Rated Parental Guidance
(Language May Offend, Mature Theme) 93 minutes
Dir: Emmett Malloy, US, 2010
Jack White, Meg White
"The White Stripes have always done things a little differently than most bands. For most of their 12-plus years together, Jack and Meg White claimed to be siblings, when in fact they were married for three and a half years. (Each is now remarried to someone else.) They have cultivated an iconoclastic music and design style, which has struck some as a contradiction, like organized anarchy or optimistic nihilism. So when the band decided to undertake a 2007 tour of Canada in support of their sixth album, Icky Thump, they chose a circuitous path that wound through every province and territory, "from the ocean to the permafrost" as Jack put it. Emmett Malloy, a noted maker of music videos, tagged along for the more extreme segments of the tour, and the result is Under Great White Northern Lights. It's the kind of tour that one imagines the cool kids (as opposed to the strictly popular ones) would undertake, kicking off in Whitehorse, with an unscheduled downtown outdoor concert, and including a stop in Iqualuit, on Baffin Island, for a meeting and sing-song with a group of First Nations elders. Malloy offers extended footage of the band's raucous performances - the duo manage to make both a lot of noise and beautiful music with nothing more than drums, a guitar and their voices. There are also quieter sets (We're Going to Be Friends is particularly nice) and backstage ramblings. The best bits are Jack's impromptu conversations, such as his interview of the mayor of Yellowknife, who personally picks them up at the airport and drives them to their gig. (Talk about your northern hospitality!) The film mixes black-and-white and colour footage, and at times seems like a tour documentary from an earlier age, especially given the occasional old-but-still-working vehicle in the North. The Stripes' plan was to play a regular venue in each stop, but also to include a spontaneous performance, some of which ended up taking place on a Winnipeg city bus, a Saskatoon bowling alley and a boat in Charlottetown harbour. Bigger stops such as Toronto and Ottawa get less attention, but this is really about the band getting back to its roots. It's ironic that just after the tour, which included the White Stripes' 10th anniversary concert in Glace Bay, N.S., they cancelled planned dates in the U.S. and U.K., citing an attack of acute anxiety by the reclusive Meg. They were next seen performing live more than two years later, on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Their next move is anyone's guess. But until it happens, they'll always have Canada." - Chris Knight, The National Post