Now playing in theatres
Most documentaries about bands no longer active rarely get the musician’s seal of approval, and when we’re dealing with supergroup Led Zeppelin, director Bernard MacMahon better get the facts right! In what his work offers is a look at their start. It begins with looking at who Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant are before they met.
What’s great about this work is this filmmaker is not focussing on any specific individual. The survivors are all there to reminisce about fond times. When they were young, the first act shows how music entered their lives, what they did before meeting, and that famous session zero.
To note, this documentary is not meant to be a comprehensive look at the group. It’s made to be a love letter about how they came into the world. Fans looking for all the hedonism and debauchery which followed in their rapid rise to fame can look elsewhere. What this film does is simply part one of their journey, and that’s becoming Led Zeppelin. Through new interviews, archival footage and a few never-seen materials, it’s a highlight reel about the work they did to promote their first two albums.
That meant getting the help of Peter Grant, a behemoth of a man, whose shrewd tactics helped the band and convinced Atlantic Records to agree to their terms. While some of this information is common knowledge, other bits are not. What I enjoyed from this new look are the songs presented in full. Although the IMAX format really shows the diminishing quality of those video recordings, the audio is terrific! I can only assume this work is using the remasters. While I don’t mind some of those dust and scratches associated with vintage record players, sometimes having the digital fidelity also helps.
What was presented felt like an album and a half worth of tunes. As for the rest of their discography, and what happens next, at least two more films are required to cover their rise and decision to disband.
4 Stars out of 5
Becoming Led Zeppelin Trailer
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