Becoming Led Zeppelin

Becoming Led Zeppelin is the first feature-length documentary Led Zeppelin themselves sanctioned. Bernard MacMahon directed it and wrote it with Allison McGourty, who also produced; it was first shown out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021 and went on general release in 2025. The film starts with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham each finding their way through the music scene of the 1960s, brings them together in the summer of 1968, and follows them across America until, in 1970, they stood at the top. Nobody from outside the group tells the story. Page, Plant and Jones speak for themselves, and Bonham, who died in 1980 at the age of thirty-two, joins them through interview recordings that had never been released. Family photographs, private film and early stage footage carry the narrative between them, and the concert sequences let each song run to its end rather than cutting away. Vern Moen photographed the film and Dan Gitlin edited it. Pony Canyon distributed it in Japan, where it opened in cinemas, IMAX screens among them, on 26 September 2025. This two-disc set, PCXP-51240 at JPY 6,380 including tax, was meant for 25 March 2026 and came out on 30 September 2026 after a production delay. The Blu-ray holds the 122-minute feature and six minutes of extras, the Japanese trailer and a comment from the director, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 sound; the DVD carries the feature, and both discs are subtitled in Japanese only. A 4K UHD and Blu-ray set and a collector's edition limited to 3,000 copies were released the same day.