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Well, I think
it’s now safe to say that Martin Scorsese—as if he hadn’t
accomplished enough for the Arts already—has now successfully
eliminated any reason one might have to attend a Rolling Stones
concert at any point during the next month. Instead of paining
oneself with the price of $100 nosebleed-seatstickets, the
impossible feat of parking at a ginourmous venue, and the time
wasted by engaging in such tomfoolery, one can now simply scoot
on over to one’s local multiplex and sling out $10 to see the
Stones like they’ve never been seen before. Scorsese, completely
no-frills in his approach, fills the frames of Shine a Light
(of course, named after the famous Stones’ tune) with nearly two
hours of nonstop music. He only pauses occasionally to offer
some meta-on-meta commentary on how impossible it is to make a
concert film when it stars the unpredictable Mick Jagger and a
few snippets from early interviews of the band. The rest is the
show, filmed at a Beacon Theatre benefit held in New York City
in September 2006 and edited down to a finished product that
consists of nearly-non-stop music. Even if you aren’t a fan of
all the Stones’ songs, you’ll still find yourself enjoying the
film for the ones that you do. And, as if Shine a Light
wasn’t a treat enough for music-enthusiasts already, it also
features onstage collaborations with superstars Jack White and
Christina Aguilera.
Of course, I
should also mention that the movie has been blown up for IMAX,
the optimum format in which it should be enjoyed. Scorsese makes
use of the medium in very straightforward ways—he’s not a flashy
director, after all—but these mark perhaps some of the best
reasons to give a picture the IAMX-treatment in the first place.
Not only does the 70mm film, with wonderful black-levels and
startling motion, capture the full glory of a Stones’
performance on a giant screen, it allows for one of the most
spectacular transitions in recent movie-history. Scorsese opens
the film in a tiny frame that fills about one-fifth of the
screen, almost causing viewers to ask: “Is this a joke? Did
Paramount Vantage really not have enough cash to finance a
proper IMAX movie?” Just as we settle down to accept that the
film will be of this limited size after watching twenty-minutes
of it, Scorsese finally receives a song-list from Jagger and the
band starts to perform. The size of the frame multiplies in
seconds, its colors and vividness leaving viewers speechless.
Indeed, this is a stop on the Stones’ “Bigger Bang
Tour.” The music begins and the 15,000-watt, six-channel sound
radiates through the theatre. Shine a Light becomes a
piece of work that isn’t just a simple concert-movie, but an
experience – truly a contemporary re-working of the standard
music-based motion-picture.
Of course, it
helps that Scorsese brought together Robert Richardson and nine
other Oscar-winning cinematographers to photograph the concert.
Between all of the beautiful shots his team captured of the
show, he’s never tempted to fall for the schizophrenic,
MTV-style approach that so many of his younger contemporaries
would have. Shine a Light is thankfully all Jagger, Wood,
Watts, and Richards – with, of course, a little Scorsese and
Bill Clinton (why!?) thrown in for good measure. No
unnecessary filler—technical or content-related—is needed here,
thankyouverymuch.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 4.1.2008
Screened on:
4.5.2008 in IMAX at the Bridge: Cinema de lux West Los Angeles,
CA.
Shine a Light is rated PG-13 and runs
122 minutes.
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