For co-director Joe Berlinger, it was also a scene of great cinematic merit. \u201cFrom a filmmaking point of view, when your intention is to capture raw human emotion, it was pure gold,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Some Kind Of Monster was an intimate portrait of a band working through an interpersonal crisis that had been bubbling under the surface long before the cameras started rolling. By early 2001, Metallica\u2019s management company, Q Prime, were aware of fracturing relationships in the band, and had drafted in psychotherapist and \u2018performance enhancement coach\u2019 Phil Towle, to help ease relations as they prepared to make their eighth record. His first meeting with Metallica took place at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco, but the smooth introduction he had intended on making did not go as planned.<\/p>\n
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Metallica recording St Anger (Image credit: Third Eye Motion Picture Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Annamaria DiSanto)<\/p>\n
\u201cJason came in and said: \u2018I\u2019m leaving\u2019,\u201d remembers Phil. \u201cHe asked me to go to the room adjacent, where I listened to him railing against the bandmates for 10 minutes. And that was chaos. I decided at some point to knock on the door and say, \u2018May I come back in? This is exactly why I\u2019m here.\u2019 And Lars said, \u2018Let him stay.\u2019 And we started the process, which was an awkward, challenging moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Jason cited \u201cprivate and personal reasons\u201d for his departure, and \u201cthe physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love\u201d. A series of interviews for Playboy, conducted two months earlier but published in March 2001, also revealed that James had forbidden Jason from releasing music with his side-project, Echobrain. \u201cThe band were stunned, and a fight ensued, and there was a lot of conflict in that first session,\u201d Phil recalls.<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: Third Eye Motion Picture Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Annamaria DiSanto)<\/p>\n
The group therapy continued regardless, and during this period documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger flew over from New York. He had been in talks with Metallica about doing a film that could be released as pay-per-view content, or as a bonus featurette on the CD for their next record, but now Lars told him there might not even be a new record because Jason had quit the band. When Lars also explained they were working with a performance enhancement coach, Joe\u2019s artistic interest was piqued; would they allow him to film the sessions? Incredibly, the band said yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember sitting in this nice lounge room of a hotel suite, with these icons of metal, of male testosterone, opening up to each other and exploring how they feel,\u201d Joe says. \u201cThere was a little bit of reluctance from James, but as I got to know him better, I\u2019d say it\u2019s amazing that he opened up on that first day with the camera in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The session also had a therapeutic effect on Joe; he realised he wanted to continue documenting the process, and after splitting with his longtime filmmaking partner, Bruce Sinofsky, he felt compelled to reach out and bring him into the project. Filming stepped up as Metallica moved into the empty barracks at the Presidio, a former military base in San Francisco, with emotions still running high. After one particularly intense disagreement, James slammed the door behind him and did not come back.<\/p>\n
Instead, the frontman checked into rehab. Phil knew that he would be doing intensive therapy there, and was determined that the sessions between himself and Kirk, Lars and returning producer Bob Rock should continue so the band could connect more easily when he returned.<\/p>\n
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From a filmmaking point of view, when your intention is to capture raw human emotion, it was pure gold<\/p>\n
Joe Berlinger<\/p>\n
Lars dived deep into his own past. In a segment that held a mirror up to the drummer\u2019s perfectionism, he played demos to his father. In an astonishingly open scene, he also met with Dave Mustaine, who told him how hurtful it was to be fired from Metallica and that he missed \u201chis little Danish friend\u201d. He also, however, alluded to the fact that the absent James was yet to reach out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very touching moment for them, and it was the beginning
of some healing, and also they left the meeting with some unfinished business too. It wasn\u2019t all nicey-nice, right?\u201d says Phil. \u201cBut I think Lars realised that there were things he wishes he could have done differently with Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Some Kind Of Monster\u2019s release in 2004, Dave condemned the scene and said he had asked for it not to be included, citing unhappiness with the final cut and describing the unsettled mood he was in during filming, two days after the terrorist attacks of 9\/11. However, he had already signed a release form, granting the filmmakers legal permission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think two years later when he saw the scene and 9\/11 was now a thing of the past, and people weren\u2019t spiritually awake the way we were that first week, he regretted perhaps participating,\u201d says Joe. \u201cBut I think that\u2019s a shame. I think he is very strong and human.\u201d<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: Bob Richman)<\/p>\n
