Thirty-five years after he began his long relationship with the Rolling Stones with his compilation of the "Mean Streets" (1973) soundtrack, Martin Scorsese has finally given the rock legends a project of their own. And, after all the Stones' contributions to Scorsese's films over the years - "Goodfellas" (1990), "Casino" (1995) and "The Departed" (2006) to name a few - one could easily argue that "Shine a Light" is long overdue.
The full-length documentary, now playing nationwide, is a glorified concert video from the Stones' tour for their latest album, "A Bigger Bang" (2005). It intersperses live music with footage from past interviews with the band spanning the past four decades. The film was shot over two shows at New York City's Beacon Theater on Oct. 29 and Nov. 1, 2006. The two men behind "Shine a Light," Scorsese and Stones frontman Mick Jagger, were both 63 years old at the time, but under the bright lights in the Big Apple, both seem nearly immortal. "Shine a Light" is an exercise in timelessness.
Surprisingly, Scorsese opens by drawing the focus to himself. For the first ten minutes, we follow the Stones backstage in New York as they prepare for the big show. For a moment, Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood lose their status as rock gods; behind the scenes, clutching their sheet music, they appear human. Meanwhile, the Oscar-winner behind the camera emerges as the genius pulling the strings. Scorsese labors through the process of planning a concert, painstakingly leafing through pages and pages of song titles to draft the perfect set list. These ten minutes are slow, and they do little to brace the audience for what unfolds next.
From the moment the Stones take the stage, opening with the classic "Jumpin' Jack Flash," it becomes clear that this is Jagger's show. The house isn't packed to see Watts' blank stare from behind the drums; it's all about Mick. At 63, the frontman puts on the same show he did at 23 without a shred of shame. He darts around the stage like a running back, gyrates like a backup dancer and bares midriff like a cheerleader. This has been Mick Jagger's M.O. for four decades, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Scorsese sprinkles in footage of the old Stones, including one interview with a baby-faced twenty-something Jagger, being asked how long he sees the Stones sticking around. Jagger hesitates, briefly speaks to the band's rise in popularity in recent months, and then quips - with a perfectly straight face - "I think we're pretty well set up for at least another year."
Back in the present, where Jagger has met that goal 40-fold, he wheels out an impressive array of guest stars one by one. Jack White of White Stripes and Raconteurs fame takes the stage for a duet with Jagger on "Loving Cup," blues legend Buddy Guy comes out for a rendition of Muddy Waters' "Champagne and Reefer" and, perhaps most surprisingly, Christina Aguilera joins the band for "Live With Me."
All three guests are entertaining in their own unique ways, but of the three, only Guy has the charisma to draw focus away from the old white guy in the tight black T-shirt. Jagger gladly defers to Guy's deep, booming voice and impending stage presence, even drawing a rousing ovation when he introduces "Buddy Guy" with a certain 13-letter middle name unprintable in this newspaper.
The Stones cycle through their catalog of classics, among them "Some Girls," "Sympathy for the Devil" and the iconic "Start Me Up," building up to the Stones' final song and their dramatic exit.
Inevitably in a collection like this, there will be omissions. Stones fans, casual and avid alike, will bemoan the film's lack of "Can't Always Get What You Want," "Paint It Black" and "Beast of Burden," plus the most glaring snub of all, "Gimme Shelter," a song featured in several of Scorsese's past masterpieces. But despite the absence of his trademark track (Jagger has joked that "Shine a Light" may be the first Scorsese film not to feature "Gimme Shelter"), the director manages to find his own unique voice.
After the band exits the stage, Scorsese cuts back to the video archive, this time profiling a slightly older Jagger than before. The frontman, his stock rising at this point as he's pushing 30, is asked, "Can you picture yourself at the age of 60 doing what you're doing now?" And with a smile, he quickly returns, "Easily, yeah."
Thus the Stones' encore, consisting of "Brown Sugar" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," becomes one last "told you so" from Jagger to the world. These are the same Stones they've always been, and believe it or not, they're defying age better than ever.
