STUDIO: Paramount
RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2008
STARRING: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera, Jack White III
DIRECTED BY: Martin Scorsese
FEATURES: 4 Bonus Performances - “Undercover of the Night,” “Paint it Black,” Little T&A,” and “I’m Free.”
Behind the Scenes Featurette

Here’s something you might not know: By the time Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, The Rolling Stones already had ten studio albums under their belt. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Say what you will about The Rolling Stones, but they really are the biggest band in the world. I mean in music, stature, significance, impact, and the whole package. Before I get into this review, I have to give some perspective on these guys from my own experience.

If you asked me twenty years what I thought of The Stones, it would have been a different story. Then I saw them live on their Voodoo Lounge tour when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were both 51. In fact, the night I saw them was Richards’ 51st birthday. That’s when it changed for me. Seeing the level of energy the guys had in their 50s blew me away. Watching Jagger run from one end of the near football field sized stage to the other all night long was nothing short of amazing. Hell, there aren’t a lot of guys in their 20s who can do that for ten minutes let alone three hours. The funny thing about it is that back then I thought of them as a bunch of old men. Fourteen years later The Stones are still making new music, touring, and hitting it as hard as they ever were back then. And now they really are old men. When you step away from all of the cliché “old guy” jokes, The Rolling Stones really are the biggest band in the world. Although they’ve become more of a corporate machine over the years, they’ve certainly earned the title.

Just when you thought The Stones would take a well-deserved and understandable break after their 2006-07 “A Bigger Bang” tour, the aging rockers (now in their mid-to-late 60s) dove headfirst back into the spotlight in 2008 with director Martin Scorsese to do press for the documentary Shine A Light. We all know that Scorsese has a deep passion for music, dating back to his first documentary The Last Waltz and the chronicling of the final performance of The Band to his stellar exploration of the life of Bob Dylan with No Direction Home. When the news hit the wires that Scorsese was teaming up with The Stones for Shine A Light, it only seemed fitting since the acclaimed director is a generational product of the band’s early era and their rise to prominence.

Despite having an on-again, off-again love affair with The Stones over the years, Shine A Light is an explosively absorbing cinematic spectacle. Filmed inside the Beacon Theatre in New York City across two nights in 2006, Shine A Light starts off with a preliminary look at the preparation and set up for the show set to clips and historical Stones footage before ex-President turned celebrity Bill Clinton takes to the stage to introduce the band. That’s right, “the” Bill Clinton. How can you not call The Stones the biggest band in the world when you have an ex-President as your opening act? Given how The Stones have been around for 45 years, lasting through some of 20th Century’s most significant world events, it would have been more fitting if Scorsese flew in Fidel Castro to introduce the band. But I won’t go there.

The show kicks off with the exhilarating “Jumpin Jack Flash” before Scorsese weaves in interviews with the band from their early days of their explosive first decade in the 1960s and then back to the Beacon concert. At one point, the behind-the-scenes tension can be felt when Scorsese attempts to give direction to band, insisting that he needs to know the order of the songs to get things started. It’s the kind of moment that all great documentaries should be filled with. The impact of The Stones can be felt throughout, but it’s the bold and ballsy confidence of Jagger in the early interview footage that gives even more support to an already powerful experience. In one ‘60s segment, Jagger tells a reporter they’re already seasoned players, having released two studio albums. It’s like Babe Ruth pointing to the bleachers, telling the pitcher where he’s going to knock it out of the park. Although the only obvious signs of wear and tear appear when Scorsese shines a close up light on Mick, Keith, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts, their faces crackling with ghosts of Kennedy, MLK, the Vietnam War, Reaganomics, Gorbachov, Margaret Thatcher, and more, it’s clear The Stones luck hasn’t run out after all these years.

Traversing through mostly rock and blues, including the trademark Stones on “Shattered,” “She Was Hot,” and “All Down the Line”, the Beacon show is ripe with engrossing visceral highlights with only a few awkward lows. While legendary bluesman Buddy Guy joins the band onstage for an outstanding version of Muddy Waters’ “Champagne and Reefer”, Jack White of The White Stripes and Christina Aguilera take to the stage for a couple of individual duets, with White singing with Mick on with “Loving Cup” and Aguilera joining Jagger on "Live with Me". When you see the inconsistent contrast between each of these performances, it only amplifies how The Stones really are the biggest band in the world. In this case, big enough for The Stones to stand toe-to-toe with Buddy Guy but way to big for both White and Aguilera to handle. Although Aguilera holds her own relatively well in vocals, White’s style is a bit too awkward for it to work effectively. It’s kind of like if you threw The Stones and The Ramones on stage together to see what would happen. Their appearances are cool contemporary nods on behalf of Scorsese, but it proves that once The Stones do retire (if ever) the music scene will be lacking a certain sense of true rock and showmanship, driven home even more when they cut into “Sympathy for the Devil”.

After Keith takes lead vocals on “You Got Silver”, sans guitar, Shine A Light cranks into high gear with "Start Me Up", and "Brown Sugar" before The Stones bring the house down with “Satisfaction”. As a DVD, Shine A Light is mostly a film only disc with only a few goodies that include behind-the-scenes footage with interviews and rehearsals, and the deleted tracks “Undercover of the Night,” “Paint it Black,” Little T&A,” and “I’m Free.” Although Martin Scorsese could have easily made a doc about The Stones in the same manner as No Direction Home, instead he lets the music and spectacle of the band speak for itself. Shine A Light shines an impressive light on The Rolling Stones in the best way possible through their music, stature, significance, and impact… the whole package.

For more on Shine A Light, check out our interview Shining a Light with The Stones and Scorsese.