Shine a Light (2008)

Wonderful character development!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Old and rich people play in front of old and rich people filmed by someone old and rich. Oh yeah, and they casted a couple of hundred young girls to dance dreamily in the front row. How can a band that once was so good become so awful?! OK, apparently nowadays Keith can't play to save his life and Mick's singing (and stage behavior) has become a a parody of his former self. Charlie's drumming is still good though. But they have background singers, a brass section and various keyboards trying to make up for what the Glimmer Twins can no longer deliver. As for the footage. Well Scorsese has 15 cameras whizzing to and fro and it's well shot and edited, but it just makes you wanna go back to Gimme Shelter (the Maysles Brothers film from 1970). Back then they had only two or three 16mm cameras to cover the shows but what the heck, the outcome was so much more Rock'n'Roll and back then the Stones were relevant. Here, everyone tries so hard to have fun, everyone pretends that this is the real thing when frankly everyone can see that it is rather pathetic and utterly pointless.

Well filmed concert/documentary but disappointed me. I have been a Stones fan since the first record (Come On) came out in the sixties. I wanted to be Jagger or Richard so badly but I just could not cut it. The reason this film disappointed me is that I feel like Mick has become an exaggeration of himself - his singing voice is just TOO American now. he can still move like a much younger man but should he? I ask myself. Is it becoming at his age? Buddy Guy injected some energy and life into the concert, unlike Jack White who is supremely untalented. I felt some of the early songs in the set were rushed as though they were going through the motions. It was also interesting in the old footage to see how many different accents Jagger employed. After all these years I feel like I know absolutely nothing about him, but that must be part of his charisma and mystique and they way he wants it. I guess I am jealous-just wish I were as fit as MJ is. He can still cut it and he does quite look ridiculous yet but it is a fine line. No-one wants their heroes to become less than what they were and there is a danger if the Stones go on too long doing it like this.

A good concert will generate heat like a fire. And sometimes you feel you'll just melt away. So it was for me watching this brilliant film. Mick Jagger and the boys have traveled straight into history. It's as if they'd got hold of something that's eluded us all and, for me at least, they've left no doubt which band is the greatest, Beatles or Stones.I originally didn't want to sit through a long concert. But I was wrong. There's nothing dull or repetitious in this movie and, in fact, there are some surprises including a gem of a Keith Richard rendition and a revealing duet between Mick and Jack White. The film is like a compilation of a thousand lucky catches. Mick's energy, musicality and playfulness come through loud and clear, and I began to wonder just how influential this band's been over the years.As a guy, I know I always wanted to take notice and listen whenever they came up on somebody's playlist. The Beatles always seemed to be a more acceptable choice, even when it was a Stones' song that kept going through my mind. But after all these years, I've concluded that it was the Stones who had the stronger grasp on my generation's psyche. In some ways they seem more honest than the Beatles. Certainly they've had more fun over the years. I just heard someone list iconic British things to include Big Ben and the Beatles. I winced because I realized, if I were British, it would have been the Stones I would have mentioned. There's something miraculous about them that I can't help admiring.

During passing black-and-white footage beginning the film, we see Scorsese as he sketches out shot charts to map out the sequence of the songs, right down to the solos, and who would be where on the stage. His hopeful intention is to be able to direct his cameramen through earpieces. However, Mick Jagger fiddles with the list in continuous wavering. We observe over his shoulder at songs scratched out and written back in, as he brings up nonchalantly that naturally the whole set might be altered on the spot. It sounds as if after playing together for half a century, the Stones agree on their song order through mind- reading.What I love about this opening is that it speaks volumes about the role of a film director. Scorsese has been working as a director for over 30 years now, and he has for almost as long been one of the most beloved and respected filmmakers at least in this hemisphere. However, no matter how many A-list stars he has directed, no matter how many millions of dollars have gone into his projects, and no matter how long he struggled with depression and anger and anxiety during the 1980s trying to make The Last Temptation of Christ, he just cannot seem to wrangle the Rolling Stones! When one deems someone fit to be a director, or anyone in a position of charge for that matter, one primarily discerns based on how they perceive that person's ability to control a hundred or so people. This criteria is not so skewed, as many of these large masses of people to wrangle towards your concrete vision of the end result are big celebrities, superstars, megastars, who are so spoiled and pampered by their status that they work noncondusively, treat the director and others with utter contempt, cause selfish problems, and other such things. However, there is the argument that if one is willing to do absolutely anything to tell a story, to make a statement, to realize their vision, they will put up with as much as they have to in order to do so. (Really, the argument can be made that one could never truly know if they could handle a director's job till they actually do it.) Scorsese proves in these first ten minutes or so that no matter who you are, there are simply some people who are not compatible with you in hands-on creative situations. He also proves that in spit of this, a project can still come to seamless fruition.The problem is that Shine a Light is not a story, not a statement, and really nobody's vision. Actually, it disregards cinema. It is a filmed concert. At a concert, the audience enjoys a succession of performances. When an audience sees a movie, they enjoy a progression of events. That includes documentaries. Not every documentary has a narrative structure, but every sequence changes something. A documentary could be a story told in reality, or it could be an argument formed from bullet point to bullet point. Simply filming a concert gives the audience none of that. The audience languishes through impressive coverage of a rock concert.Take it from a fan of the Rolling Stones! Gimme Shelter, Street Fightin' Man, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Sympathy For the Devil, Monkey Man, Let It Loose, You Can't Always Get What You Want, so many quintessential rock songs. Mick Jagger's lazy, drawling vocal style is timeless. I even like to sing like that when I'm in my car, whether Let it Loose ("Leddeh Looh!") has been stuck in my head or if I'm belting Fly Me To the Moon ("Flah Me Tooh d'Mooh"). I enjoy the performances of Champagne & Reefer with Buddy Guy, and their beautiful rendition of As Tears Go By.Jagger is a dancer and a confidently sloppy one, too, and if I were at that concert, I would enjoy that. He employs his wiry body to command the attention of the audience. Keith Richards and Ron Wood are lazily lithe, Richards especially looking as if to disregard physics as his body leans at impossibly obtuse angles. Surely it has the most excellent coverage of the onstage performance. Directing cinematographer Robert Richardson, Scorsese set up a group of nine cinematographers, all either Oscar winners or nominees, to cover a concert, when if it was possible to round up such a dream team he could have made the most incredible movie imaginable.