Review: Shine a Light
Jun 9th, 2008 | By Rick | Category: Reviews
It must be nice being Martin Scorsese. He’s acclaimed as one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, he finally won the Oscar he’s been pining for, and best of all, he gets to make movies about his rock n’ roll idols. Well, once in a while, anyway. First there wasThe Last Waltz (1978), and damned if he didn’t hit it right out of the park, making one of the greatest concert films ever.
In the intervening years, he made the odd rock video, and a well-received television documentary of Bob Dylan (No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, 2005). Now, thirty years after The Last Waltz, he gets to make a movie about the band who, after outlasting the Beatles, declared themselves the Greatest Rock n’ Roll Band In the World. And it seems like a match made in heaven: Marty obviously loves the Stones (his soundtracks sound like Rolling Stones compilation discs) and Mick and the boys are still going at 60+ years of age, still producing records and touring. And anybody who has any fondness for The Last Waltz is probably wondering: did lightning strike twice? Did Scorsese make another masterpiece in Shine a Light?
It pains me to say this, but no. It’s not that it’s a bad film, it just that it’s not exceptional. It’s a pretty run of the mill concert film. And the problem is several-fold. First is the presence of Scorsese himself, injected as a character in the proceedings. While his motor-mouth schtick is always amusing, and it’s fun seeing him fussing and fuming about the lack of a song list, the film is about the Stones, after all. The second problem is the band itself: they’re just not very good. When they swing into the opening number (Jumpin’ Jack Flash) it’s like a garage band messing around, clinking guitar notes and all. They do get better as the evening progresses . . . by the time they get to Sympathy for the Devil, they’re cooking, albeit on a low heat.
But it takes a long time to get there, and for the first hour and a half or so, the principle pleasures are watching Jagger swagger and strut and generally belie his 64 years of age. And that brings us to another problem: on stage, Mick is as electric as ever, but off screen he’s a bore. Or at least the (mostly archival) clips Scorsese has chosen are boring, it’s hard to say which. They all seem to revolve around the fact that the band is still going after all these years, and though it could have been an examination of age and ego and determination, it isn’t. Instead, we get the same question asked in slight variations: how much longer do you want to keep doing this? And while it’s initially amusing to see a young Jagger saying stuff like “Probably only another year,” it gets old fast. We get it, Marty, they’re old.
On the positive side, it is a very beautiful film (Keith Richards’ wattles notwithstanding}. The colors are rich blues and browns and blacks, and the cinematography by Bob Richardson gives them a fine burnish. Scorsese’s direction is typically fine, with the camera tracking along with Jagger or swooping in onto the stage or capturing the bright spots just at the moment they are extinguished, leaving an afterglow like a cathedral window. And there’s one magical scene at the end, where the camera assumes Jagger’s POV, that is pure Scorsese.
Looking back over what I’ve just written, it sounds more negative than I mean it to be. True, as a vibrant rock n’ roll experience, Shine a Light leaves something to be desired. But as a record of the passing of an era — how much longer can these guys go? — it’s not so bad. If you can forgive the fact that they’re getting old (and who isn’t?) and accept the fact that they aren’t the musicians they once were, it’s not a terrible way to spend a couple of hours. But The Last Waltz it ain’t.
RSS 2.0
Nice work, Rick. Sounds like you’re well-versed fan of both Scorsese and the Stones, so it doesn’t make me feel bad that I “only” moderately enjoyed it. My favorite parts were the archival bits in between songs. That’s missing from your average concert film.
Actually, I’m a better-versed fan of Scorsese. I haven’t really been a Stones fan since the 70s.
The archival bits, for me, were a bit monotonous. I don’t know if they were the best available, or what, but for me, they didn’t add much.
I loved Shine a Light, never thought I would love it as much as I did.