Author: Daniel Arkin
No Direction Home (2005), Martin Scorsese’s exhaustive chronicle of the life and times of Bob Dylan, is just about the best documentary about American music I have ever seen. Not surprisingly, I arrived to a Friday matinee screening of Shine a Light, Scorsese’s new film about The Rolling Stones, with expectations that the diminutive auteur would do for The Greatest Rock Band in the World what he did for The Voice of a Generation.
Alas, Shine a Light comes nowhere close to the brilliance of the epic and encyclopedic Dylan saga. It is, instead, an unusually entertaining concert movie-an up-close-and-personal jam session that would seem perfunctory were it not so infectiously exuberant. The indestructible Stones are in top form, of course, but the vehicle itself is short on insight into their craft and history.
The opening moments of Shine a Light-black and white footage of the notoriously obsessive Scorsese scrambling to get a final set list on paper as the Stones glibly swagger around in their dressing rooms-are the closest the film comes to raw documentary. Otherwise, it’s all song and dance, with some rehearsed witty repartee between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards along the way. There are a few archival clips of the Stones from the late Sixties: toady British journalists ask inane questions; Mick Jagger appears disinterested; someone with a mop-top snickers bemused in the background. But these interludes don’t seem to function as anything more than prompts for viewers to comment: “Look how young they looked.” In other words, contrary to the plot outlines on IMDb, Shine a Light never quite attempts to be a documentary about the band’s career so much as a document of a two-night concert in New York. In this sense, the movie settles for something far more routine and straightforward.
But all of this is not meant to discount the Stones themselves, all of whom are in impressive form at a combined age of 268. Jagger struts and leaps across the stage with the verve of a natural and unstoppable showman-his schtick, however repetitive, is less tiring than it is inspiring. Keith Richards, whose craggy visage surely merits some kind of intense topographic study, has a natural aptitude for theatrics that can only come from those rough-and-tumble years on the road: standing upright, with a slow drag of his seventh cigarette, he looks a little like the unwanted child of Jack Skellington and The Thing. Bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts accompany the two undisputed stars of the show with clarity and rhythm, although Watts at times may look like the begrudging older brother roped in to add quiet wisdom to the line-up.
I can recommend Shine a Light to Stones proselytes and casual audiences alike. The tunes are all fairly recognizable-mostly selections from Some Girls (1978), their biggest-selling American album, and Exile on Main St. (1972), the greatest rock-and-roll album of all time, if you ask me-and the lyrics still have vitality and energy. Jack White, Christina Aguilera and the outstanding Buddy Guy are also in the wings for rousing duets with Jagger, which should give uninitiated audiences some sense of the Stones’ vast influence on the current pop scene (and, conversely, how the Stones ripped the blues and booze from guys in the Buddy Guy tradition.) “Loving Cup,” with White at the microphone to take every alternating verse, is a particular standout in a show where everyone is bound to have a personal favorite lick.
Nevertheless, despite the strength of the performances (and of the nimble and gymnastic camerawork from a team of Academy Award nominated cinematographers), Shine a Light is ultimately somewhat forgettable. You won’t learn anything new about the Stones, but maybe that’s a documentary for twenty years from now. Unless the Stones are still going at it.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
