Movie of the Week: Back and Forth

Alexa: I went into “Foo Fighters - Back and Forth” with virtually no expectations. I didn’t know much about the band beyond the fact that Nirvana’s Dave Grohl founded it, and I didn’t think I was that familiar with their music until the film made me realize how many songs of theirs I actually know. But this documentary hooked me pretty early on. The fact that they make great music certainly doesn’t hurt, and their sound makes for an enthralling backdrop throughout the film. But the band members themselves are what make the documentary so compelling. They’re incredibly open and personal about their own highs and lows, their connection to the band and their at times rocky relationship with music itself. And while their popularity certainly grows exponentially throughout the film’s arc, their story is vastly different from your standard rags to riches tale. That’s what makes the film so interesting. It’s not about starting all the way at the bottom and ascending the ladder to success. It’s about a group of talented people finding their true voice. There was always buzz surrounding Foo Fighters because of Grohl’s involvement with Nirvana, so what we get here is the story of how Grohl bounces back from the tragedy of his friend’s death and creates something new and beloved in its own right. The band’s status from the beginning is greater than what many other groups could ever hope to achieve, but we see their growing pains play out in the public eye and witness how their unique experience informs their evolution as a band. Whether you’re a Foo Fighters fan or not, their story is a pretty fascinating ride.

Joel: There are a fair number of documentaries out there that are about this band or that band, where someone (maybe the band themselves, maybe a megafan of the band with some access) felt that the band’s story was so amazing, it just had to be shared with the world. The result is more often than not a documentary that might be interesting to fans already invested in the band, but will come across as unnecessary or pretentious to those who aren’t as interested in that particular band. It would have been very possible for this movie to fall into that category. All the right ingredients are there for this to feel like a self serving tale of all that this band has overcome to grace you with their music. But there’s something about the presentation that not only keeps that from happening, but actually manages to craft an excellent documentary that can capture the attention of audiences regardless of their initial investment in Foo Fighters.

So much of what goes into forming a band happens before the band itself actually exists as a band. It’s the part of the story that doesn’t really get presented because the band doesn’t really exist yet. Foo Fighters is unique somewhat in that case, because their growth at the beginning was captured and followed by the public. What makes this story so interesting is how little of it focuses on the actual music of the band. Yes, there is a little bit that focuses on the style of music that these guys are playing, but the struggles they go through can be easily translated into any medium of collaborative art. The documentary doesn’t focus so much on their struggles to work as a specific rock band, as much as their struggles to work cohesively as a creative unit. Because of this, is so much easier to get invested in their story.

Even later in the movie, as we start to focus on one specific album, the documentary has taken the time to really explore these people, their relationships to one another and how they do or don’t work. The last part of the documentary is the exact kind of thing that wouldn’t work for anyone other than diehard fans if if was the main focus and stretched to be feature length. However, because we’ve been watching these guys over the course of the movie, it’s easy to get invested in their work on this latest project and to better understand why each creative decision was made. This actually ends up as being an excellent blueprint of how to make a band documentary or an album documentary work for a more casual audience.

Chris: It’s ironic that Dave Grohl’s first line in this documentary was about his fantasy to help his favorite band play because their drummer broke their leg considering Dave fell off a stage at the beginning of a show a few years later and broke his leg. However, in classic Foo Fighters fashion, the band kept playing while Dave eventually returned to the stage to play the remainder of the show in a chair while an EMT held his very broken leg still. The tour continued the rest of it’s scheduled dates but Dave played each show from an absurd throne that kept his leg elevated. Saying that Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are well known is a bit of an understatement but most of the public only know of FF’s successes and that they tend to be one of the few rock acts that are featured in music awards shows. However, Back and Forth shows that even though the band has really only known success, there are definite lows. I always knew that they had a few band members leave but I had no idea they had such a problem with members leaving or being forced out and some returning. And that’s the fortunate thing about this documentary, there could’ve been plenty of things that the band could’ve chosen to leave out or have cut from the movie but instead we get the history of Foo Fighters, warts and all. We got all the riffs between band members, resentment towards Dave for being a perfectionist and for doing other projects with bands outside of Foo Fighters. All of those could’ve been omitted and we could’ve gotten the always bright and sunny Disney version of the band’s history (much like we’re probably gonna get with the Queen biopic). Also, the movie CBGB told the story of the famous New York music venue and Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins was cast to play a young Iggy Pop. I had never seen the movie but that casting decision was always a head-scratcher to me until I watched this documentary and saw Hawkin’s talking head segments. I see it now, they might as well be the same person.

The shift at the end to document Foo Fighters making a new album with a heavy commitment to record on analog is a good transition to to Dave Grohl’s directorial debut, Sound City. It’s a documentary that chronicles the history of legendary Sound City Studios in LA that remained devoted to recording on analog (even to its eventual detriment). I highly recommend it if you enjoy music history as well as Grohl’s doc series on HBO Sonic Highways (Foo Fighters spend a week in a different US city to explore to specific music history of each city and then record a song at the end of each week. Made for a great tv show but the album was so-so). So I had always viewed Back and Forth as the project that gave Dave Grohl the bug to make documentaries that I really enjoyed. So for that, I’m thankful. And I’m glad we finally have Dave Grohl on record saying how ridiculous it was to name a band Foo Fighters.

Jason: Before I get going, I want to take a second to say that I don’t think “Foo Fighters” is a terrible band name! Brief history lesson: the term “foo fighter” was coined in the early days of aviation by pilots who saw dazzling lights flying around their planes in physics defying displays. It was a precursor to words like flying saucer and UFO. I think it’s a great name for a rock band!

Cool. That’s out of the way. This could have been a standard run-of-the-mill band documentary if it had been about any other band in history. But it wasn’t. The journey that Grohl has been on since his first experiences on stage has been a rollercoaster of a ride. The title of this doc,  Back and Forth, describes it perfectly. From paying in tiny local punk bands, to being in one of the most influential rock groups of the 90s, to creating his own sound, to working with other projects and bands in his off time. He has done it all at this point. And none of it has been a smooth ride. And through it all, it seems that he still does not consider himself a “rock star”. None of the guys in the band do. They all appear to be genuinely humble folks who just want to make good music. They have good times, they have rough times, people leave, some come back. And they always turn out something fantastic!

I have wanted to be in a band for as long as I could play an instrument. I dreamed of putting together my own thing and have come close to doing it time and again. After watching things like this, I am not sure I would have been able to cut in in that world. Just the tour life in general looks miserable. I love how open and honest these guys were in this doc about what that life is like and just how straining it can be. And in the end, still all they want to to do is play music. It’s inspiring.