Review: Becoming Led Zeppelin

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. 

If you're interested in gossip or dirt about Led Zeppelin, then Bernard MacMahon's documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin" is likely not for you. At one point, lead singer Robert Plant mentions that there were a "lot of drugs and girls" at one point during the band's meteoric rise, but that's about all you get in terms of the band's somewhat wild reputation.

If you're interested in the music of Led Zeppelin - which I am - then you'll likely get a lot out of this band-sanctioned documentary that interviews the three remaining members of the band (Plant, guitar virtuoso and band mastermind Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones). There's some great concert footage, a fair amount of information about the group's members that you likely didn't know, and of course a lot of great music.

My only slight disappointment - and this is only a personal one, not having anything to do with the film or how it was made - is that the picture focuses solely on the band's beginning and, therefore, zeroes in primarily on their first two records. Of course, those two albums are rock 'n roll classics, but so are albums three through six, so it was a little disappointing that we didn't make it that far into the band's career during the film's two-hour running time.

But Martin Scorsese once said that cinema is the totality of everything that's on the screen - and so, in this case, focusing on Led Zeppelin's first 18 months is obviously a choice. But there are a lot of great tidbits of which I was completely unaware. For instance, I had no idea that early on Page predominately worked as a session musician, providing backup for Donovan and numerous others. I also had no clue that both Page and Jones are playing backup on the theme to the James Bond film, "Goldfinger."

Page and Jones had worked together and so had Plant and Bonham, who died in 1980 but whose archival interviews blend nicely with those of the other band members in terms of what's being discussed in this film. Page first saw success with The Yardbirds and then took over that band when Jeff Beck fled. At first, Led Zeppelin performed as a new iteration of The Yardbirds but, as we learn here, changed their name based on a suggestion by The Who's Keith Moon. Like I said, lots of interesting tidbits here. It also helps that all three of the film's living subjects are articulate and good storytellers. 

But the film's raison d'etre is the use of its concert footage, much of which - I believe - has never appeared in a documentary or been seen by a wide audience, other than those who were in attendance at the shows. So, there are some blistering live performances of "Whole Lotta Love," "Ramble On," "What Is and What Never Should Be," and "Dazed and Confused" as well as one of "Communication Breakdown" that seems to be bursting with manic energy. This is a movie you'll want to see in a theater with a good sound system. It's loud and may literally rattle you - but there's really no other way to experience it.