The Record Junkies "Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition" Review!

John Ross Bowie and Brendan Smith, aka THE RECORD JUNKIES, share their thoughts on BURNING AMBITION, the brand new documentary on the legendary British metal band IRON MAIDEN.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hi, it's your friend Brendan Smith. And it is your friend John Ross Bowie. And we are the record junkies, and we're doing a little special maiden theme pop-up today because, well, we nerded out and went to the Lemmley No Ho 7 the other night for the world premiere of the brand new documentary Burning Ambition about well, my favorite band and the greatest band in the history of bands. Iron Maiden.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I would argue there was probably just the San Fernando Valley premiere rather than the world premiere. But uh yes, nonetheless, um we were there and it was awesome. And everyone had their shirts.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yes, we both answered the question. Yeah, can you wear a band shirt to the concert? Of course you can. Can you wear a band shirt to their documentary? And the answer was an overwhelming yes, not just the two of us, but everybody that was there.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Everybody that was there uh was was flying their colors. It was uh something.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Um, there are a bunch of, you know, look, people who love Maiden have been around for a while. Yeah. So I would say the average age the other night was, I don't know, maybe 50, 51, 52.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

I'd say the average age was get your prostate looked at.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, exactly. And um, but they were all, you know, they were there supporting their favorite band. It was a it was a raucous crowd. It wasn't completely sold out, it was full, but yeah, definitely people were there to see their heroes chronicled in yet another documentary. So John and I thought, like, well, we have to sit down with each other and just give our honest review, our honest assessment. Um, so John, without further ado, I think I might as well start the process. Okay, here's the good and the bad. Not the ugly, but the good and the bad. The good. I'm so excited there's another project out there about Iron Maiden that could potentially be something for non-fans to watch at some point because we know it's gonna be on streaming pretty soon. Right. Um, I think the people that are going to the theaters this weekend are hardcore fans. I'm excited for non-fans to see this because I think that the what the movie did well was just paint a broad portrait of the band for people that have never seen them. Um there's a lot of emphasis on Iron Maiden fans in the movie. Yeah. It's one thing they do very well is they chronicle the importance of the bond, the importance of the bond between the band and its fans.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

