Scorsese invites audiences to join the Stones on stage for this unique concert experience.
Shine a Light opens with a behind-the-scenes look at Martin Scorsese's stressful final moments of prep before shooting the Stones concert at New York's Beacon theater in 2006. Not too surprisingly, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards keep changing the terms of their agreement with poor Marty and the auteur appears close to pulling his remaining strands of silver hair right from their roots. All of this pre-show chaos fills only a small portion of the IMAX screen right up until those oh-so-familiar opening chords of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" ring through the theater and the screen expands to fill the entire 70-foot IMAX screen.
Filmed by an incredible team of cinematographers (nearly all Oscar winners or nominees) led by Robert Richardson (The Aviator, JFK) Shine a Light looks like no concert film before it. Cameras are everywhere -- on stage, backstage, in front of the stage and swooping across the action on cranes from just about every angle. This is as close to an onstage experience that you could ever experience short of strapping on a Strat and joining Ron Wood and Keith Richards for "Street Fighting Man."
Although Shine a Light might also play some non-IMAX screens during its release, I would caution you against it. This one simply must be experienced on the super-big screen and would lose much of its impact in a standard theater.
Somewhat surprisingly, the best moments of Shine a Light are the interview and archive clips of the Stones' earlier days. Although it's great to see Scorsese give them the royal treatment in a concert film, the movie I'd rather see is a Scorsese-directed documentary chronicling their 40-plus year history.
Even so, the ever-ageless Stones still put on a better show than 90 percent of the current bands out there. To offer a little added value for younger fans, they are joined on stage for a few songs by Christina Aguilera and Jack White. It would be great to see a vintage Stones show shot in this same manner, but until time travel finally gets invented we'll have to live with this group of hard rockin' seniors.
The only minor criticism is that Shine a Light runs a little longer than it needs to. Although this is as close as I've ever seen a filmmaker get to re-creating that concert experience in a movie theater, it's still not quite the same as seeing a band live. The archive footage is a necessary part of the experience on screen and it would have been great to see even more of it between songs.
Like the Stones, Scorsese has lost very little as he approaches his twilight years. His work here is exceptional and continues a hot streak he's been on for the past five years. His passion for music and for the Stones is quite clear throughout Shine a Light and it's hard to imagine any other director doing Shine a Light the same justice. Stones obsessives are going to love it and even the casual fan will find it hard not to catch the contagious excitement of this inside view into rock n' roll's original bad boys.
ReelzChannel Rating: 