The best and worst thing I can say about Martin
Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light, is that
it perfectly sums up what the Stones have become.
There’s no question: The Rolling Stones were, at one point, the best
band that ever lived, brilliant and powerful and unfuckwithable. They
also haven’t been that band for 30 years.
The cheesily directed Shine a Light captures a 2006 show by
the now zombie-like Stones at New York’s Beacon Theater, and it’s
exactly what you’d expect: Mick Jagger howls and pouts; Keith Richards
dodders; and Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood fade into the background
while Jack White, Buddy Guy, and Christina Aguilera are trotted out for
guest appearances. (Of these, the only noteworthy one is
White’s—endearingly, the dude just can’t contain his glee at
sharing a mic with Jagger.) It’s a good show, I guess, in that the
Stones do a fine job playing some of their best songs, but it’s also
terrible, in that you catch brief, exhilarating reminders that the
Stones used to be the coolest motherfuckers on the planet. Those
glimmers serve the unintended purpose, though, of heartbreakingly
reminding you who the Stones are now. (I mean, how badass can a band
really be when Bill Clinton’s the opening act, and Hillary—and
her mom!—are in the crowd bouncing along to “Brown Sugar”?)
Ironically, the more interesting stuff is the archival footage
Scorsese stingily inserts throughout: Watching the young Stones stammer
their way through interviews at the start of their careers is far
cooler than watching Jagger lurch around onstage like a possessed
skeleton, one more time. “We’re both pretty lousy,” Richards says in
one clip, when an interviewer asks whether Richards or Wood is the
better guitarist. “But together, we’re better than 10 others.” Amen to
that, and here’s hoping Scorsese has another Stones film in
him—one that focuses on what made the band great, rather than on
what they are now.
