It goes without saying that Martin Scorsese has a jones for the Stones.
Having featured "Gimme Shelter" in three of his films -- Goodfellas, Casino and, most recently, The Departed -- the director gets much satisfaction from the British rock stars' music.
In what must have been a difficult executive decision, Scorsese refrained from featuring the song in his new concert documentary Shine a Light, which takes a look at a two-night performance from The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour.
But it's not just a song that he omits; the depth and fullness evident in his previous music profiles The Last Watz and No Direction Home is also missing.
With Bill and Hillary Clinton in the audience, this concert is a high-class affair of A-list talent featuring musical guests Jack White, Buddy Guy and Christina Aguilera, who each perform one song with the band.
Scorsese steals the show for the first semi-scripted 10 minutes, which is shot in a mostly grainy black and white, as the director runs around in the hours leading up to the show to make sure everything's perfect. Exercising full-blown neurosis, Scorsese begs the band to reveal its set list to him before the concert starts, so he can prepare the cameramen and lighting crew for certain shots.
He soon vanishes into the crowd like an anonymous, faceless fan once "Jumpin' Jack Flash" starts up.
The videos from backstage and from the interviews provide for some of the film's best moments, smoothing out the long list of musical numbers.
Instead of giving viewers a glimpse of Mick Jagger and company rocking out in a massive amphitheater, this concert is held in the Beacon Theatre in New York City, a 2,000-seat, much more intimate setting. The camera is always in close-up mode and is intently focused on the convulsive, emaciated Jagger gliding up and down the stage. The band, having formed in 1962, is still as vibrant and enthused as it ever was.
"I don't think on stage," guitarist and vocalist Keith Richards said in an interview in the documentary. "I feel."
However, the film could have benefited from less footage from the concert and more from the antsy, scrupulous Scorsese.
Brief archived footage from early and more recent interviews with the band is spliced in between song performances. The band members, even as naïve scamps in their early 20s, expressed a typically apathetic rock star attitude to the press' trivial questions, such as "What question do you get asked the most often?" Richards with a cigarette hanging from his charred lips smugly replies, "That one you just asked."
The Band and Bob Dylan have served as previous subjects of interest for Scorsese, the recurring theme being musicians who revolutionized the status of rock music from the 1960s on. These works dug into the core of the artists' minds and observed the melancholy behind the music.
Shine a Light, however, is all too slight, even by Scorsese's groupie standards. But, if there's a message to be had, it's that a light shines brightly on this legendary rock band that will seemingly never burn out or fade away.
Grade: B-
