Release Date: October 19th, 2010
Studio: Factory 25
Genre: Music Documentary
UNRATED     1 hr 33 mins

Metal documentaries being judged and critiqued by metal fans is never going to evoke the most objective of opinions or pieces of journalism, for that matter.  We’re often too critical of what’s left-out and the rehashing of tired, basic details and stories without judging them on their creative and filmmaking aspects as a whole.  This was very apparent in the opinions I read of the movie, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, which until now, was probably the most watched and wide-spread documentary on metal.  “How many times do we have to hear the horns story from Dio?” or “Did we really need that much time spent on the PMRC hearings and Dee Snyder?”  The whole “this documentary was ok, but it didn’t show me anything I didn’t already know” attitude misses the point on most levels.  We have to remember that documentaries in general are not made for the people who are already very educated and informed on that particular subject - they’re made to bring something to light and to people’s attention that they otherwise would have never known about.  That said, I think the makers of Until the Light Takes Us tried to do both and came up short.

Of course, this story (as tired as it might be to us) is about much more than just church burnings and corpse-painted guys on stage, so it would be foolish to expect any documentarian not to focus on both the musical aspect as well as the criminal and cultural aspects, but at only ninety-three minutes and some very questionable additions to this film taking up seemingly valuable space, the filmmakers dropped the proverbial “ball.”

Until the Light Takes Us focuses its attention on three people to follow around (“follow” deserves quotations when referring to Varg Vikernes of course), two of which were in the middle of the black metal scene during its infancy stages and an outsider who happens to be an artist showcasing a black metal-themed exhibit throughout Europe.  The intent being to show how people on the inside view something as opposed to how it’s seen from the outside by those who aren’t privy to the intimate details from behind the scenes.  In theory, this is a tried-and-true path to take when making a documentary and typically is a good idea except that the “outsider” role chosen in this instance was a mistake and really distracted from the overall mood.  I get wanting to have contrast, but his addition as a main part was mostly pointless.

In fact, considering the choices available, I’m not sure that the decision to keep it to mainly three people was a good one.  Naturally, Varg would have to be a dominant character, that goes without saying, but despite the major role Darkthrone had in the early black metal days, Fenriz didn’t come across as someone compelling enough to devote so much effort towards.  In much of the film, he seemed to be very uncomfortable in front of the camera.  Whether from his body language where he would rub his face or some other diversionary gesture creating an awkward moment, or when he’s trying to describe some facet of Norwegian culture that ends up being a rambling bunch of nonsense that he tries to twist into a joke, Fenriz came across as someone who is pretty insecure and frankly, just not all that interesting.  That’s not at all to say that he isn’t a good guy who genuinely has some really important things to say on the subject, but from a filmmaking stand point where the object is to entertain and enlighten the audience, he should not have been a main character.  This is made even more glaring when you watch the deleted scenes and find out that several more people from some very influential bands were interviewed, but were left out of the final cut for whatever reason.  Hell, even the other half of Darkthrone, Nocturno Culto, had several minutes of face time and that guy never gets in front of a camera or a microphone.

Varg, well, what can I say about Varg that hasn’t been said.  He stole the show as expected and is everything that Fenriz isn’t.  Extremely confident, articulate, knows exactly what he wants to say and how to back it up, polarizing, controversial, violent criminal - basically, he’s a documentarian’s dream.  They had to spend a lot of time with him, it just would have been foolish not to.  Plus, without him, there really would be no story here.

A few minor roles (by that I mean people who had multiple interview moments) were given to Hellhammer, Faust and Frost.  I actually would have liked to see what Hellhammer would have been like at home and hanging out in bars and whatnot.  The moments with Faust were confusing because for some reason, I guess he insisted on having his face distorted and his voice altered as if he’s hiding from someone or in some kind of protection.  What was that all about?  You’re out of prison and everyone knows it’s you.  Frost entered late in the film because he was a part of the artist’s exhibit and did a performance art display of teen angst, cutting and slicing up a couch while breathing fire and pretending to cut his arm and throat all the while dressed up like a typical black metaller with face paint, leather and whatnot.  To say that that part of the film was a waste of time is an understatement.  The booklet for Until the Light Takes Us actually tries to say that Frost is the “third” of the highlighted character roles in the film, but I see it differently as I’ve already said that I consider Bjarne Melgaard (the artist) as more of a major role.  There are some yawn-inducing moments where Bjarne is talking about Frost as some kind of “dark angel” and if my eyes could roll any further, they’d be in the back of my head.

I felt like this film could have used narration to help the uninformed viewer to better understand some things that weren’t explained very well.  Just some basic facts and maybe compare certain statistics about metal bands in Norway to other countries, for example.  When watching this with someone who didn’t know much at all about the subject, I kept having to explain certain things and I think part of the problem in that area was from the very disjointed nature of the film which was mostly perpetrated by the artist guy.  Just when some very important details are being described by either Varg or Fenriz, the film switches over to his art exhibit and you lose track of what was being explained.

Taken as a whole which means including all two hundred and forty minutes of extras, Until the Light Takes Us is a really good documentary that shows us much that we probably would have never been able to see otherwise.  However, extras on a DVD aren’t what a film should be given its merits on as those aren’t available when you walk into the theater.  The filmmakers inadvertently took the music out of it while the sensationalistic angle was being emphasized.  I’m of the opinion that they had room for more and should have utilized it.

Until the Light Takes Us

November 20, 2010

Reviewer: Jesse

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DIRECTORS:

Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell

Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell
Varg Vikernes
                (Kristian Larsson Vikernes)
Frost (Kjetil Vidar Haraldstad)
Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg)
Harmony Korine

CAST:

Check out Chris' review of Until the Light Takes Us here: