In the second part of our retrospective, Film4.com editor Jon Fortgang offers a personal take on the films that made his decade.
Films of the decade: part one
Films of the decade: part three
Films Of The Decade: Part Two Pictures
"At fourteen, they made a pact to rock together forever. They meant it"
10. Anvil! The Story Of Anvil
Me and Anvil, we got history. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, metal ruled my world. Getting regular spins on the gramophone was the band's free flexi-disc, given away with 'Kerrang!' and singer Lips, with his fetching bondage braces and attractive spandex strides, was granted wall space alongside Lemmy and someone called Doro Pesch from Warlock. I explained this to Lips and drummer Robb Reiner when I went to interview them at the start of 2009. Lips peered curiously at the scrawny hack in a Hawkwind T-shirt (that would be me) and was less stoked by the revelation than I'd hoped. In fact, Lips and Robb turned out to be unfailingly lovely, if slightly bewildered by the sudden glare of media attention, and director Sacha Gervasi beamed over them like a dad ushering his boys onto 'The X-Factor'. There are a thousand reasons why this film is so great. It's brilliantly edited (by the man who shaped This Is Spinal Tap). It's acutely aware of its own ridiculousness, and yet it takes the story entirely seriously. "Hey man," said Lips once the interview was over. "I love your shirt." And there we were, two grown men with ill-advised hair, fully familiar with Saxon's early work, united by the majesty of rock.
