The Beast hits the big screen as Iron Maiden unleash a brilliant telling of their 50 years of metal.
As an Iron Maiden fan, you do very well out of extra-albumular activity. On top of the raft of live albums that have, at their best, been milestones on their history just as relevant as any of their studio output, they’ve also done a fine line in film.
On the history front, The First Ten Years from 1987 was a revealing review of the band’s first decade. Even better was Flight 666, their hugely enjoyable postcard from their round-the-world romp, in their own plane, that made being in Maiden look like the greatest school trip adventure in the universe. On 2012’s En Vivo!, the behind the scenes bits were just as essential as the gig, giving a similarly exciting look at the lives of their brilliant road crew.
This 50th birthday look back at the life and history of ’Arry’s band is very much a film about Iron Maiden rather than starring Iron Maiden in the same way their other flicks have. That is, it isn’t them doing Netflix-getting-the-bit-where-they-clip-the-mics-on interviews as they unpack their five decades. Instead, much of the story element is told via old footage shot on tour, or archive interviews. The to-camera bits are done by fans. Some of them are faces you will know (Lars Ulrich, Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Gene Simmons), others are Maiden fanatics from across the world, one of them is Javier Bardem – all of them are shot in the same style, made equal, as they explain why Iron Maiden are the most important band of their lifetime, and what it means to be a fan.
The old clips of them playing live – particularly from the Paul Di’Anno days – is great. Fans will get a kick out of all the touring stuff, while even the more mundane riding-in-the-bus stuff feels like a trip to a different world and a different time. Getting to see footage like their enormous show at Rock In Rio 1985 in the cinema at big volume, meanwhile, is a treat in itself.
It also wins for not pulling away from the less triumphant moments. The tension between Bruce Dickinson and Nicko McBrain on Bruce’s last tour in 1992 is unvarnished in its presentation. So is the band’s subsequent dip through the ’90s, with its downsized venues. To their eternal credit, Blaze Bayley is shown as a man doing his best at a tough job, and his own contributions are deservedly given a good amount of screen time (his era has at least three of the band’s best-ever songs).
With so much to pick through, the actual timelines do get somewhat knotty at times. But then fans, the people to whom this is aimed, will be able to straighten it out for themselves.
It’s an interesting way to tell a story, similar in fashion to the excellent recent Man On The Run that navigated Paul McCartney’s career post-Beatles with Wings. Only that didn’t have Nina Saedi from Lowen, the Nifelheim twins, or Katon from Hirax in it.
Part scrapbook, part deep-dive, and done with a deserved reverence, even as it tells the gory bits, this is a Maiden movie unlike their others. Although like Flight 666 and the rest, it’ll make you realise how awesome Iron Maiden are again. And once again, you’ll wish you were in them.
Verdict: 4/5
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is out now via Universal Pictures.
Pre-order the special edition Kerrang! Presents Iron Maiden magazine with double-sided A2 poster now.
