"Led Zeppelin The Song Remains the Same" on DVD

Heavy Duty Metal

This flick is a good example of what you're likely to get when a studio gives rock stars a bag of money and sends them off to make their own movie.

It isn't that "The Song Remains the Same" is a bad movie. It just isn't really a movie at all. It has some great concert footage of Led Zeppelin performing at Madison Square Garden, and this is by far the highlight of the flick.

The problem is that they didn't limit this to being a concert film. Nope, they tried to make an art movie out of it - and they shouldn't have.

It takes thirteen minutes to reach the first concert footage. Until then you have to sit through (or fast forward through!) a staged Mob hit and endlessly self indulgent footage of the band members at home living their country squire existences.

Fortunately, they open the real musical footage with a searing rendition of "Rock & Roll" followed immediately by "Black Dog," the two opening numbers (though in reverse order) from the band's classic "IVth" album.

Jimmy Page is the real star. One of rock's finest guitarists, he shone in Led Zeppelin and in "Song Remains the Same" you get to see lots of scenes of him in action. Even here, however, they'd chosen the "artsy fartsy route" and insist on jazzing up the shots.

Please! This is one of rock's great bands; just let us watch them play!

Robert Plant proves he's much better in the studio, where he can swallow his uvula and wail with the best of them. He doesn't appear nearly as up to it on stage, however, only going through the vocal motions while concentrating on "rock star posing and preening" instead.

The other band members, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham, aren't as well featured in the flick (much as John Entwistle is treated in Who material), but they have their moments and come across as the journeymen rockers they were.

Of course just when you're beginning to settle into the concert footage, they break off again for another scene, either some contrived fantasy or some "backstage" stuff that does an excellent job of showing the size of the egos at play around this Supergroup.

The dual layer DVD is in widescreen and the picture quality is okay. It's quite grainy most of the time, but whether or not this was intentional we can't tell. The audio isn't bad; it's in Dolby Pro-Logic surround and has pretty good dynamics considering their analog source. Extras are virtually non-existent, just the theatrical trailer, chapter stops, and subtitles.

Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same, from Warner Home Video
136 minutes, Widescreen (1.85:1), Dolby Pro Logic
Starring John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page

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