge's case at least, it was nice to pick someone who is still making popular music. What has Eddie Van Halen done in the past 15 years? Do people under 25 even know who Steve Vai is?