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Schacht: Lars Ulrich's father. Hello, Rasputin. Lars: "What would you do with this song, Dad?" Rasputin/Dad: "Delete it." He even looked the part. He should be their next documentary subject.

Brunson: That therapist, Phil Towle, killed me. I'm no expert in the field, but for $40,000 a month, I think I could wing telling self-absorbed musicians to "get into the zone." Perhaps the funniest scene is when the band tries to tell him they no longer need him, and, sensing his meal ticket slipping away, he starts to yammer about how he has many more ideas on how to help them. But overall, I found Hammett to be the most memorable character. It was interesting how, as Tim mentioned, the band resembled an actual family. Here you have Hetfield and Ulrich as the constantly bickering parents, you have Bob Rock as the rational uncle who tries to patch up the relationship (occasionally getting caught in the crossfire himself), and then you have Hammett serving as the calm child who sees everything going on with clarity and a measure of innocence. Hammett usually made a lot of sense, and when he remarks that he's "egoless," it's one of the few times I've heard a sentiment of that nature come out of a celebrity's mouth and actually believed it.

So what negative criticism would each of you have about the movie?

Davis: I thought the film might have been a little slow on the uptake. The real psychodrama takes place after the first 30 minutes, after all the backstory has been explained. I thought they probably could have cut that part in half, and still explain everything that needed to be explained. That's only a trifling complaint, though.

Schacht: I thought that the early part of the band's career got short shrift in the movie -- if you didn't know Hetfield and his background you'd probably wonder why he needs years of rehab when everyone else is OK with six weeks or whatever. The extent of the band's touring lifestyle was glossed over so quickly -- pretty much just a brief montage of private planes and bare-breasted groupies and rivers of alcohol -- that you don't get a real sense of how many temptations life must hold for a recovering addict. Maybe I just wanted to see more groupies.

Brunson: I know that you guys have always had a real problem with the band's anti-Napster stance, so it's funny that I'm the one bringing it up. But considering the group became as known for that mess as for their music, I felt that the picture seriously shortchanged this issue. The filmmakers never really challenged Lars Ulrich on this subject, never making him directly answer why someone who's filthy rich beyond belief (beyond raking it in musically, he ends up selling his personal art collection for, what, $5 million?) would mount such a feverish battle against the fans, the people who made him a millionaire in the first place. Was his stance a noble one, bravely waging the war for smaller bands that might really be hurt by Napster, or is he really that greedy and controlling a bastard? The movie lets him off the hook on this issue.

Davis: I think Lars knows the whole thing was a bad idea at this point. As he says in the movie, he became the most hated man in rock. And while it was a little surprising they didn't push him on that front, the Napster thing and all the "squillions" don't really seem to me to be what the band -- and the movie -- are about. Rock saved these potential burnouts and gave them a haven from their troubled home lives, drug addictions, and the like. But the movie is also about chemistry, about how "families" interact, and about how placing someone new in the mix can lead to explosive results, either good or bad. Which leads me to my two favorite scenes: new bassist Robert Trujillo dancing for joy in his room after the band invites him on board and presents him with a million-dollar "good faith" check -- "I'm a bass-playing, rock & roll millionaire! Don't they know I'd do it for free?" -- and Lars being interviewed on a hillside in California. His shirt reads "It's Only Rock And Roll." You can't see the bottom, but I bet it says "But I Like It." And it's true -- it is only rock & roll. And I think the movie climaxes when they learn that fact.