Becoming Led Zeppelin

If you’re someone who treasures the music of Led Zeppelin more than you’re interested in the legend—or the gossip, or the dirt, or whatever you want to call it—of Led Zeppelin, this movie is absolutely for you. I’m one of those people, and I ate it up.

True, Becoming Led Zeppelin is never going to do anything but celebrate, given it’s an authorised take on the band. But there’s warmth and good humour here.

For a casual fan who knows the band largely for swagger and self-indulgence, Bernard MacMahon’s Becoming Led Zeppelin is an eye-opening delight — a visit with charming old men who modestly recall the music-drunk paths they took to forming the defining band of the classic-rock ’70s.

Overall, this is a likable and well-researched film, but there is something unsatisfying in ignoring the band’s later stages. Perhaps Part II is in the works.

Becoming Led Zeppelin is full of essential stuff, but on some level it feels like a Led Zeppelin infomercial.

If Led Zeppelin’s place in the culture outlives them, later films will plumb the depths of their “real” experience of fame, success, sex, drugs and rock’n roll. This is the coffee picture table book version.

This bloated documentary will not create any new fans of Led Zeppelin because MacMahon caters exclusively to the group’s superfans.

The quantity and quality of the archival images and recordings are astonishing and very well used. I'm a boomer and a bit of a fan, but I was actually surprised, despite my familiarity, by many of the revelations (who knew Page and Jones were session players on Goldfinger?!) I had also never really noticed the breadth, complexity, and sophistication of the music. They may have almost invented hard rock, but few of those who followed had their level of chops across the board. I thoroughly enjoyed it, much more than I expected.

It wasn't bad. A simple documentary of how they started the band. It wasn't deep but it was ok. Nothing groundbreaking but at least they didn't dwell on depressing stuff (aka drugs and women). Our view is: "go ahead and watch it if you don't know much about the band."

Here's the skinny. The doc is worth seeing for a few reasons. 1. The backstory and the formation of Led Zeppelin that takes part primarily in the first half 2. The concert footage with audio from the soundboard from a couple of the early performances. 3. Seeing how charming/cool (especially Plant and JPJ the guys are in the interviews. That being said, toward the latter half, they just played the album tracks over film mashups of concert footage and psychedelic visuals. It became a bit trite.

Um documentário extremamente burocrático e chato, a melhor parte é quando deixam tocar toda a música da banda em certas apresentações. Seria melhor ver um show mesmo.

Nerfed Slop. Entire ALBUM tracks paired with montage footage. The biggest conflict in the film is Bonham's girlfriend warning to stay away from Plant, but we *never* learn her reasons. This film was made to smooth over anything controversial and create something soothing for their legacy and the grandkids. Compared to Get Back by Peter Jackson, this film is a joke. You *might* like it if you like bland puff pieces, and want to swim in neutered nostalgia. On the plus side : there were a couple of actual live performances captured that were worth seeing, but they account for only 10% of the runtime.