At 50 Years Old, Iron Maiden Are Just Getting Started

Burning Ambition? Iron Maiden has it; the new documentary does not. Yet, if you’re a Maiden fan, or even generally into heavy metal, this is well worth a couple of hours of your time and leaves fans happy, and, judging by the chatter as they streamed out of my movie theater, looking to dull their eardrums into submission with the real thing as soon as they get home.As Maiden are hitting American stadiums in September, that’s sort of the point. The movie is a love letter, an extended promo for the latest chapter of a group that, like the Rolling Stones or U2 before them, have surpassed the momentary nature of pop and rock and defined a generation. Their devotees love it — while critics have given the film 3.5 stars, the fan verdict on Rotten Tomatoes is 100% positive. In this, “Burning Ambition” mimics Iron Maiden itself — critic proof, a celebration of the Gen X Heavy Metal subculture seen through the prism of one extraordinary band.First things first. “Burning Ambition” opens with a generous acknowledgement of all the faces that have constituted Maiden over the years, splicing footage of lead singers Paul di Anno and Blaze Bayley along with the mainstay of Bruce Dickinson, cutting up drummers Clive Burr and Nicko McBrain. But the structure of the movie is simpler, a mostly sequential explanation of their extraordinary rise to fame and fortune, via a special relationship with a fan base attached to a concept rather than specifically to songs. The movie is sold as “‘warts and all” because filmmaker Malcolm Venville, an experienced documentary helmer, did not need the band’s permission or obtain their approval. Fair enough, but you get the impression that if Maiden founder and mastermind Steve Harris had retained those approval rights, the result would not have been much different. Celebrity fans narrating chunks of the story talk about their reaction to the overwhelming spectacle of Iron Maiden and their rabid audience of metal’s true believers: Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine, Chuck D of Public Enemy, proving that Maiden appealed across races, acting superstar Javier Bardem, legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin, and Lars Ulrich, mega-star drummer and songwriter from the only metal band that beats Iron Maiden, Metallica.Less famous fans are interviewed too, from South America and Europe, speaking all kinds of languages, subtitled to show Maiden’s appeal. Controversial moments, however, like Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith leaving the band, are glossed over. Exhaustion? Creative differences? Most fans would agree that both of those arose because Steve Harris rejected the efforts of Messrs. Dickinson, Smith and the rest to contribute more in terms of the songwriting. Often, a dominant songwriting figure in a band, if not the lead singer, is envied by that singer and a natural struggle for dominance ensues. This is one interesting thing about Maiden; like Metallica, where, unusually, the drummer is also a lynchpin, it’s not the lead singer in control, but the bassist, Steve Harris. From the beginning, good-looking, long-haired and rangy, like a real rock star, Mr. Harris controlled Maiden. He put the band together, wrote the songs and controlled the personnel. “Burning Ambition” looks firmly at the period where Harris found his own ambition capped by the fans themselves. After Mr. Dickinson quit and was replaced by Blaze Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane, in 1994, the fans simply said “No.” A fascinating stretch of film shows how America rejected the new line-up, with the behemoth that, two years earlier, had headlined the Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington for the second time before 75,000 people, now unable to get 500 fans into a tiny club in America. Steve Harris controlled band personnel, but the fans controlled the band itself.As a heavy metal fan and veteran of this era — my ex-husband manages Metallica and Ross Halfin took my wedding photos — I was locked in at this point in the film. Of course the movie mentions “pressure” from the record company and tour promoters, but to me, the main takeaway was that Steve Harris with admirable stubbornness, and a very British heavy metal attitude, was willing to play tiny clubs that were half deserted after having been a superstar in the attempt to make Maiden love Blaze Bayley. Almost any music megastar I came across in my two decades in and around the record industry would have quit.Mr. Harris never needed to work again. But he went through the last third of “Spinal Tap,” where the band is second fiddle to a puppet show, in a frenzied attempt to bend the world to his will. I was impressed on learning just how bad it had been, and how Mr. Harris, nonetheless, did not give up. The film is generous to everyone who’s been in Iron Maiden, even for five minutes, and the filmmakers captured the generosity of spirit in the Maiden set-up; the movie makes it clear how liked Blaze is by his former bandmates and treats him with compassion. Whisper it not aloud, but Iron Maiden are nice people. This August they will headline Knebworth in England, the modern successor to those Monsters of Rock gigs that were once Maiden’s backyard, but with an even bigger capacity. In the middle of the show they are making space for sets from Blaze Bayley and other former members. “Burning Ambition” is clear that when Maiden says ‘family’ about themselves and their fans they mean it.There are other “Spinal Tap” moments in the movie, for example, when Mr. Dickinson says to a bemused fan who argues that he wants to use synthesizers in heavy metal, “You can’t do that, you can’t have synth in metal.” The entire movie theatre laughed, and I gather from Reddit that this moment was replicated in theatres elsewhere — Maiden famously, and controversially, introduced synth to their albums shortly afterwards.Bruce Dickinson does not escape the fan verdict either. His solo album was an utter disaster. Iron Maiden’s fans pretty much demanded that Messrs. Dickinson, Smith and Harris work together and once they accepted that, the film shows, everyone was happier, everyone that is except the replacements that were turfed out to make room for them.Larger, metal-themed moments are covered. Playing to Poland to inspire that nation’s break towards political freedom. 300,000 fans in South America. Bruce Dickinson flying the band’s plane around the world himself — yes, really.The true star of this enjoyable film is Eddie, Iron Maiden’s mascot. A large section of the movie describes the creation and development of Iron Maiden’s lovable mascot. It could have touched more on the British iconography that Eddie constantly carries with him, “The Trooper,” and countless stage sets. As “Iron Maiden” was named for an instrument of torture and execution, it was natural Eddie should have been a zombie, skeleton or undead figure. But the decision to put the band’s faces second in Maiden’s marketing behind Eddie turned out to be an inspired one.Dead, Eddie never ages and he doesn’t get into band arguments. He represents rebellion, metal and a refusal to be tied down and that iconography has made Iron Maiden, unifying their fanbase like nothing else. The crowd shots of the fans show them to be overwhelmingly male, rabid, and rallying both to a banner and an idea.“Burning Ambition” ultimately shows Steve Harris’s mindset by default; firing Paul DiAnno for being a drunk, selecting Mr. Dickinson for his vocal range, demanding his bass be center stage, resulting in a fist fight, and pushing his own troops too hard. “You can’t restring vocal chords,” says Mr. Dickinson in the documentary, not unreasonably.The creation of Eddie and the writing of epic songs like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” clocking in at 13 minutes, demonstrate a clear, non-trivial, creative genius that is selling metal as an attitude, as a brotherhood, and as a tribe, that will be capturing generations of fans for decades to come.Iron Maiden have been around for fifty years, and “Burning Ambition” declares they’re just getting started.

At 50 Years Old, Iron Maiden Are Just Getting Started

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