Now I saw the Stones live back in '89, and it was an awesome show. But in a stadium that holds 60,000 people, you just don't get to see much of the stage. Even though they project it up on the screens, you still can't see well. Shine A Light allowed me to relive that show, only this time I was able to see the band up close.
Shine A Light isn't so much a movie as it is a concert with interviews and even older interview footage interspersed in the breaks. There are interviews with quite a lot of people associated with the band. Personally, I liked seeing the old interview footage the best. Seeing how the band looked when they first started out was really different. Listening to their thoughts on the music then and comparing them to their ideas now was quite interesting. There are also guest appearances from Buddy Guy, Jack White, and Christina Aguilera.
Martin Scorsese is a genius at getting the best out of people in his films. He shows how much work goes into putting on a live show. There is so much more to do than most people realize. My favorite conversation was when they were talking about the pyrotechnics. They're talking about how the way they want to set it up won't work because it's too close, and someone (I don't remember who) said "we cannot burn Mick Jagger). That sentence really made me laugh. Anyway, Scorsese shows exactly what he wants and gets the feelings across that he wants conveyed.
There are a few special features on the DVD including a featurette and some bonus songs for those of you who didn't get enough already in the film. Overall, Shine A Light was a good documentary. I wouldn't really call it a movie though. If you're looking for a movie, you might want to go somewhere else, but if you're a Rolling Stones fan, you'll really enjoy this documentary.
