News Burning Ambition Documentary

Went to see it today and I really enjoyed it. I thought it worked well as a celebration of Maiden and the impact their music and legacy have had over the years. I loved how the fan perspectives were intertwined with the archival footage as well; it seemed to all flow together quite naturally and smoothly. It's great seeing Maiden being celebrated at the movies, especially for newer/younger fans. The doc feels like a really good starting point for people who may be discovering the band or learning about their history for the first time.

That being said, it did certainly feel like there were a few missed opportunities in terms of covering certain eras/albums in more depth. I appreciate that in around 100 minutes, you can't possibly cover every part of a spectacular 50 year career. However, I did find myself getting excited hearing songs or seeing certain eras appear, only for them to be brushed over quite quickly.
This was specifically evident with Virtual XI, Seventh Son and Somewhere in Time

Overall though, I viewed it more as a tribute and overview of Maiden's journey rather than a deep-dive documentary, and for that, I thought it was a very enjoyable watch.
 
Watched it last night, some points based on what folk have already mentioned here...

Sound in my cinema was weird, music was super low. Raaaage. Flight 666 was bombastic in the cinema, this was not. I assumed it was a stylistic choice but apparently not cos seone here said it was loud at their showing.

Music was good behind the voice overs, some isolated bass tracks and there was a string quartet version of something old at one point and it sounded class. Possibly Murders and possibly not a string quartet but that kind of vibe.

The animated sections quite annoyed me. Mostly looked shit and were over long. Pointless interludes, to my mind. One looked really good but felt shoe horned in.

Some great unseen footage. Hopefully the DVD extras give more of this. In particular, the sound check from the World Slavery Tour interested me.

Nicko had some great voice over moments. Great lad.

My showing was well attended. A family walked in, 2 parents in their 40s, 2 children, about 8-12 yrs old, all wearing Maiden t shirts, holding hands and excited. Seemed poignant as fuck.

Re the pro shot footage from recent tours, didn't feel like a big deal, we've seen official videos of this stuff, we know they have it, they know we know. Maybe some more is on the potential 2nd disc.

Definitely worth a watch and I'll certainly buy the DVD but it's not a high level production, in my eyes. Showing studio footage from 2003 in London (it's on the Death On The Road dvd extras) with the caption Paris 1999 wasn't great. Animations felt clunky. The section about the horrors of war felt a bit unnecessary. I'm all for a dose of reality and empathy and saying "fuck war" and those who make it but it felt like a clunky insertion, to me. Like an attempt to add pathos, like the director felt there wasn't enough in the Maiden story to make an engaging film for the general public.

3 stars out of 5 feels about right. I was honestly bored at times and wondered what a non fan would make of it. Flight 666 was a way better cinematic experience. But but, based on the archival footage, there's a lot of stuff in store in the future, if they choose to release it.
 
btw, people (especially core fans) say there isn’t really any new info here… but:

1- I don’t recall it ever being mentioned this clearly that Steve was working as a garbage man before Maiden. And Dave Lights already knew him from those days. That was actually a pretty fascinating info and adds to the story a lot! Garbage man to the top of the world kind of thing...

2- I also don’t remember hearing before that Maiden invited Nirvana to tour with them. Dave Murray mentions it in the movie. I hope that they could link this to Kurt Cobain's Maiden past, the walls of his house has Maiden logo and his famous diaries have some Eddie illustrations drawn by him.

3- Rod doing cocaine right before asking Bruce to rejoin.

4- Rod seeing another Derek Riggs artwork before the debut album Eddie. I really wish they had shown the original mohawk Eddie picture.

There were some other new details too...
 
Some of the footage of what to me looks like from The Number of The beast tour looked previously unseen to me. I mean the bit where Clive looks to be playing a drum solo. They probably filmed Hammersmith 82 in its entirety and the film makers had access to the footage. Theres The almost full concert version on youtube missing some songs. Maybe unseen footage in extras of bluray version? . Not expecting it though
 
Kazza said:
Overall though, I viewed it more as a tribute and overview of Maiden's journey rather than a deep-dive documentary, and for that, I thought it was a very enjoyable watch.
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Just came back from the theater and I enjoyed it more than expected. It's a bit of nitpicking , but I also think calling this a documentary is a bit of a stretch. It's most of all a band portrait but if you want to find something in there that could be called documental, it's the (cliché) that music and fandom brings us together, globally.

Most of us probably have experienced that in one way or another. Last summer, visiting the Colloseum in Rome, the guy checking the tickets had a Maiden Crew pass around his neck and I obviously had to ask him about it. He had previously worked at whatever Italian arena on a tour a few years earlier. Immediate friends! That doesn't happen with all forms of fandom, so it's really a phenomena to dig deeper into. Which this film didn't do, because it wasn't a documentary in that regard.

Anyway, my biggest qualms about the film was the presentation of the archival material in a theater setting. Sitting at the third row and the image is just a blur is not very pleasant. It looks like shit to be honest. If you don't have Peter Jackson production budget, there are other ways to level that out. The footage from RIR 85 has that jittery shit from the LAD DVD that could be worked on with a little bit of time and an intelligent video editor. That shouldn't have passed. On some clips, they had used digital upscaled YouTube-like clips that also looked like a 480p mess in the theater. All this will do better at home.

But I'm certainly happy it exists. The voice overs worked well and I think it was the right choice. There were a few heartfelt moments and somehow, I love this band and what it represents even more.
 
