The swagger is effortless, the talent is supernatural, the aura is purple. “Becoming Led Zeppelin” may not have a particular pace and, befitting of a band that saw no reason to do things any way but their own and now made a documentary that stops not long after the release of their second album, isn’t out to answer every question you may have. But I could’ve watched it all day.
There are stories, yes. About how the individuals started playing and how the foursome established and how the truly insane Atlantic Records deal was made. But “Becoming Led Zeppelin” hinges so remarkably on the impossible alchemy of each essential piece of a band that carves the groove, chugs through it, floors it off the tracks, and leaves smoke and rainbows in the dust. Surely if you’re interested in this documentary you also are at least partially wishing you could just see Zeppelin live. That’s all the more reason to embrace this fountain of live performances plus new interviews with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, and never-before-heard interview snippets from John Bonham.
Again: Considering the control Page had over the band’s recording process and the group’s approach to its legacy, it’s no big surprise that the film doesn’t exactly pull back the curtain on anything salacious or even just certain basics about the day-to-day experience of being in the band or elements of the writing process that would’ve been particularly valuable. Still gotta appreciate what director Bernard MacMahon gives us anyway — an origin story that’s attentive to the assembling of the supergroup, and a look at one of the most famous bands of all time that also is probably pretty inside-baseball from a musical and biographical standpoint for a certain level of fan that wants a more “True Hollywood Story” approach.
For me, sitting next to my dad, the person who introduced me to the band (and who saw them live with my mom when they were dating) and who still marvels at the music and the gear, it’s somewhere between a rediscovery and starting anew, hearing certain songs I know so well differently, as if it’s they who’ve changed after all this time.
Leave a Reply