“Dio: Dreamers Never Die” (9.14 Pictures) [Documentary Review]

Dio: Dreamers Never Die details the iconic career, performances, and legacy left by Ronnie James Dio. From the very start, the quality of production on Dio: Dreamers Never Die surprises, elates, and draws in the viewer. The cast of characters, and the stories they share about Dio, are one of the things that elevate the film from being a niche biopic to broadly fascinating. Detailing his early days as a crooner(!) to rock n’ roll and later metal is all well and good, but having mega-fans, fellow musicians, and luminary personalities to share their own stories about him across these decades is the ace up its sleeve.

The documentary spans the chronology of Dio’s life with a harmonious balance between detail, analogy, aesthetic embellishment, and historical context while never feeling like a slog. The 2-hour run time passes seemingly in the blink of an eye, yet the sheer volume of detail and deep diving into Dio’s life achieved in that time is sure to reward long-time fans and fascinate those unfamiliar with Dio’s life.

The aesthetic embellishments, in the form of dramatizations of insert shots and scenes, are done in a style reminiscent of the period of Dio’s indomitable reign, the ’80s. The film stays true to that era’s aesthetic, and it’s a pleasure to watch. It’s also impressive, given some of the shots that are nailed down – one sequence in particular, of two metalheads listening to Dio’s debut as Black Sabbath’s singer on the 1980 classic Heaven And Hell is particularly impressive. I won’t ruin it for you, but it’s a hallucinatory sequence that gets pretty damn cosmic and rivals any Adult Swim-caliber fever dream sequence.

It’s a worthy pursuit, this film, if only because Dio left behind a legacy that endures regardless of whether people throwing up horns know it or not. It’s also a testament to the integrity with which the late singer lived that everyone enthuses about him without any sense of irony or self-editing. They’re just as enthusiastic and authentic about what he meant to them as the late singer was when it came to his own career choices. Having the likes of Rob Halford, Tony Iommi, and Jack Black speaking on the legacy he left behind is one of the reasons to watch the film. Added to that are the emotive and frank stories shared by Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s widow and business manager. Her presence in the film is a welcome one throughout, and seeing the influence she played on Dio’s life is plain to see.

Overall, Dio: Dreamers Never Die isn’t just a great metal documentary or biopic or historical narrative – it’s a great movie. It does the one thing that all great documentaries aspire to do: make the viewer genuinely interested in the topic, and leave them with enough to satiate, but still leave them wanting more. Even after finishing the film, I found myself pining for a rewatch to enjoy the music, the visuals, the characters, and the stories. It’s just what Dio deserves, but perhaps more importantly, it’s just what Dio fans deserve.

Director: Don Argott, Demian Fenton
Producer: Don Argott, Sheena M. Joyce
Distributor: 9.14 Pictures / Trafalgar Releasing
Release Date: September 28, 2022 (Germany)
Run Time: 127 minutes

Artwork for the documentary ‘Dio: Dreamers Never Die’