“What could you do? You couldn’t go back to mommy and dad.”

Genre: Rock Documentaries
Release Date: 2025
Where I Watched: Netflix

Gist: We all know that Led Zeppelin is one of the most popular bands of the 1970s. Their importance to music cannot be underestimated. But nowadays it seems their myth is greater than their music. Zeppelin looks to change that. By focusing on their coming together and early years, ending with the release of Led Zeppelin II, we see a fantastically professional set of talented musicians. Fancy that.

Gotta say: As someone who was in elementary and middle school at the height of Led Zeppelin’s power, all I remember is overly long slow dances to “Stairway To Heaven”, and a bunch of long-haired dudes whose faces I couldn’t really see performing absolute bangers that hit me in a way the majority of music at the time did not. (It was their blending of genres, something that at the time I could feel, but not understand.) Zeppelin scrubs away all the blinding starpower of the group, focusing on how these musicians came together and became stadium legends.

Leaving the party animal mythology alone, this focuses this documentary on the band members as musicians rather than the chaos of their off-stage lives later in the band’s history. A rare interview with John Bonham, archival footage on and off stage, and of course plenty of performances pepper this documentary, giving lots to sink into. Zeppelin is a great way to get to know the band, as well as a loving tribute for fans.

This isn’t a comprehensive history of the band. You can get that in any number of YouTube videos, books, and/or published articles. Instead, writer/director Bernard MacMahon and screenwriter Allison McGourty set the stage for the band musically and individually. We see the band members as kids, learn how their love of music came about, and how they decided on what kind of music they wanted to focus on. It’s interesting to see the timelines of each member, with guitarist Jimmy Page becoming a well-respected performer while vocalist Robert Plant was basically homeless. Bassist John Paul Jones had a successful career as a studio musician (a place Plant also started, and where the two initially met), and drummer John Bonham spent time with various bands until he met Plant. It’s a fascinating evidence board of coincidences, meetings, and finally coming together. Getting to hear all this from the band members, as they think back on those times, is a lovely bit of history.

Each surviving band member – Plant, Page, and Jones – get to see archival clips used in the film, and we get to see their initial reaction to their personal memory lanes. It’s rather sweet, and probably lead them to talk about more than the usual interview would give. I particularly enjoyed the way Plant and Jones talked about the musicality of the group, and how songs came to be from the position of professional musicians. As someone who can barely play “Chopsticks”? I soaked up those tidbits, and then noticed them when recorded performances showed exactly how those moments came together in the finished songs.

I don’t mind the lack of interaction between the surviving members. They weren’t BFFs, they were bandmates, gathered together by Page. Plus, it’s not like they’re all neighbors; getting the three together would be a master class in calendar management. (The fact that the three may still harbor various levels of resentment should also be taken into consideration, though a reconciliation may have happened in 2007.) Zeppelin chooses to cover the members before coming together, then as Led Zeppelin through the release of Led Zeppelin II and their 1970 concert at Royal Albert Hall. A professional span of about three years. Still? There’s a whole lot of love history in those years. And it’s covered exceedingly well.

At a little over two hours, Zeppelin looks at a group of musicians with a yearning to be heard. As they become “The #1 Rock Band”, their groundbreaking musical style is clear to see as this documentary unfolds. This is a damn fine look at the beginnings of a band who’d change the face of rock, pave the way for metal, and help define the 1970s. Plus, they were a great way to spend around eight minutes with your middle school crush. Y’know, as long as you left room for Jesus or whatever.

Come for: A look at the band before they came rock gods.
Stay for: A surprisingly deep dive into the beginnings of an extremely influential band.