IRON MAIDEN: FLIGHT 666
(Best Buy Blu-Ray exclusive)
Universal Music Group 2009
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
THE FILM
Director Scot McFadyen and filmmaker/anthropologist Sam Dunn have become kings of the heavy metal documentary. Their influential Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and its equally fascinating follow-up Global Metal have delved deeply into the cultural and social ramifications of heavy music. One of their biggest allies during these productions was Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood, and by proxy, the band's lead vocalist since 1981 - Bruce Dickinson.
This friendship presented the filmmakers with a unique opportunity to follow the British band on the first leg of their whirlwind Somewhere Back In Time global tour, which would take the shredders to previously unrocked ends of the earth. The most fascinating element of this endeavor was that Dickinson himself would be flying the personalized 757 airliner known cheekily as Ed Force One (in reference to the band's skeletal mascot, Eddie).
Those who have seen Maiden in concert or on video can attest to the fact that Dickinson is an energetic madman on stage. The thought of riding high on superhuman amounts of sheer adrenaline for over two hours before flying your band from Australia to Japan may seem outright suicidal. Yet the footage on display seems to attest to the fact that Dickinson is a highly competent professional pilot.
Usually the band and their crew travel separately, but Ed Force One was retrofitted to store all of the band's equipment while comfortably seating their entire entourage. Being by and large a battalion of witty Brits, these jovial jokers take kindly to the cameras and a series of Monty Pythonesque adventures unfold. Each member of the band proper is also interviewed separately, giving an insight into the variety of characters that collectively add up to the hard-edged juggernaut that is Iron Maiden.
The band's history has been hashed out before, so McFadyen and Dunn opt to focus solely on the events at hand. Indeed, a tour this ambitious certainly yields enough interesting material to hold one's attention for the film's nearly two hour running time. Unlike Dunn's previous two documentaries, he also largely refrains from inserting himself into the picture as an affable narrator.
In one respect Flight 666 does make a great companion to those films, and that's the impact this band has on its fans across the world. When Iron Maiden comes to India and South America, there is a palpable effect on the populace. Colombia in particular provides a striking scenario wherein fans brave military brutality for just one chance to scream along to The Trooper. When the camera later lingers on a crying Colombian fan post-concert, clutching one of Nicko McBrain's drumsticks while falling prey to a deluge of emotion, it's powerful stuff.
VIDEO AND AUDIO
The quality of the high-definition video footage varies, but the concert material consistently shines with a stunning amount of detail. The chrome hardware of McBrain's massive drum kit pops off the screen, and overhead shots of the shows often yield a shockingly crisp delineation of each and every member in the pulsating throng below. In a nice move, a video replication of the tour's setlist is also provided separately from the main event, featuring sixteen songs from sixteen different locations.
The sound quality is rich and full of dynamic range, jumping from the relatively quiet interview segments to the fiery, bombastic concert clips. Viewers can choose between a number of subtitle possibilities and sound options, including a stunning DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track produced by Maiden's main sound guru Kevin Shirley.
EXTRA FEATURES
There's a surprising lack of extras on the disc, considering the wealth of goodies found on A Headbanger's Journey. In this case, the main feature and accompanying concert film are enough to satisfy the most frothing of metalheads.
Video viewed on a DIY 100” screen. Image generated by a 1080p high definition BRD signal fed to a Sony HD SXRD projector.
Sound was evaluated through a Rotel 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS receiver feeding a speaker system comprising vintage Advent speakers and an SVS subwoofer.