Becoming Led Zeppelin: A film review

I don’t normally dabble in film reviews on this website.  While I love (and I mean LOVE) movies, I don’t generally understand the art of moviemaking and prefer to keep things from a fan’s perspective.

I did, however, catch a documentary lately that’s been stuck in my head, replaying the moment of the film when I first saw Jimmy Page feverishly playing Black Mountain Side, previously unreleased and unseen for decades, the footage damaged, restored and brilliant.  His performance reminded this Led Zeppelin fan, and everyone else in the audience who watched along, of the special place the band has held in our hearts for so long.

Despite all the time you’ve spent sifting through Hammer of the Gods, or any other book or documentary covering one of the greatest bands in rock and roll history, 2025’s Becoming Led Zeppelin is billed as the first ever authorized biography on the band, the only project to which the surviving members (John Bonham passed away in 1980) have given their blessing.

And it’s nothing short of magic.

The documentary, now open for limited release in select IMAX theaters around the nation, is a sincere and thorough look back on what it took to, as the title suggests, become Led Zeppelin.

The film interviews and is narrated by three people and three people only.  Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.  This is not a film about the band’s long-lasting impact or legacy but rather a retelling by all three (Spoiler Alert: technically, all four) members on how things fell into place.  Becoming Led Zeppelin is not about what the band meant; it was about what the band meant to them.

You will not hear songs from their legendary albums Led Zeppelin IV, Physical Graffiti or Houses of the Holy, which all came later in their career, but rather only tracks from their first two, the second included because, as you learn in the film, Led Zeppelin II was recorded entirely while the band was promoting and touring for Led Zeppelin I.  1969 was a busy year for the band.

Zeppelin emerged as the perfect storm, a musical force previously unheard and unmatched to this day, three insanely talented musicians with a front man whose voice and charisma was the ideal match for the musicianship that played behind him.

The film’s director, Bernard MacMahon, whose love of music is demonstrated by his previous works, went through painstaking efforts to scour the earth for old, hidden footage of Zeppelin, much of which has been damaged over the years.  He successfully transports us back to a time when Led Zeppelin was comprised of four lads with a dream to make music that sounded like nobody else’s.

While the rock and roll uber-legends have occasionally talked about their past, Becoming Led Zeppelin is the first time they sat down to watch old videos of themselves, often brought to tears, with all of us along for the ride. 

Since no Led Zeppelin documentary could be complete without the opinions of all four members, MacMahon uncovered old audio recordings of John Bonham talking about his early days with the band.  The film’s most touching moments come when Jones, Page and Plant hear their old comrade talking about those adventures, his bandmates, and what those times meant to him.

I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of how the band came about, for if you are in any way a Led Zeppelin fan or a self-professed rock historian, you probably know this.  Becoming is a film you should experience regardless.  Zeppelin discusses in detail their backgrounds and how they all first fell in love with music, John Paul Jones through his musical family, Page the first time he ever saw a guitar, Bonham the first time he ever heard a syncopated drum beat and Plant after listening to old blues staples. As he mentioned in the film, the moment he saw Little Richard perform, he was hooked.  “The syringe was in the arm.”

Page had hopped from band to band honing his craft, as had the others.  John Paul Jones ran the music for his church, Bonham had been pounding along, and Plant had fallen on hard times, wanting to pursue his dream despite his parents’ best efforts to remind him there was no future in it.  Page and Jones did early studio work, including on the early James Bond theme music soundtracks.  The other two struggled for a steady paycheck.

The four, as you’ll find out, all end up running in similar circles and ultimately came together to create a sound no one had ever heard before or since.  A louder, deeper, meatier recreation of an American musical art form: the blues.

Jimmy Page was determined to have his new band sound a particular way.  He would not be swayed.  After recording Led Zeppelin I, Page and band manager Peter Grant approached Atlantic Records on their own terms, to meet with Jerry Wexler, who they’d dreamed of working with, with a finished product.  The label would have no say on the band’s sound.  It was a take it or leave it deal and Atlantic took it.

The band broke big in America first, recomposing the sounds that they’d heard coming from America while growing up in war-torn England, returning it to the States transformed.  It was always Robert Plant’s dream to make it to America.  Little did he know he’d take the country by storm.  The documentary shows Zeppelin’s first international gig in Denmark, played to an auditorium full of folks holding their ears and unsure of whether they should appreciate what they were hearing.  The band members are barely in their twenties.

Bandleader Page was steadfast in his vision, creating Zeppelin not as a band that released singles for radio play but rather to have their work appreciated in its entirety.  It was a far cry from other acts that were held at the mercy of the recording studios.

Despite its staying power, Led Zeppelin I received little critical acclaim, panned in many circles, but the band plodded along, recording its second album while touring for the first.  Like I said, 1969 was a busy year for the band.  Led Zeppelin II was released later that year, written and recorded entirely in different studios on the road. Zeppelin II was much better received and ultimately knocked the Beatle’s Abbey Road from the top of the charts.  If that doesn’t scream success for a small band from England, I’m not sure what does.

There are a few flawed moments where, despite the filmmakers’ best efforts, the band’s studio recordings overlap with old footage of their live performances, which can become a bit distracting.  The audio from many of the band’s early performances is either unplayable or weathered in time.  There’s also relatively little mention of the blues staples from which Zeppelin so commonly borrowed.  What MacMahon does remind us in his research, however, is captivating: Bonham’s energy, Page’s wizardry, Jone’s bottom and Plant’s persona, the greatest band in the world starting from square one.  Imagine Led Zeppelin playing under a small tent at a music festival for the first time.

Where the film succeeds most is capturing the three remaining members reminiscing about a time when they were kids with a dream to make music and nothing more.  If they happened to change the world in the process, then so be it.  Once they put it all together, it didn’t take them long for them to realize they were on to something special, for nothing else than the relationships they’d formed amongst themselves.

Becoming Led Zeppelin shows us three men grateful that their music stands the test of time.  It is a genuine recollection of what the band meant, to us, and them, and how it all was born.  It must have taken a monstrous effort, not only to get the band together to talk about their past, which nobody has been able to do before, but to uncover all the old photos and video that had for years been in hiding.

Any fan will undoubtedly groove to Becoming Led Zeppelin for it transports you to a time when four young men from humble beginnings changed the face of music forever. 

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