And the eclecticism, the eclecticism of the of the of not so much of the fans themselves, but what a broad appeal they have, contrary to what you might expect.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, maiden fans run the gamut for every ethnicity on the planet, every country on the planet, because they've been to every country on the planet, um, young, old, um, scientist, uh field worker. I mean, it just there's so many different Iron Maiden fans, and I think that the the movie did a good job of supporting the idea that you know anyone that is an Iron Maiden fam is is automatically part of this family. Um, there's also some celebrity fans in the movie. We got Javier Bardem, we got Gene Simmons, we got Scott Ann from Anthrax, of course, Tom Morello. Um, who else was Chuck D. That was another great thing. I'll let you run with the Chuck D thing. But Javier Bardam was sort of a standout because his enthusiasm for the band is clear. Um, he's probably the person who appears on screen the most of anyone that's chronicled. They did talk to a bunch of old school Iron Maiden fans, including Steph, aka Kapan Harris on Instagram. She's famous throughout the Iron Maiden world because she and her dudes uh they travel around the world and chronicle their adventures on YouTube. They don't just go to the show, they'll tell you what they do during the day, uh, where they eat, who they meet up with. Um, they're very much a part of the Iron Maiden touring family, and she also makes these incredible Eddie dolls. Um, she's done it for the band, she's done it for charity events. She makes these really intricate dolls that she also chronicles um in her Instagram account. So all that was really good. Which brings us to the okay, this is what I've been thinking about since I watched the movie. Again, yeah, so glad that there's another vehicle out there just to prove to the world um that this is one of like the great bands of all time. What I don't think the movie did well was they emitted a lot of nerd details that I think would have helped the uninitiated with the band's history, uh, the band's impact, um, and also would have filled in some of the gaps because they did the movie was such a broad stroke of Iron Maiden's history that I don't think they quite nailed home um some of the important stuff. And I know that that's a really hard thing to do when you're making a movie. You know, I know with dot with music documentaries they're always trying to balance between making a movie for the fans and making a movie for people who don't know anything about the band. I personally believe that you can sprinkle nerd details throughout any movie and that will help with the uninitiated. Um, that was something I felt like this movie didn't do well. Like they they stuck, they really stayed away from nailing specific moments in time with dates and album releases and chronology. They sort of like blended the 80s together in a sort of a large manner that I found I'm still finding kind of weird. That's just my personal opinion.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Well, is that what you mean by by nerd details, like the the uh the the sort of wonkier, like because I mean they they did they skipped over seventh son of a seventh son entirely.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah, they net they did go into like in March of 1981. We entered the studio to make what would become Number of the Beast. Like they did they missed out on a lot of that stuff. They sort of did the Paul Diano era, the original Iron Maiden era, the first two records, without really chronicling how exactly they got their record contract and when they went into the studio for the first time. They didn't go over any of the influences, they didn't ask the band members like what were the influences in your life that led you to Iron Maiden? Because I feel like that's like a really crucial element. For that band in particular, yeah, because uh for the uninitiated, Maiden is the culmination of Thin Lizzie, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, UFO, Black Sabbath. Um, you know, they talked a little bit about the late 70s scene in the UK, uh, and the punk they didn't want to participate in the punk scene. Okay, well, what drew you to play this kind of hard rock in the clubs of East London? Um, what other forces were you bumping up against? We do hear Steve Harris say they they wanted us to be punkier because that's what was selling at the time, but why did you reject it? Did you want to carry the torch for Queen and D Purple? Um, there were other like here's another nerd detail that they missed. When Nico McBrain, this won't be a spoiler for anybody, when Nico McBrain retired in Brazil, that colossal stadium gave him an overwhelmingly emotional goodbye, and they started chanting olé, ole, ole, ole, yeah, Nico, Nico, and that footage is very famous to Iron Maiden fans. In the movie, they're showing the footage, but they're not they didn't show the chanting of Ole, Olé, Ole, Nico, Nico. Which that's another one with yeah, they they they they covered it, and and to me, like that was like a really organic moment in time that touched him and the band to their core. Like Nico stood on stage for minutes, like soaking that in. Um, I also don't think they did a great job of showing just how huge the band is today. There was an acknowledgement that they continued to be very successful, but you could take a stadium show from any of the South American shows in Brazil or Chile or Argentina and show 60,000 people chanting guitar parts for fear of the dark to prove like how huge the band still is. And and so those were like some details that were missing. Again, I think that they could have done a better job talking about the specific records in the 80s, when they went in the studio for the number of the beast, how it rose up the the charts uh with a brand new singer, when they went into the studio for peace of mind, how it did play on MTV, how it did play around the world, how it charted. And it was it was just an interesting choice. The the last thing I'll say, and there's been I don't think it's tension with the band, but the band continues to say this is we didn't make this movie. We gave the filmmakers the reins to make the movie, and they made the movie that they wanted to make. I found it strange that they didn't do sit-down interviews with the band. We just had audio uh of certain band members talking about specific things. Um, I would have loved to have seen uh sit down with them. And the last thing I'll say, and this is such a minor detail, but I'm so glad that the now's the time. I'm so glad that the movie chronicled the importance of Eddie and chronicle the importance of what he is to the band, what he is to the fan, what a unique marketing thing in heavy metal Eddie has been and always will be. There's no other band that has a mascot like Eddie, and they use there's so much band-produced footage of Eddie. Um the video game they did a million years ago, right? Right, all the images that they create for all the modern tours, there's so much Eddie stuff out there, and the Eddie stuff that we got in the movie was sort of like primitive, like kind of CGI created with like an ancient Atari computer. I don't know where they got the Eddie stuff, but they could have done better. And I think if had they had executive producer Brendan Smith sitting with them, yeah, um, he would have fought for better Eddie footage.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

