For 50 years, Iron Maiden has been bringing its own brand of heavy metal to fans the world over. It’s a unique story for as popular as Maiden has become, it did so without the music industry machine ever getting fully behind it. Rarely, if ever, did I encounter Iron Maiden on the radio growing up in the 80s and 90s when listening to rock stations in the northeast USA. Instead, I had to seek the band out and often it was the band’s mascot, Eddie, that would catch my eye first. My very first Iron Maiden record was Killers and I have been hooked ever since. I don’t think I’ve seen a band more times live than I have Maiden and it’s been a joy seeing how much they’ve been embraced in the past few decades, especially.
To mark the occasion of 50 years, Iron Maiden released a new documentary upon the world. Titled Burning Ambition, the Malcolm Venville directed documentary spans roughly an hour and forty five minutes and has been released to select theaters this weekend (just in time for Mother’s Day in the US) and presents an overview of the band’s history. Starting in England in the 1970s, the documentary follows the band through lineup changes, world tours, and endings as it attempts to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. The band, having already released more in-depth documentaries in the past, is content to let the fans tell the story while interjecting their own notes and memories along the way via voice over. It’s an interesting approach as we never see current footage of any of the band members but we see plenty of the fans they brought in to record interviews. Some are just regular folks while others are record executives, lawyers, or educators. There’s a few celebrity fans thrown in including actor Javier Bardem as well as fellow musicians Tom Morello, Lars Ulrich, Chuck D, Scott Ian, and Gene Simmons. One almost gets the feeling that this is the fan perspective of the band’s rise as opposed to their own voice.
Given that perspective, the documentary is light on the usual rock documentary salaciousness. There’s few stories of sex and debauchery to be found and instead the story focuses mostly on some key moments in the band’s journey. The first major one concerns original singer Paul Di’Anno and the circumstances leading to his ouster from the back and the hiring of vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Much of the doc pivots to focus on the relentless tour schedule the band endured in the 1980s and its impact on the departures of both Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith. A few moments are spent on the Blaze Bayley era of Maiden where the fans in the documentary do their best to be respectful with one even going so far as to proclaim his two albums as brilliant (bless his heart) before Bruce and Adrian are both welcomed back into the band for Maiden’s big second act. Things wrap with a brief overview of the current era including Bruce’s diagnosis with throat cancer and drummer Nicko McBrain’s stroke and subsequent retirement from touring. One leaves the theater with essentially a slice of the Maiden pie, a decent understanding of the band’s legacy, but with little knowledge about the actual music composed during the band’s lifetime.
The documentary is competently shot and edited with a liberal use of archival footage of the band from throughout its career. There’s quite a bit of time devoted to the band’s trip behind the iron curtain in ’84 when it played Poland and if you are a longtime fan it’s stuff you’ve likely seen before. Harris, Dickinson, and McBrain seem to do the lion’s share of the work from the band’s side as far as commentary goes with very little to be heard from the likes of Murray, Gers, and Smith. There are voice overs from both Di’Anno and Bayley as well about their time spent in the band. Very little is said about original drummer Clive Burr unfortunately and I don’t think anyone even mentions the name of Dennis Stratton, who played guitar on the first record. If you want to hear more about them or the actual music produced by the band you pretty much have to turn to their other documentaries beginning with The Early Years. Thankfully, all three parts (and Death on the Road) are available to stream for free on the band’s YouTube channel and seemingly without ads. As there is a lot of concert footage utilized, there isn’t necessarily a shortage of Maiden music to be found in Burning Ambition, it’s just heard in snippets. Your mileage may vary, but I personally found the way the songs are chopped up and edited to be more annoying than enjoyable as they cut out lines and verses to fit a specific chunk of time that seems unnatural. We’re all here for a good time and we’re not in a hurry – just let the song play.
As a result, Burning Ambition comes across like a documentary meant for the casual fans. It provides a broad overview of the band while leaving plenty of room for those who take to it to go off and find out more. It’s not the long awaited History of Iron Maiden Part Four some may have hoped it would be. I would have loved to hear more from the band in regards to its current form. We got the usual stuff about Bruce flying the plane and all that, but not about how they have grown as song writers. What it’s like to perform this kind of music at an age when most men are retiring. How it feels to play in front of over 100 thousand people after playing the clubs. If you’re looking to settle in with Iron Maiden for a bit this weekend or later when the documentary is surely available for rent or purchase, you could certainly do worse. It’s not the sort of film that is likely to invite repeat viewings, but I suppose not many documentaries do. If nothing else though you’ll likely walk away from it wishing you had tickets to see Maiden the next day. For me, it’s going to be a long four months until the boys roll into town this September.
For more of my thoughts on Iron Maiden and music in general, take a look at these:
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