To be or not to be: a question that engaged some stodgier, sexless Brits maybe, but not rock's mightiest quartet, Led Zeppelin. From the onset of the newest (and only authorized) documentary chronicling the group's formation, there exists an aura of self-assuredness, of destiny begging to be made manifest.
From their formation in the summer of 1968 through the breakneck pace that led them to over 130 concerts and two gold records by the end of '69, Becoming Led Zeppelin exclusively chronicles the tequila salad days of the group, using newly unearthed concert footage, archival materials, and a previously unheard interview from the late, great John Bonham.
Co-written by director Bernard MacMahon and producer Allison McGourty, architects of the exhaustive and acclaimed American Epic film series, Becoming Led Zeppelin cobbles together the historical and musical lineages of the group with equal parts precision and admiration. What's past is prologue; an image of a teenybopper Jimmy Page with a Buddy Holly splay of the legs and Bill Haley spitcurl neatly summarizes the group's auspicious origins as music-obsessives turned objects of obsession.
The joy of documentary filmmaking is on full display, with inspired collage-style sequences and impeccable restoration that gives Becoming Led Zeppelin credence as a capital-E Experience. In IMAX, the tumult and rumble of the band come alive, the dynamism of their music highlighted in the restless nature of the rhythms and melodies as they careen off the walls. Don't feel betrayed by the occasional layering of studio tracks over live footage, MacMahon achieves a seamless effect in the careful blend.
MacMahon employs intuitive visual language throughout to focus on the band without blurring the background, the very specific circumstances of their beginnings. Hitherto unseen archival photos of Zeppelin intimates and rock'n'roll legends alike are tremendously evocative, invoking good-natured nostalgia, including an incredibly green Robert Plant on Wolfman Jack's program during a stop in L.A. becoming uncharacteristically dumbstruck by calls from voracious (read: horny) fans.
Where posterity fails MacMahon (footage of the band is notoriously scarce), he makes do with historical context, such as montages making tenuous connection with '60s unrest to Zep's music. "Pivotal" moments, like playing the famed Fillmore East in San Francisco two years after the Summer of Love, are played up to give the group's rise added narrative. A particularly self-aggrandizing moment has Becoming Led Zeppelin equate the mind-blowing nature of the Apollo 11's landing with a Zeppelin show the same evening. But aside from their musical influences, Zeppelin was a band uniquely insular and disaffected compared to their contemporaries, reacting only to personal tragedies rather than politics or world events.
It will disappoint some that the film delves into the music and activities of the group with no affinity for the scandals and decline fit for a biopic's fall and reconciliation phase, especially given Led Zeppelin's ribald reputation. But 50 years on, these things seem less essential in the telling of the group's story. It's doubtful youth in another half-century will have any feelings when Zeppelin and "mud shark" are mentioned together, but I bet they'll know the riff from "Immigrant Song."
Yet even then, there is some unity lacking in the film. The band worked hard and possessed immense talent and started with nothing, but it's just pure ascendancy from there. Rock star excesses to follow aside, a subtle lack of abrasion makes this picture, which first premiered in 2021 as a work-in-progress, excessively polished. The fact that Plant, Page and Jones are all seated in the same majestic chair in the same room for interviews but never shown on-screen together or conversing betrays the unmendable fractures of a group brought to a tragic and unceremonious end 45 years ago. Meanwhile, protracted song sequences may bore on both ends of the Zeppelin fan bell curve in spite of psychedelic visualizations and montages.
Sequels can be easily imagined given this covers about one-sixth of the group's mostly illustrious history, but that's up to the men whose life-defining tragedies they'll have to revisit. Its strategic wide release may goad the older members to relinquish pride and provide a tell-all for the remaining history of the group. Becoming Led Zeppelin feels fundamentally incomplete, especially as the train gets rolling at full steam right where the film abruptly ends.
The film garners the sense that the true portrait of the group is decaying in an attic somewhere in Abbey Road Studios while this consummate package is toted around. But in any case, for those who get off on music more than gossip, or choose a Rolling Stone special on the newsstand over People, heed John Paul Jones's gentle advice in Becoming Led Zeppelin and "go get some."