‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ movie review: a swollen analysis lacking in excitement or heart
For fans of a band, they want to know everything. The whos, the whens, the whys, the hows. They want to understand the exact recipe of how that group at that time came together with that sound. For Led Zeppelin fans, Becoming Led Zeppelin will do that as it presents an almost mathematical exploration of how the band came to be but then fails to look into who they become.
The first part of the film feels like a long set-up to an equation. Each member gets their moment, moving through their childhood and young adulthood, shining a spotlight on key moments to be taken with them. For John Paul Jones, it’s his youth with his parents in Vaudeville. For Jimmy Page, it’s a childhood moment of playing guitar in the playground opening up into an adult obsession. For Robert Plant and John Bonham, it’s the typical early obsession with rock and roll.
As they get older, the equation makes more and more sense with all these pieces of context coming together, sketching the shape Led Zeppelin would take. The more in-depth look at Page and Jones’ session work feels incredibly revealing. Perhaps no piece of music in the entire film is as rousing as the booming opening of ‘Goldfinger’, which both musicians play on, as it seemingly sets up the band’s own musical drama later down the line.
It’s in these looks at their work with other people and their training to truly become the best of the best across any and all styles before channelling that into their own that feels like the moment things start to click into place. The impression is given that whatever these two did, it would have been great. But when they then found Plant and Bonham, it’s set up brilliantly like skill meeting talent. Jones and Page had the technical know-how, but no one ever had to teach Plant how to growl like that or Bonham how to own rhythm like that.
Across the film, Bonham’s absence is felt in the most beautiful way. Interview clips from a rare chat are shared for the first time with the audience and the band. The surviving members are hearing these vox pops along with the audience, creating some moving moments that celebrate their friendship as a humanising force amidst a pretty matter-of-fact film. In particular, the relationship between Bonham and Jones as the band’s foundation, with Jones lavishing praise on the memory of his friend’s talent, creates a warm centre that I found myself yearning for more of.
Beyond that, Becoming Led Zeppelin is pretty sparse on personality. Especially as the equation comes together and the band have become themselves, the film starts to feel swollen as entire lengthy live performance after live performance plays with no real look into the lives or personas of the men making it, beyond some moments of charm from Plant today and Page doing his best genius act.
Honestly, it becomes boring. From the moment the band is together and building towards major success, the documentary fails to teach anything. Most importantly, it fails to convey the one thing rock music should always be: fun, thrilling, exciting. Beyond tapping toes along to the band’s songs, there is no joy or energy to be found and no intrigue outside of the success story the world already knows.
As its final third seemed to last 500 hours, I realised it had fallen victim to the shape of every other documentary about a band of this era. The post-war opening narrative, the idealism of America, the studio experiments and then the big breakthrough, followed by the conflict between home and fame, the tough touring schedule, and some closing remarks about how amazing it is that they came so far from home. By now, surely we can be done with that?
When this whole story is only a Wikipedia page away, Becoming Led Zeppelin fails to focus on the thing that is always the most interesting, which is the people and personalities fans are still trying to get to know decades on.
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