Shine a Light
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Directed by: Martin Scorcese
Starring:
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Buddy Guy, Jack White, Christina Aguilera, and Martin Scorcese
I love Martin Scorsese. I love The Rolling Stones. But the genre of the concert film demonstrates that no matter how much talent you have, there's no way to effectively capture rock n' roll on a movie screen.
What makes Shine a Light even more disappointing is that it bursts with energy through the first twenty minutes. It looks like we're about to see a movie about how Greatness Gets Done. We see the Stones playfully practicing and trying to devise a set-list while the always charming and highly entertaining Scorsese tries his best to figure out how he's going to shoot the night's show at the Beacon Theatre without a set list and possibly without a definitive stage. But of course everything comes together and we don't see Scorsese again till the very end and it's basically just a Stones concert with a few old interviews tossed in to break up, dare I say it, the monotony.
The problem is that the concert film exists uncomfortably between a concert, where there's an undeniable energy of watching a band play live and everyone is on their feet, singing along, and rocking out; and with just the purity of the music where you can put it on your home stereo and rock out by yourself, in the comfort and privacy of your living room. But in a darkened theatre, the rules state that you must be sitting, not talking, certainly not singing, and quietly observing. Laughing is permissible where appropriate. That is not rock n' roll.
It's bizarre and depressing that a film, masterfully shot by Scorsese, and played beautifully by The Rolling Stones, doesn't capture the essence of rock n' roll. Scorsese clearly wants us to feel like we were there, but sadly, we're just outside looking in, wanting to join in the fun, but shushed into passivity by our very cheap seats.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
2.27.08