I I can't think of uh a documentary that wouldn't be improved by executive producer Brendan Smith. Okay, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Executive producer Brendan Smith is available. I work cheap, uh, but I but passionately. But passionately, and I will always advocate for I think it's okay to give the uninitiated some real facts. And I think that at the end, when the screen goes black, it should say Iron Maiden was inducted into the 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That was strange.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I I I understand that there is a lag time for any movie, but you could throw up a frame about that at the end of that film. It was a weird omission. Um, especially since everything is being, you know, I I doubt they're sending out 35mm prints. If you're sending out a digital copy of this thing, just throw that frame at the end. It costs nothing at this point.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Right. Now, speaking of cost, and here's the last thing that I'll say. But also, if you don't have a copy of Flight 666, the fantastic documentary about Iron Maiden made by the guys at Banger Films many years ago, go get this one. This is the masterpiece. Um, this was an interesting thing. My sister-in-law is a documentary film producer. Uh, my brother asked her this question on my behalf. There was a lot of footage of Iron Maiden, especially from the 80s in the movie, that had a grainy, like sort of low quality um feel to it in the movie. Yeah, and it's because it's so expensive to bring up video footage to high resolution. Oh, okay. Um, she is working on a current project with an unnamed artist. It's kind of a big deal. I can't say who it is, but they are finding that one of the big costs for that artist is video footage and bringing it up to high resolution. Um, so it's a choice. Um, and that was a choice that I felt like, ah god, I wish that someone could have chipped in a couple more bucks to make some of that footage, which all the fans know, um, from the live after death concert in Long Beach a million years ago, you know, various uh European TV appearances, their appearance on rock pile, like all kinds of stuff that they they just didn't spend the money to bring up to speed. That's okay. So, in short, not really a movie for the fans, because I think the fans have seen a lot of the stuff, the fans knew a lot of this stuff. I could hear fans going like, How come you didn't include this, that, or the other thing? But I'm so thrilled that the project was done and that they were able to capture um the importance uh that the bond the capture the importance between of the the bond between band and fans. John Rust Bowie.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Um I uh I want to say one quick thing vis-a-vis Eddie and the whole um the the branding of it. Um yes, it is I can't think of another um another mascot for a band. Um there's the Milo cartoon for the descendants, but the descendants don't fill arenas, with all due respect and love to my friends, the descendants. Um but um but what what you mentioned the video game that they had, and if any other band came out with a video game, you would immediately think, oh my god, that's so corny. What are these guys doing? When Iron Maiden did it, it was like, oh yeah, what took so long? Uh obviously. Obviously, there should be an Iron Maiden video game. There should be several Iron Maiden video games, actually. It should be a franchise on the PS5 like Call of Duty. What are we doing? What are we doing as a as a as a people? Um I enjoyed the film. It is an hour and 25 minutes long. It um, in some regards, to your point, could be a little longer. The nerdy detail I feel is missing that could attract non-fans or at least pique their interest and make them sort of sit down and lean forward into the movie a little bit, is all the the all first of all the literary inferences uh uh references in the band. I mean, there's you know, one of their they've got songs based on Coleridge poems, you know. They they've got all sorts of uh um there's a a lot of of literature going through and a lot of old movies and a lot of old TV shows with a great song based on the 60s TV show The Prisoner. Um but um there's uh a little bit of they can spend a little more time with the lyrics and the literary quality of them. I'm also kind of of the opinion that Bruce could get his own documentary. Because the guy's fascinating. They mentioned the uh the fact that he flew the band Jack. They did not mention the fact that he was also just a professional, full-time commercial airline pilot for a while. Um they don't mention the fact that he's written a couple of novels, they don't mention the fact that he's a master fencer, they don't mention the fact that he produced a film about Alistair Crowley. Um he this is just a really, really interesting guy who wants to do all the things. He's a big reader, so he's like, oh, what would it feel like to write a book? Well, write a book and find out, you know. There's he's he's a rock star and he's very, very good at being a rock star, but he's got so many broad interests that he has been he has had the time and the resources to to partake of that I find that really, really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

He could also star in his own BBC detective show. Oh god, he could be the lead of like the British Columbo.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

And in any period, he could be the guy hunting Jack the Ripper, and that would be a huge he could be Doctor Who.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Shoot it into my veins, man. Shoot it into my voice. Of all, I mean, first of all, you know, Scott Ian said something really interesting in the documentary um about the show, about uh an Iron Maiden's production value, an Iron Maiden concert's production value being akin to Broadway. And he's right, and I think it's one of the things that I've always loved about Maiden because, you know, as anyone is a frequent listener to this podcast knows, I have a big showtune streak. Uh I I I grew up listening to Broadway, I discovered Broadway before I discovered Maiden. And there is a a real theatricality to this guy and his myriad costume changes.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Um on that uh Flight 66 tour, I believe that was called the Somewhere Back in Time tour was the uh was was the tour that that that that movie documents. I saw them on that tour, and yeah, guy comes out dressed as a red coat for the trooper. Um he's there's so many, so many musicians who try acting, and you're like, I don't know, man. I kind of wish Dickinson would give it a shot.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Um he was a theater major when he was young.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

And why isn't that in the documentary?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah. Yeah, they didn't dive a lot into the individual members' sort of backstory, and a lot of that stuff you can find on this, because on this, on the extras, Bruce goes to a flight simulator when they're on tour just to practice.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

