‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ Review: Inside the Band’s Formative Years

As if it were the opening chapter of a film with a sequel—or even a full trilogy—Becoming Led Zeppelin traces the early history of the British rock band and stops with the release of their second album, Led Zeppelin II, right at the moment when they were beginning to turn into a global phenomenon. The film never explains the reason for this cutoff, which suggests it may be conceived as a documentary series—the first officially authorized by the band’s surviving members.

The documentary is straightforward and unadorned, at times even austere. It features interviews with the three surviving members—Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones—along with previously unheard audio from an interview with late drummer John Bonham, period archival footage, and, perhaps most importantly, concert performances from the band’s earliest days. These shows take place in small venues and, in one case, include audience members covering their ears to block out the deafening volume. Longtime fans may already be familiar with some of this material, but it remains striking nonetheless. The director often lets these performances run in full, or nearly so.

The decision not to expand the documentary to include outside voices, critical perspectives, or a broader sociopolitical and musical context ultimately proves effective. Page, the guitarist, reflects on his extensive work as a session musician for major artists throughout the 1960s, his influences, and his very specific interests in shaping the band’s distinctive sound, with detailed discussion of production and mixing. Plant offers a more openly “hippie” backstory, focusing on his beginnings as a lyricist and songwriter. Jones talks about growing up in a family of entertainers and about his role anchoring the rhythm section alongside Bonham. The late drummer’s audio recordings—listened to by the other members with a faintly melancholic smile—add a handful of anecdotes about the group’s internal dynamics.

What matters most, however, is hearing the band members themselves analyze and explain the combination of influences and prior experiences that gave rise to their signature sound, as well as the live material presented throughout. Anyone familiar with Led Zeppelin knows that their live performances often stretched songs far beyond their studio running times. The film includes extended versions packed with solos—some of them admittedly eccentric—that laid the groundwork for the massive arena shows the band would become known for, especially as their popularity peaked in the 1970s.

One final strand touches on two well-known facts from Led Zeppelin’s history. The first is that they broke through in the United States well before achieving the same level of recognition in the UK, a delay tied both to the sound they were pursuing—closer, in 1968 and 1969, to the American West Coast than to British rock—and to the sheer amount of time they spent touring the U.S. The second concerns the consistently poor critical reception of their albums. Led Zeppelin was never embraced by critics—Rolling Stone famously dismissed them—but they were embraced by audiences, and in those early years the gap between the two responses was particularly stark.

Although the film ends before the band reached the absolute height of its fame, many of Zeppelin’s canonical songs—“Dazed and Confused,” “Good Times Bad Times,” “Communication Breakdown,” “Whole Lotta Love,” among others—appear on their first two albums and are heard here primarily in live versions. The same applies to pre-Zeppelin material recorded by the individual members, including Page’s work as a session guitarist for artists like Shirley Bassey, Lulu, and Donovan. What is largely absent are the conflicts, gray areas, and lesser-known stories. But this is an official band-sanctioned documentary. Everything else must be sought elsewhere.