Music documentaries have gotten better recently. I can’t say exactly why, but I’m excited for it. One such example is the recently released Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Including interviews with surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones, as well as a rare John Bonham audio interview, this rock documentary is all about how they got to the mountaintop as rock stars.
This isn’t about Bonham’s death, or how Page and Plant got back together again. This isn’t about “the band” or the personalities. This is about how they started, where they came from, and what it took for them to break through.
In the current interviews Page, Plant, and Jones are shot sitting in ornate wooden chairs befitting their rock royalty status.
And since this is about the music, we spend some time with it. This isn’t just talking heads, with the occasional choruses from their greatest hits heard. We get to spend time with Led Zeppelin in some rare live performances. We get to hear Jimmy Page talk about a solo and jamming with the band, and then we get to watch and hear it happen, for a few minutes, not just a few seconds.
That’s part of the brilliance of this documentary. It focuses on the music, but the other part is that the curtain is pulled back. At times, we get to watch Page or Plant react to an old performance that’s also being shown to us.
I’d also point out that Page and Jones, when they were session musicians, were part of the recording for the James Bond theme from Goldfinger. Their insights on that session reflect their own giddiness at having been a part of something equally historic like that. And this is the guys in Led Zeppelin talking about it, after having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
Of course, the documentary also takes the time to set the social, political, and global news and circumstances through which they created their first few albums. Context is important, and this documentary doesn’t leave any of it out.
However, this reliance on the music, the concept of giving the music space to play and be heard, may also deter some viewers. I’m a fan of Led Zeppelin, I found the performances and the old footage amazing to behold. If you are just curious and aren’t the biggest fan of their kind of rock, I could understand that the time allotted to music, as opposed to their history and the talking heads portion, could be a downside.
Personally, I think more rock documentaries should take their cues from director Bernard MacMahon’s vision. Documentaries are about discovery. And if you don’t want to take the time to listen to the music they are discussing, why are you even watching?
Perhaps I’m just contradicting myself, but I think if you’re not already into the band, this may not be for you. If you are, It’s a can’t-miss celebration.
Read the Secret File of technical information and quotes from Becoming Led Zeppelin.