So, but I I I've interrupted your flow of thought, John Russell. No, no, it's okay. It's okay. So my point stands the man is fascinating. Yes, give him a little more time, and let's distinguish a little bit between the three guitarists, you know. There's um uh they got a little lost in the shuffle, and obviously you gotta focus on Steve, who is a primary songwriter and invented the galloping bass, um, which as a bassist I have often tried to emulate, and it's just really, really hard. Um, but I I feel like they could have they could have taken a little more time. Again, you c you clock in under 90 minutes. You can give these these topics a little more breathing room. One of the reasons the um the Metallica documentary, um, Some Kind of Monster resonated so much with people, and I loved that movie. I saw it twice in theaters that year. Wow! Like it was a spark like it was a Star Wars film, and I was 10. You know, I was I was I really loved the that that Metallica movie because it is at its core, it's about these four guys in their group therapy, you know. It is it really humanizes them. It was also um uh clearly produced by somebody outside of the band. I think I I I believe Maiden's manager is a producer on this movie, and I think that holds them back a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

And I think his son. Oh I think Rod Smallwood is the manager of Iron Maiden, and fans know Rod is essentially the seventh member of the band. I mean, he is as important to their success as anything else. But I also I saw the name, I think it was Ben Smallwood, and I'm like, hmm. Oh yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

That maybe that's maybe it's his son then, yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's a um having said all of that, um, entertaining, great footage, yeah, um, uh, smartly edited. Um, and uh I agree, the the fan uh the fan interviews are the only what appear to be the only new footage in the film. Everything else is archival, yeah, and for the most part, and it's just these very simple gray background guys almost uniformly, guys and girls almost uniformly wearing uh maiden shirts, talking about their love for the band. And Chuck D uh talks uh extensively about Eddie. Um and Public Enemy also have that kind of striking mascot of the guy in the crosshairs. Um I don't I'm not sure if the guy has a has a name.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Well, nor does he have a narrative of fighting the devil because Eddie is more powerful than the devil.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

So yeah, obviously Eddie, and Eddie also is is you know, that's when he's fighting the devil. He's also a very, very competent sphinx. Um Let us not lose sight of his work as a cyber warrior. I would hate to uh sleep on his time as a World War II pilot. We won't, you know, let's not omit that from our our stories here. No, Eddie is a man for all seasons. Um, but but yeah, I I feel like um what it captured really well was the enthusiasm that people have for the band. I just think the film could have taken greater pains to st to inflict infect other people, new people with that enthusiasm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Um Javier Bardem reading the lyrics to Run to the Hills in a quasi-dramatic reading, uh, for me was the highlight of the movie. Here's a nerd detail. Um as you you said, give me a nerd detail many, many minutes ago. The Eddie thing kind of did start with a roadie putting on uh a kind of a skeleton mask in the very, very early days of the band. Oh wow, and they also had sort of that same sort of skeleton face that they would just put up on the backdrop and the small clubs that they would play and blow smoke through that mask. Yeah. There's famous footage of that, but like they they didn't talk about that. They almost made it seem like Eddie came out of nowhere and they met with an artist and he had a character that that kind of looked like that was Derek Riggs. But it it it started in the clubs, like they started including some of that theatrical element to their shows almost right away to stand out. No details about the new wave of British metal either, which was sort of the scene that they came out of and the adjacent bands that were a part of that scene too. Saxon, priests, all those guys. Saxon, Deaf Leopard, Tigers of Pantang. Like it was a very specific scene that they were very much a part of the Roundhouse in the UK, which was a huge, huge club for them to play in.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Um it's actually the the the um it's where a very famous um uh I believe it's the it's the it's a live record. The Ramones live record is recorded at the roundhouse. Oh, okay. And it is now uh one of the homes of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I did not know that. Current fun. Yeah, currently. Oh but yeah, the they also the interesting thing at one point is uh Steve Harris talks about how their uh the labels wanted them to be more punk and Harris sort of dismisses punk, but I find the first maiden record to be kind of punk-ish. Yeah. Yeah, Paul's a raw vocalist. Yeah, you know, he's got a lot more grit in his voice than Bruce, who is you know a trained tenor. Um, and and Paul sounds like uh, well, I'll call it Cokehead, but he and but there's also a a speed and a grit to the songs that is much more reminiscent of punk than the more like slower, sludgy Black Sabbath stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Rothschild on the album Killers, Paul Diano, has a very that was the tension in the band, I think a little bit too, because Paul Deano was more in a sort of a punk vein than Steve Harris. Yeah. Um the even the way that he dressed, like you could say, well, that's classic metal, but it it drew some punk fans in. Like Diano had that thing. Short hair. Yeah, in the short hair. Like Paul Deano, John Ross Ballet, could you put Paul Deano, the original uh lead singer of Iron Maiden, into a punk band? I mean, there's almost like a Billy Idol quality to his singing. You know, he could have been in New Generation or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Generation X. Generation X. New Generation X. Yeah, he absolutely no. There's a there's a uh a grit to his voice um without forsaking melody that would have made him perfectly comfortable in 999 or um uh the undertones, yes, I know they're Irish. Back off. I know they're Irish, they're not British. Okay, I draw the distinction, just everybody breathe. Um and I I feel like um he he would have been very, very comfortable there. Um yeah, it's um i it they also did mention that he passed away, unless I messed that and missed that. You they did not mention that, and he didn't. And that struck me as a little weird. He died a couple years ago, and it was it was sort of sad, and I I found that was a kind of a glaring omission to not mention that uh that their first lead singer is no longer with us. But um but there was something delightful about seeing it with an audience of people who were louder than most movie theater audiences. By the way, we should we should clarify that the Lemmley is a small chain of small multiplexes here in Los Angeles, named for Carl Lemmley, who was uh the head of Universal back in the 30s, but he also um uh he was also uh for some reason this chain of theater specializes in a lot of independent films. So you can see a lot of arthouse cinema. The the Burning Ambition is is released and distributed by Universal, but they do a lot of indie movies there, so it was kind of fun to have twenty or so metal heads in a little art house cinema in the valley where you could very easily be seeing the new Joachim Trier, but you're not because you're you're got your fucking horns up. And I think you said it best, Brandon, as the lights went down and you yelled out, Scream for me, North Hollywood! And I thought that set a tone that uh people responded to really well.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Then I got the laugh. I knew I would get the laugh for the main defense.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Oh, it's the easiest laugh we've ever gotten, and yet it was exactly what the moment needed.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yes. Interestingly enough, the movie didn't chronicle that.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

