One of the more wonderful things about being relatively young, is that you are free to love the shit out things that people older than you cower from, shielding their eyes while yelling, “MAKE IT STOP!” Apparently Mick Jagger circa 2008 is one of those things.
Seeing as I can neither go back in time, nor watch Cocksucker Blues many more times, I will gladly take Martin Scorsese’s unabashed love-in for all it’s worth. Having never seen the Rolling Stones, Shine A Light is pretty damn near as good as it gets. If they’re past it, it doesn’t matter to me, as I’ve got no memories of the beautiful young Mick sauntering on skinny hips to be ruined by these new images of a handsome old Mick sauntering around on skinny hips. Even at pensionable age, they’re still out there, giving it hell and loving every minute of it. Even if Ron Wood does for a second forget the chords to Satisfaction. It’s only rock and roll, but I like it. Zing!
You can only imagine how many wet dreams Martin Scorsese had about this scenario: shooting an intimate night with the Stones on his home turf, at the ornate and beautiful Beacon Theatre in his beloved New York City. And there are moments when we are so close to the action, so surrounded by the exuberant racket of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, that you could imagine walking out onto Broadway and catching the 9 downtown to what’s left of CBGBs (not much: a clothing store.)
The highlights are many: the clever opening set up of Jagger vs Scorsese, duking it out over transatlantic phone calls, arguing the nature of the setlist. A sneak peek into the insanity which follows the Stones to this day (oh, hello Bill Clinton! I see you’ve brought your mother in law!). The cleverly inserted archival footage, which manages to somehow distill the Stone’s career in a lean 20 minutes. Keef’s gloriously haggard take on You Got The Silver. Seeing Jack White losing his shit while joining the band on Loving Cup. And stealing the whole show: Buddy Guy, who gets given Richard’s guitar as he splendidly walks off the stage.
This is the antithesis of U2:3D, despite Jagger’s assertion that he wanted a Rio festival shot in 3D. Thankfully that never happened, and instead we get a loving, up close homage – wrinkles and all – from perhaps cinema’s biggest Stone’s fan. There’s a brilliant Scorsese tracking shot at the end of the film, a la Goodfellas, which is just about worth the cost of a ticket itself.
It might not have Gimme Shelter, but it’s got just about everything else.