James returned from rehab with new ground rules: he would only work on their album between noon and 4pm. Resentment flared between him and Lars; was Lars allowed to listen to songs after James left for the day, if he didn\u2019t change anything? Why couldn\u2019t Lars just do what he wanted anyway? That frustration exploded via the sweary drummer\u2019s most notorious utterance of one simple word: \u201cFUUUUUUCK!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys are waiting for James. Waiting, waiting, waiting \u2013 not only waiting, but wondering whether James was ever going to come back. They were scared it was over,\u201d explains Phil. \u201cAnd when James comes marching back and says, \u2018I can\u2019t work between certain hours and certain hours\u2019, Lars was really pissed off. Like, \u2018What the fuck? We\u2019ve been waiting for you, and you\u2019ve controlled us for 10 months.\u2019 And he probably felt that James had controlled them for more than 10 months, right? So this was the collision of years of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of the outburst, because Lars already had a reputation for running his mouth off, and because of the recent media attention surrounding his battle with file-sharing service Napster, some fans began to turn on him.<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: Third Eye Motion Picture Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Annamaria DiSanto)<\/p>\n
\u201cLars was not being an asshole, he was just somebody who was expressing the pent-up anger he had felt,\u201d says Phil. \u201cAnd James was saying, \u2018Look guys, I have to work with my family, maintain my sobriety and maintain my composure.\u2019 So that collision was scary, but it was necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason came in and said: \u2018I\u2019m leaving\u2019. I listened to him railing against the bandmates for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Phil Towle<\/p>\n
To Joe\u2019s mind, the overarching issue was that Metallica were trying to reconcile how to make music without indulging in the practices that had earned them the \u2018Alcoholica\u2019 tag in their younger years. \u201cI think living that ethos of sex, drugs and rock\u2019n\u2019roll in their 40s wasn\u2019t working for them,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot has been said about the tension between James and Lars, but I think the larger issue is that the band was wanting to continue to make music, but they didn\u2019t want to live that life that made them famous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the bust-up, work on what would later be titled St. Anger gathered speed, alongside their journey of self-reflection. Encouraged by their work with Phil, the band had started contributing lyrics collectively, but there\u2019s one moment when the coach himself offers a suggestion, which is highlighted in the film. \u201cThat to me was a crossing of the line,\u201d says Joe.<\/p>\n
Not long after, James rounded on Phil and accused him of becoming too attached to a future with Metallica, suggesting it was time to terminate their involvement with each other. Caught off guard, Phil is visibly teary-eyed and shaken.<\/p>\n
There was some background to this encounter, says Phil. A year or so earlier, he and Metallica had agreed to part ways \u2013 but then Lars had called and asked him to stay. He\u2019d been under the impression that the partnership would continue, and admits it was difficult to hear he was no longer needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unhealthy part of me is guilty of wanting to hold on to something, because this was like a family to me,\u201d says Phil. \u201cIt was like something I had never experienced before, personally and professionally. No person in my work gets to be with a group of people, almost every day, for 12 hours a day. The embedment makes it difficult for an ending like that. Then it was done on camera, in contradiction to what I thought was agreed upon. So that was a moment when I fumbled the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Joe Berlinger being filmed by Lars Ulrich during the St Anger session (Image credit: Bob Richman)<\/p>\n
After fans saw Some Kind Of Monster, some cast Phil as the villain of the piece \u2013 criticism that was difficult to stomach, especially as he had no right of reply. But last year Lars publicly stated that Phil saved Metallica \u2013 and Joe agrees.<\/p>\n
Lars was not being an asshole, he was just somebody who was expressing the pent-up anger he had felt.<\/p>\n
Phil Towle<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the misperception is that he had his hooks in the band for fees and he was just looking to milk the situation,\u201d says Joe. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case at all. I think he\u2019s a caring human being who wears his heart on his sleeve, and did great work in the band, and it got to the point where his job was done, and he had a hard time saying goodbye. But in having a hard time saying goodbye, he unwittingly gave Metallica the tools they needed once again to come together as a brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Anger was released on June 5, 2003. Reactions were mixed, with widespread criticism over the album\u2019s production, in particular Lars\u2019s snare sound. But when Some Kind Of Monster followed six months later, fans were shown how lucky they were to still have Metallica at all.<\/p>\n
Metallica – St. Anger (Official Music Video) – YouTube
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