I would have cut executive I would have done I would have done a massive supercut of him just scream for me, Helsinki! Scream for me, Lima! Scream for me, Dortmund! Scream for me, Des Moines! Scream for me, Mexico! Um, yeah, and that was it.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Executive producer John Ross Belly, executive Brendan Smith, we're sitting at the table, guys. It's just gonna be 30 seconds. We're cutting together this thing of Bruce Aronno.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Scream for me, Chicotta! And it is an instant viral, it's like it's better than a trailer. It's hilarious. Come on, yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Um, but you know what? In conclusion, thank God. You know, I'm just glad that there's just another thing. Flight 666, go get it. It's on YouTube, I think. There's also the band produced The History of Iron Maiden many years ago. It's in two parts. That's up on YouTube right now that gets into more of the nerd details and has on-screen uh interviews with all the guys in the band. Um, Nicola McBrain didn't come out of nowhere. He was in the Pat Travers band. Yannick Garris didn't come out of nowhere. He played with Ian Gillen, like, you know, nerd details. Executive producer Brendan Smith.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

You did it. Yeah, I tried. John, I tried. You did try, and I'm available. I'm cheap. Yes, you absolutely are.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Um, well, buddy, but it was also fun to go to a movie with you. We spoke to K and A C after the uh after the film was over. They were there handing out t-shirts, uh, which was super fun. Um, they're back, K and A C turn the dial and rip the knob off.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

They are absolutely back, and uh, we talked to Hollywood, yeah. Um, and uh had a wonderful brief conversation with him. I suppose if you uh I imagine that our audio uh showed up at some point. I would hope that we hear it on on air at some point.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

If it's too loud, you're too old. Um, which is hilarious given the mean age of that uh audience the other night, but sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah, can you turn it? I would have liked the movie to have been louder in the theater, but that's okay. Who cares?

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Well, largely because you and I have lost a fair amount of hearing from 100% true. Um kind of pops and clicks over here.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah. Okay. Well, in conclusion, we had a great time.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

We had a great time. Yeah. Earning ambition in some theaters, but it will be streaming very soon.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, absolutely. Um so, John, good to see you. I'm glad we did this. Me too. And uh all I have to say is up the irons. Up the irons.