Digging up an old thread here, since I just got to watch this last night. Here's some of my thoughts after watching it.

Jimmy Page, what can you say, he had a career even before the Zep breakthoughs he is most famous for, his insights on the recording and playing, amazing. And the part where he's in his "media" room listening to old recordings and playing air guitar, you can just see his eyes light up when he talks about the old skiffle riffs and early things he heard that inspired him. Even after all these years he's so animated, truly amazing, a musician to the core.

Edge, now I'm not a real U2 fan, never was. But I found it interesting when he said they were friends first, than they became a band and learned together. They're still together all these years later which also says something about their personalities. He is pretty straightforward that his playing is not very complicated, it's the effects that give him the unique sound quality. That effect rack would drive me to drink just trying to plug it in, too many toys for me, but that's what makes him tick. He takes his playing very seriously where Jimmy seems more on the "fun" side of playing.

Jack White, , are you kidding me? This is the only person they could think of as a third player in this movie? Not a fan at all. His ridiculous "flashbacks" of hanging out with the 9 yr old version of himself? I couldn't take him at all. He can play guitar and I know he has more talent at the instrument than I do, but his insights are meaningless, his musical output is garbage, his attitude is crap, blah. Even in the beginning of the film when he's riding in the car and says that the meeting of the three will probably result in a fist fight... I wish it had, when Edge and Jimmy realized he was a moron and beat the pulp out of him.

So, overall I enjoyed 2/3's of this film There were very cool tidbits of trivia from the different guitarists. I'd give it a 7/10 despite White's involvement.

I think this could have been much more interesting had they included as the 3rd player someone from a genre like country, say even Roy Clark who played country but primarily on an electric guitar, you would have had a "heavy" guitarist, a "pop" guitarist, and a "country" artist to make some comparative notes. And not to mention the third pick should have been someone with a career that spanned several decades like Page and Edge.

Wow, I do ramble don't I?

I think the point of having White was to take a popular guitarist from different eras and compare/contrast their experiences. Page represents the late 60's all through the 70's. The period where musicianship in rock took a giant leap forward in ability and variety.

Edge represents the next era, though starting in the late 70's his work typifies, and dominated the 80's and much of the landscape of the 90's.Music definitely took on more of the character of the technology used to make it, than maybe music of the past. The birth of the digital sound.

White, i guess is there to show us what it's like now. personally i agree that he is not in the class of the other 2 in any way. I am sure there could have been better choices to represent the modern era. Not a big fan, but I would think John Mayer would have been a much better choice, or even someone like Jim Root.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I'll be honest i watched it for the first time a few nights back and it started off alright:P but then it got pretty boring as the edge just stains his sound in effects. White isn't somebody im a fan of tbh so i did try to show an interest but couldnt and Page just didn't amaze me i was expecting a really good guitar documentary and got the life story of the three players.
maybe i went in with the wrong frame of mind

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

That's all true, we all like what we like, or the world would be pretty boring. I just thought that Jack was not up to par with the other two. I guess I thought going in that I would see something about him in the film that would make me more interested in him and his playing.......nope.

I think it's an appropriate choice of guitarists myself. Jack White has a lot in common with Jimi Page - both men have deep roots in the blues which they have taken to develop their own personal style. Let's not be snobs about flashy technique on here, people on this forum tend to like guitarists' guitarists who are fast, technically advanced players, but players like Edge and White have made powerfully expressive music that inspires masses of people, and is built around their guitar sounds. Let's give 'em some respect for that, they've sold more records than me, that's for sure!

Page himself is a big fan of simple guitarists like Link Wray, Hubert Sumlin, John Lee Hooker, and many of the blues greats. Jack White is a guitarist in that tradition. Like Page before him he has brought the Blues of artists like Son House etc to a new generation of fans, with a bit of a Keith Richards approach of keeping it real. That's not a bad thing huh?

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

Oh yeah PBassBob, I didn't mean you, I like what you've said here - an excellent point about humanizing these players by showing something different than the usual footage. I was refering to other posters like our Kissfan who think Jack White is not 'up to par' with the other players, and that his 'musical output is garbage', 'insights are meaningless' etc etc Those absolute judgements seem overly harsh to me, and not justifiable - pronouncements about the value of someone's entire career and their self expression, rather than statements of personal opinion and preference. Who is qualified to write off another musician's entire musical output? I wouldn't claim that right.

So I'm trying to suggest another perspective on the inclusion of Jack and why he is a respected guitarist to other people. It's a big wide world and we all have different tastes right?

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."