Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes, and the level of interest they generate usually depends on the popularity of their subject. When their topic is one of the biggest rock bands of the late sixties and early seventies, it is bound to be of interest to anyone who follows popular music.
Led Zeppelin was one of the many groups who emerged during the turbulent period known as the counterculture when many of the younger generation, in Western society at least, were questioning the values of their elders. Issues such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War were dividing society by challenging long-held assumptions and traditions.
It was a time when popular culture, including contemporary music, was displaying a hard and confronting edge. Singers such as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, as well as groups such as the Rolling Stones, were reflecting this disillusion and rebellion with unapologetic lyrics, unconventional images and often controversial lifestyles.
Led Zeppelin was part of this period of social change, which questioned many of the long-held moral and political values of previous generations. It was a time when even men having long hair was controversial, so long ago.
Becoming Led Zeppelin, 2025. Written and directed by Bernard MacMahon.
The group had many top ten hits and enjoyed both enormous critical and commercial success over the dozen years they were together. Some of their hits, like Whole Lotta Love and Stairway to Heaven, are classics of popular music. The group was composed of Robert Plant, lead singer, Jimmy Page, guitarist, John Paul Jones, bassist and keyboardist, and John Bonham, drummer. The film moves chronologically from the influences on these group members as children to their eventual international success.
This documentary takes the form of separate conversations with the three surviving original members. Tragically, John Bonham died in 1980 at the young age of 32. However, he is represented by his voice from a taped interview, which apparently had not been released previously.
Although they are speaking separately in their own homes, the surviving members talk of the same experiences from their various viewpoints. With very skilful editing, their contemporary accounts are interspersed with archival footage of artists who influenced them, excerpts from their concerts, home movies and photographs of the periods they describe.
Although they are now in their late seventies and early eighties, they display a clarity and spontaneity in their recollections, which bring an overall general consistency to the entire piece.
They emerge as guys with their feet firmly on the ground who can easily acknowledge the drawbacks of their fame, such as the lengthy overseas tours taking them away from their wives and children for extended periods.
However, these negative aspects are outweighed by more positive elements. Despite all these hardships and the passage of many decades, the former band members still display mutual respect and are clearly on good terms with one another. The film ends on a high with a touching tribute from their long-deceased band member.
Becoming Led Zeppelin, 2025. Written and directed by Bernard MacMahon.
We admire them not only as talented musicians who reached phenomenal heights but also as working-class lads who made it big despite the hardships they faced. For example, lead singer Robert Plant was virtually homeless until he joined the group. Better still, he escaped the fate his father had planned for him, a career as a chartered accountant, unimaginable for someone who became a rock idol in tight jeans and masses of straggly hair. Another member, John Paul Jones, failed his high school exams due to late nights performing and writing songs but was spared the potential career of a clerical worker. In hindsight, these alternate realities are inconceivable.
As a result of their subsequent success, we not only envy them but also admire them. Despite the odds, they pursued their creative dream and overcame all the obstacles in their way. In this sense, you do not need to know that much about Led Zeppelin to enjoy the film.
This documentary is recommended for anyone with an interest in popular music, especially those who lived through that eventful period of change it depicts.