» Air Guitar Nation

Air Guitar Nation Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: No closed captioning
Comment: No closed-captioning equals a ZERO vote.

Without CC, this DVD is USELESS to hearing-impaired people.

Not considering disabled viewers is just typical of Docurama.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Stranger Documentaries
Comment: Air Guitar Nation is one of the stranger documentaries that I've seen in a while. The film chronicles the events leading up to and including the World Air Guitar Championship of 2003 held in Oulu, Finland. More than this the film tells the personal stories of two of the United States competitors, David "C-Diddy" Jung and Ben "Bjorn Toroque" Crane as they compete for national and world fame as air guitarists.

Alaxandra Lipsitz's documentary is one of those strange films that holds you fscinated while you wonder why on earth you are taking the time to watch this film. Weaving interviews with competitors and the founders of the US Air Guitar Championships along with performance footage the film gives a fairly good overview of the hobby/sport.

This is not deep drama but Lipsitz pulls it off well and the short film is fun to watch even if it is all essentially good fun. The film boasts a great soundtrack and aroun 40 minutes of deleted scenes and bonus interviews. Rent it before you buy.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I had tears by the end - srsly!
Comment: Every now and then I get in a mood to watch a truly goofball movie, and I rented this thinking it would be one of them. And it is, I guess... at least, it started out that way. But in spite of myself I started getting really caught up and rooting for the American air-guitarists through the competition, and actually caring!

It was really rather profound to realize that although the US is the womb, birthplace, and cradle of Rock-and-Roll, there had never yet been a US contestant in the world air-guitar championships. Hard to explain how something can have you laughing one minute, and saying "Hmm...." and sniffling the next... what a roller-coaster ride. Kind of like, umm, Rock-and-Roll, I guess!

Oh, the music is the best of the best, too. I was singing and dancing for days afterward.

Anyway it has really stuck in my mind, and here I am to buy my own copy to put on my shelf of "movies I'm going to make everyone I know watch."

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Make Air, Not War
Comment: Air Guitar Nation is a truly wonderful documentary on the United States first entry into the Air Guitar Championships. This film is just a great look into the comradery of international participants, the hell-bent fury of contestant, Bjorn Turoque, the intensity of the participants attending seminars on air guitar, etc. It will make you wonder, it will make you laugh, it will make you go "hmmmm". Overall, it is an honestly fun movie.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: wacky fun
Comment: "Air Guitar Nation" is probably the best documentary ever made about a non-subject. Air Guitar, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the art of playing heavy metal guitar sans the actual guitar. It's what every spastic, tone-deaf teenager with dreams of one day becoming the next Jimi Hendrix has done in the privacy of his own bedroom since the late 1960's. Who could ever have imagined that a whole subculture and cottage industry would one day spring up around an activity that most of us probably never admitted to doing even to our closest buddies?

Yet, that is exactly what has happened, and in its rise to semi-"respectability," Air Guitar has gathered unto itself a bevy of impassioned, hardcore fans who see nothing crazy in cheering on a wannabe guitarist as he mimics the moves of actual music-making immortals like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton on stage. Indeed, the Air Guitar movement even boasts its own roster of revered icons and pioneers and has established well-attended competitions on the local, national and international level as a means of showcasing its finest talents and garnering itself some much-needed publicity. The movie follows two of the key figures in the field, C-Diddy and Bjorn Turoque - each with his own very different hard rocker persona - as they head to the 2003 Air Guitar championship held in Oulu, Finland.

The basic charm of "Air Guitar Nation" lies in its ability to acknowledge the silliness of the whole concept while, at the same time, evincing a genuine, heartfelt affection for both the activity and those who participate in it. Indeed, far more time is spent getting to know the "musicians" as people than in watching them actually perform. What is most striking about the young men is just how reserved, shy and self-effacing they are by nature until they take to the stage and simply cut loose with all their wild gesticulations and antics at the behest of the adoring crowd. It is then that they become truly transformed, so much so that even the most cynical scoffer may find himself caught up in the spirit of the moment, sweating out the contest's ultimate outcome right along with the participants. The men also face their inexplicable status as celebrities with a clear-eyed rationality, not taking themselves or their accomplishments all that seriously (their satirical names alone reflect that playful spirit), a fact that makes the whole thing at least palatable for those who still may not quite "get it" even after the closing credits have rolled on by.

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