"Becoming Led Zeppelin"
Director: Bernard MacMahon
121 minutes
When tectonic plates crash together, there's a great rumble. It sounds like the gods are sending a message. Such is the sonic boom of the mighty Led Zeppelin, a band so chronicled, overplayed, and taken for granted, it seems unlikely that anything fresh or revealing could possibly be imparted at this point. Hasn't the story been told?
The idea that maybe it hasn't is the primary achievement of "Becoming Led Zeppelin," directed by South Londoner Bernard MacMahon, the force behind the lauded 1920s roots music documentary "American Epic." With his and screenwriter Allison McGourty's sharp focus on the the group's origin story — not to mention a warm sentimentality — this documentary captures a key, lightning-in-a-bottle stretch of 1968-1970 Zep. Studio session pros cross paths with an itinerant, parent-defying hippie singer and his drummer pal, and the world never sounds the same again. It sounds like a movie pitch, inherently.
Reality, of course, is often way more interesting than fiction — and that's felt most acutely if you watch trailers for upcoming mainstream features that will soon be in theaters. Indeed, there's precious little for certain demographics to latch onto at the multiplex these days, which makes "Becoming Led Zeppelin" such a treat. And in IMAX, the sound and vision is extra immersive and striking. If there was ever an opportunity for skeptics or scream-averse casual music fans to embrace why Led Zeppelin is important, this may be the last, best chance to "get it."
"Becoming Led Zeppelin" succeeds on various levels, but it especially sings when it digs into the history of these men. It seems Page and Jones had supportive parents, while Bonham was old before his time, marrying his sweetheart Pat Phillips at age 17 in 1966. By way of contrast, Plant, a "Golden God" in training, was once an innocent — a shaggy, flashily-attired bounder, rejecting his parent's pleas to be an accountant and trading the straight life for unlimited freedom. And if he had no steady place to live, what of it? As the documentary depicts, it was conduct that found him being photographed in the papers leading a gang of dropouts with signs advocating for pot legalization. With the end of World War II, an optimism prevailed in England, and later, cultural shifts and exposure to popular musicians (Little Richard, Lonnie Donegan, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elvis, et al. are all shown in the doc) fostered youthful rebellion and identity-seeking.
Elsewhere, the other future Zeppelin members' development is covered in entertaining fashion. Besides Page's bow on British broadcast television as a baby-faced skiffle player at age 14, the session work that he and Jones were part of is covered in rich detail here. It all underlines the seasoned musicianship that went into Zeppelin and made them standard-bearers. Artists such as Shirley Bassey, Donovan, Lulu, the Nashville Teens, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, and Tom Jones, among many others, were graced on record by the talents of Page and Jones. As Bonham notes in an archival audio interview here, there were four distinct personalities in Led Zeppelin.
Those personalities are well-represented onscreen. Among the most potent aspects of this documentary — created with all surviving members' full participation (unprecedented for any Zep doc to date) — are all the extensive, current interviews with Page, Plant, and Jones. With a mixture of grace, bemusement and a satisfied vibe of "my god, we really did something," each of them gamely contribute commentary and tell their respective stories. On that level alone, "Becoming Led Zeppelin" rises to the level of a landmark rock and roll film.
Of course, the performance footage is worth the price of admission. It's heady stuff watching these four guys tear into such careening, explosive songs as "Communication Breakdown," "Bring It On Home" and "What Is and What Should Never Be." Plant's wail, Bonham's swing and power, Jones' impeccable bass, Page's searing Les Paul... it's something to behold. Chemistry like this, with a prioritization of both groove and bombast (and often, psychedelic exploration) occurs very rarely in rock. Sometimes, Zeppelin's British audiences appear baffled and even pained (a child is shown plugging his ears), whereas in later footage, Americans are in a state of awe, recalling the shocked faces of hippies witnessing Hendrix light his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop. The word "disruptor" is overused in this day and age, but it's truly something to see the actual embodiment of that word rearranging the synapses of all gathered in front of them.
Self-belief and work ethic are also themes in "Becoming Led Zeppelin." It's a real treat to see them in the studio, and have Page offer details, such as having Bonham's bass drum take up the entire widescreen picture of their sound. And even though this is a chronicle of a rapid rise that would give Icculus pause, in this window of time (effectively, their first two albums), Zep was weathering it and thriving, in spite of all the danger. That Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham accomplished all they did — and in the process created the blueprint for every hard rock and heavy metal band that followed them — is a case study worthy of MacMahon's deeper examination.
"Becoming Led Zeppelin" casts a spotlight on a singular phenomenon, and does it with a nice balance of journalistic integrity and heart. As with Zeus throwing lightning bolts, this tale has been told across time, but never with this much authority, unseen footage, and first-person narrative.