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Starblind said:
btw, people (especially core fans) say there isn’t really any new info here… but:

1- I don’t recall it ever being mentioned this clearly that Steve was working as a garbage man before Maiden. And Dave Lights already knew him from those days. That was actually a pretty fascinating info and adds to the story a lot! Garbage man to the top of the world kind of thing...

2- I also don’t remember hearing before that Maiden invited Nirvana to tour with them. Dave Murray mentions it in the movie. I hope that they could link this to Kurt Cobain's Maiden past, the walls of his house has Maiden logo and his famous diaries have some Eddie illustrations drawn by him.

3- Rod doing cocaine right before asking Bruce to rejoin.

4- Rod seeing another Derek Riggs artwork before the debut album Eddie. I really wish they had shown the original mohawk Eddie picture.

There were some other new details too...
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Number 2 is the only piece here that was news to me. I'm not sure how well known the others are but if I've heard them then they ain't no secrets. Steve sweeping the streets, 12 Wasted Years maybe, not sure. Dave Lights early connection is in the official bio. Rods coke might be Bruce's bio and 4 I read in Riggs' book so 3 & 4 are maybe newer and more neiche but one and 2 feel like common knowledge to me,maybe I'm wrong.

Also news was Janick saying he wouldn't play Adrian's gear, which was still in the rehearsal space. I think it goes that it wasn't official that Adrian was out of the band but Janick turned up when asked and said he didn't feel comfortable playin Adrian's gear and was then told that Adrian was out of the band. A small detail but a new one on me nonetheless.

I'm nearly sure there was something else new to me but can't quite get it.

Was really good seeing Dave Lights feature fairly prominently. Still don't know when and why he left the fold but they clearly have massive respect for the work he did and the impact he had. Onstage Eddie was Daves idea, I believe.
 
paulfan said:
Some of the footage of what to me looks like from The Number of The beast tour looked previously unseen to me. I mean the bit where Clive looks to be playing a drum solo. They probably filmed Hammersmith 82 in its entirety and the film makers had access to the footage. Theres The almost full concert version on youtube missing some songs. Maybe unseen footage in extras of bluray version? . Not expecting it though
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Yah, I'm certain there was unseen crowd footage from Hammersmith, can't remember performance stuff. Steve did say recently that the material is ok from an archival point of view but wasn't of a high enough level for a full release in 82. So I reckon we will get that full show as part of a package sometime.
 
Cat Milk Supreme said:
Yah, I'm certain there was unseen crowd footage from Hammersmith, can't remember performance stuff. Steve did say recently that the material is ok from an archival point of view but wasn't of a high enough level for a full release in 82. So I reckon we will get that full show as part of a package sometime.
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Steve has said he has a lot of material. I hope somebody would ask in an interview of that
 
Clive played a drum solo in all his major Tours with Maiden and i imagine in Hammersmith too .Its not included in Early days version of BOH or The longer YouTube version. In the documentary footage what looks like BOH(no sound ofcourse) Clive appeared to Be clearly playing a drum solo. Would Be Even better If it was from some other 82 gig, always nice to see some unseen old gigs. But thats wishfull thinking
 
And by the way i think this movie was just money milking by Smallwood family and others. Does anyone know If Rod has some illness going on? His speech was half slower than before and slurred. Very unlikely that he was drunk when they interviewed him
 
Cat Milk Supreme said:
Number 2 is the only piece here that was news to me. I'm not sure how well known the others are but if I've heard them then they ain't no secrets. Steve sweeping the streets, 12 Wasted Years maybe, not sure. Dave Lights early connection is in the official bio. Rods coke might be Bruce's bio and 4 I read in Riggs' book so 3 & 4 are maybe newer and more neiche but one and 2 feel like common knowledge to me,maybe I'm wrong.

Also news was Janick saying he wouldn't play Adrian's gear, which was still in the rehearsal space. I think it goes that it wasn't official that Adrian was out of the band but Janick turned up when asked and said he didn't feel comfortable playin Adrian's gear and was then told that Adrian was out of the band. A small detail but a new one on me nonetheless.

I'm nearly sure there was something else new to me but can't quite get it.

Was really good seeing Dave Lights feature fairly prominently. Still don't know when and why he left the fold but they clearly have massive respect for the work he did and the impact he had. Onstage Eddie was Daves idea, I believe.
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I'm certain the Rod coke story is definitely in What Does This Button Do?
 
paulfan said:
And by the way i think this movie was just money milking by Smallwood family and others. Does anyone know If Rod has some illness going on? His speech was half slower than before and slurred. Very unlikely that he was drunk when they interviewed him
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"D'ohhhhhhhhhhh I'm going to be on the bloody big screen, where I've always belonged."
 
paulfan said:
Clive played a drum solo in all his major Tours with Maiden and i imagine in Hammersmith too .Its not included in Early days version of BOH or The longer YouTube version. In the documentary footage what looks like BOH(no sound ofcourse) Clive appeared to Be clearly playing a drum solo. Would Be Even better If it was from some other 82 gig, always nice to see some unseen old gigs. But thats wishfull thinking
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Drum solo is on Beast over Hammersmith after Another Life.
 
Starblind said:
4- Rod seeing another Derek Riggs artwork before the debut album Eddie. I really wish they had shown the original mohawk Eddie picture.
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At this point, it's honestly bonkers that original version's never been shown before...at least as far as I've been able to find.
 
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