Shine a Light (PG-13) ***½ | Wild horses shouldn't keep you away
Posted on Fri, Apr. 04, 2008
BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
PARAMOUNT CLASSICS
Christina Aguilera jams with Mick Jagger in Shine a Light.
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Just how real is that telephone call in
Shine a Light in which director Martin Scorsese appears increasingly frustrated trying to get Mick Jagger to provide him with a set list? During a recent press conference at New York's Palace Hotel to promote the movie, Scorsese said the real-life incident was even more exasperating.
''The actual phone call was 45 minutes!'' the director said. 'Over 45 minutes. So I trimmed it a bit. But, you know . . . the idea [behind the movie] is to capture the spontaneity of the group, and the word `capture' means you have to control it somewhere.
``But you can't control spontaneity. And the set list itself had to really be something that they all worked out, almost, I think, to the last minute. You have to, as he says, know the room. You gotta feel the temperature of the audience.''
It was Scorsese who convinced the Stones to shoot the movie in a small venue like New York's Beacon Theater instead of filming one of their legendary, gigantic outdoor stadium shows.
''We discussed doing it in a bigger arena,'' Scorsese said. ``But while I was trying to prepare for that, I realized I'm better suited to capture the group on a smaller stage. I wanted you to you see the band work together and work each song like a narrative.''
In turn, Scorsese acquiesced to Jagger's request that the director use a little less vintage footage of the band in the film and focus primarily on the recent concert. ''There were some moments [in the first cut] when I felt the archival footage was going too long and we were going off into another movie and forgetting we're in a concert,'' Jagger said. ``Those old movies can be riveting sometimes. But in the end, we ended up with what we have, which is good.''
-- RENE RODRIGUEZ
Shine a Light opens on a note of tension: Director Martin Scorsese is chasing down Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, trying to find out which song will open the performance he's going to be filming with 11 cameras, each operated by a renowned cinematographer (including Robert Richardson, Emmanuel Lubezki and Albert Maysles, who directed the legendary Stones concert film Gimme Shelter).
But Jagger keeps dodging Scorsese, because he doesn't settle on a final set list until the last possible minute before each show (there's a quick shot of Jagger leisurely poring over song titles, grouped into sections labeled ''Well Known,'' ''Medium Known,'' etc.) It is only mere seconds before the Stones hit the stage at the Beacon Theater in New York City, the first of two 2006 shows captured in the film, that Scorsese finally gets his answer: Jumpin' Jack Flash.
And for the next two hours, the exhilarating Shine a Light shows you why the Stones remain the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band. The Stones aren't exactly lacking for concert documentaries or filmed records of their performances, but Shine a Light provides the clearest and most intimate viewing experience of the band to date. It is also a happy circumstance that the group, now in their mid-60s, have rarely sounded tighter.
The setlist ranges from requisite Stones staples (Sympathy for the Devil, Start Me Up, Shattered) to rarer tunes such as a cover of Muddy Waters' Champagne and Reefer, which Jagger performs as a duet with blues icon Buddy Guy. Other guest stars include Christina Aguilera and White Stripes guitarist Jack White, both of whom bring their best game (and look genuinely thrilled) to share the stage with Jagger.
The singer's energy remains awe-inspiring: He flails his sinewy limbs around the stage like a man possessed, and there isn't a single song in the show that he doesn't invest himself in whole. A fit-looking Ronnie Wood and the raggedy Keith Richards, dressed like he's still in costume from Pirates of the Caribbean III, weave magic from their guitars, engaging in the kind of easy, unforced interplay that speaks to the group's astounding history.
Scorsese intercuts snippets of vintage interviews throughout Shine a Light, many of which focus on the group's nature-defying longevity (when an interviewer asks a very young Jagger how much longer he thinks the group will be touring, the singer guesses another year). The message implicit in Shine a Light is that age really is just a number, and that these wrinkled veterans have arguably never been better as musicians. And the movie, which has one of the best sound mixes I've heard in a theater, is so good it accomplishes something scientists and researchers had long deemed impossible: It allows you to understand nearly every single word Jagger is singing.
With: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Charlie Watts, Buddy Guy, Jack White III, Christina Aguilera, Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
Producers: Michael Cohl, Zane Weiner, Steve Bing
A Paramount Classics release. Running time: 122 minutes. Brief vulgar language. In Miami-Dade: AMC Aventura, Sunset Place, Regal South Beach; in Broward: Autonation IMAX, Muvico Palace.
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