Plot: Sam Dunn is a 30-year old anthropologist who wrote his graduate thesis on the plight of Guatemalan refugees. Recenly he has decided to study the plight of a different culture, one he has been a part of since he was a 12-year old: the culture of heavy metal. Sam sets out on a global journey to find out why this music has been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned and yet is loved so passionately by its millions of fans. Along the way, Sam explores metals' obsession with some of life's most provacative subjects - sexuality, religion, violence and death - and discovers some things about the culture that even he can't defend. Shot on location in the UK, Germany, Norway, Canada and the US, this documentary is the first of its kind. It is both a defense of a long-misunderstood art form and a window for the outsider into the spectacle that is heavy metal.
Alternative Plot: Filmmaker and anthropologist Sam Dunn investigates the origins and subculture surrounding heavy metal, tracing the genre's roots from 1970s post-industrial England to its 1980s pop crossover to its modern-day variants in Norwegian black metal. Told from the perspective of a devoted fan, Dunn balances his insider's view with interviews with some of metal's most influential artists -- including Alice Cooper, Bruce Dickinson and Rob Zombie -- as well as enthusiastic acolytes.
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