If you're not a Led Zeppelin fan this won't convert you, but it's worth seeing for John Paul Jones' Puritan haircut alone. The Madison Square Garden concert footage is fantastic but it occasionally suffers from dated, psychedelic optical-effects work; the fantasy sequences are pompous, self-mythologizing and
impenetrable, but they do serve the purpose of re-igniting ones interest when the music drifts off into ponderously proggy and self-indulgent territory; the behind-the-scenes documentary footage is half-hearted, less than illuminating and was probably only included to give manager Peter Grant some screen-time. It would have been nice to have seen a bit of the band's pastoral, acoustic side but this is still an important document. Essential viewing for fans.
January 19, 2008
