The only real documentary elements come out at the very beginning of the film and after every two or three songs. It starts off with Martin trying to arrange the setlist and stage at The Beacon Theater in New York City. While Martin is a serious filmmaker, The Stones are still rebellious rockstars at heart and wouldn't give him a final setlist until they had already started their first song. It is kind of funny to see such a serious man like Martin Scorsese so flustered at the hands of some immature 70 year old men. Once the concert starts though, that is the last you see of Martin himself. After every few songs, there is a cut to old archive footage of The Rolling Stones throughout the years. These bits of old reels are very interesting and it almost makes we want Scorsese to do a real documentary of them from their start to today.
Fortunately, The Stones are not alone at their concert and they have a few special guest appearances along the way. Jack White from the White Stripes, Christina Aguilera, and the legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy all show up and play a song with The Stones. All of the talent of these performers really shines when they all get together. I wasn't a fan of The Stones before, but when they played with Buddy Guy I was. Throughout the night, they pull from their absolutely enormous bag of songs and hits through the years and really give their fans a taste of every phase that the band went through.
The Blu-ray release is slightly questionable since there aren't too many moments that really need that high definition flare, but this version does have a few extra songs that were not shown in theaters and behind the scenes features. Interestingly though, Martin Scorsese did film Shine A Light while he was still in production for The Departed which is just a fun fact that might explain the lackluster "documentary" aspects of the film. Overall, Shine A Light is a no brainer for fans of The Rolling Stones, and as for everyone else, it is still a solid concert that shows legends of the business schooling the world on how to put on an excellent show.
