Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition

With over forty albums released and more than 150 million copies of those sold across their half century of making music, Iron Maiden look like they are finally having to come to terms with their age and begin to wind down. This retrospective takes us back to the very beginning, playing from the back of their van to pubs in the English Midlands and thence onwards through ever-larger venues and, thanks to the omnipresence of the menacingly skeletal "Ed" on their album sleeves, to international stardom. Using a comprehensive collection of stadium and personal archive, this puts a lot of meat onto the bones of their story - and it does it warts and all. This isn't a band for whom it's been plain sailing and though they don't exactly dwell on the issues that have dogged them at times, they don't shy away from talking about Paul Di'Anno's departure, nor of Bruce Dickinson's not always harmonious relationship with Steve Harris nor of the stresses and strains that have followed a band who quite literally lurched from tour to studio to tour to studio - and that has clearly taken it's toll on their health, well-being and on their relationships both inside and outside the group. This also introduces us to some of their loyal cohort of fans - from the likes of Javier Bardem and some established music journos to a wide variety of supporters for whom this band have offered a lifeline from just about everything (including 9/11). There is something earthy about this film; it isn't remotely stylised and there are few gimmicks employed to distract us from these men who are as addicted to the stage as they could ever be to anything else, and there is also something engaging about their degree of camera-shyness too. They don't come across as people who want to play the media, nor even who particularly like the media. Their contributions to camera are fairly thin on the ground but there is still plenty of specially recorded audio to help carry us along the peaks and troughs of these musicians who have been amongst the most successful in not just their own genre, but in occasionally crossing over into the mainstream too. I did wonder why they didn't get Vincent Price to become the voice of "Ed" - that'd have been the icing on a cake that combines music with political controversy; booze, cocaine and even some devil worship as they defy the odds and make it into their seventies! As a chronology it works well not just about this band, but about musical tastes across the years, too, and you don't need to be an headbanger to enjoy this.