Tympanic Membrane

Shine A Light

performance: it’s the stones

sound: shrill

mood: okay

Martin Scorsese’s Shine A Light entertains a bit, but ultimately doesn’t illuminate anything, least of all The Rolling Stones. It may be a film made for true fans by a true fan and I’m not. I like some Stones songs, but they’ve never hit me the way they hit others. The movie is categorized as a documentary. I guess it is if you’re using the old Blockbuster Video categories; It’s not a narrative film so therefore it’s a documentary. The only thing I found out about the stones was that they are old and still doing what they’ve been doing for 40 years and I ain’t knocking that. However, I’ve seen concert video of them before and the only thing this film brings to the table is a smaller venue and Martin Scorsese. There’s very little that makes this a cinematic experience beyond the editing (which was fairly typical for a concert film) and the sound editing (which was awful!). It’s a concert and I don’t think it was necessary to bump up the sound for each instrument every single time that instrument was featured in a shot. So the guitars, Wood and Richards, would each take turns being louder than the rest of the already loud wall of sound. Watts drums would boom out when he was on camera and then settle back into the mix when the entire band was on screen. It went on and on like this for the entire 2 hours. There was even a shot of some fan who held up a camera and, “CLICK!” It was a loud click too. The overall sound of the entire movie was not great and that could have partially been the fault of the theater sound system which was awfully hot in the high-mids. That said, it wasn’t all bad and I found myself entertained as did the audience I saw it with. A few people even applauded between songs. I saw it in IMAX and the screen size did make it as immersive an experience as possible.

Highlights included guest spots by Buddy Guy and Jack White. Christina Aguilera also showed up but her performance felt more than a little forced. I really wished they had let the extra band members (horns, additional guitars and back up singers) take a break after the guest spots and big numbers. It would have been nice to see and hear the Stones do what they do without the Las Vegas feel and sound. A little intimacy with the band in their current aged states would have been nice. We did at least get to see a spotlight performance by Keith Richards and Ron Wood which was what I was hoping for, but it only lasted about 5 minutes. All in all, it was okay. Not horrible, not great, just okay. The most disappointing thing about Shine A Light was that I didn’t see or feel the love that Scorsese apparently has for the band and their music. I was really hoping for more. I wanted Shine A Light to make me a fan, but instead it gave me more of what I already know about the Stones music. Except for a few stand out songs, they’re just okay.

I can say this, however; They’re way older than I am and have a lot more energy and that really came through.