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Category:    Home > Reviews > Concert > Rock > Pop > Large Frame Format > Shine A Light (Martin Scorsese/The Rolling Stones/Blu-ray + DVD-Video/Paramount DVD)

Shine A Light (Martin Scorsese/The Rolling Stones/Blu-ray + DVD-Video/Paramount DVD)

 

Picture: B+/B-     Sound: B+/B-     Extras: C+     Film: B-

 

 

Second only to Urban/Crime/Gangster films, music films are Martin Scorsese’s biggest preoccupation cinematically.  Hardly anyone knows how to use music like he does and his love of all music is obvious.  From editing work on Woodstock to his dark Musical tribute New York, New York, to his Music Video for Michael Jackson’s Bad, to The Last Waltz often being referred to as the final Rockumentary (at least of the classical period), there is no doubt about his grasp of music.

 

The Rolling Stones have given so many concerts, they may have even lost count, but they also have done more than their share of filmed and taped concerts, including more concerts released in movie theaters than any other act we could come up with, including Let’s Spend The Night Together, Rolling Stones At The MAX, Godard’s Sympathy For The Devil (aka 4 X 4) and their classic appearance in the little-seen all-time classic The T.A.M.I. Show.  Now, the “Greatest Rock N Roll Band in the World” and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time have directly joined forces for what is the band’s second IMAX release (few have even seen the large-frame format) and Shine A Light (2008) is the result.

 

It is funny, amusing, has some good music numbers, was a benefit for friend and former President Bill Clinton and includes guests like Blues legend Buddy Guy, Christina Aguilera and Jack White III of the always underrated White Stripes.  It is a good concert, but Scorsese tries to do different things throughout and sees it as an opportunity to experiment.  This can be interesting, but sometimes does not, holding back the full impact of what many expected to be a slam dunk party concert.  However, it is still interesting and shows that the reasons Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of all time is because he refuses to skip any opportunity to grow as an artist.

 

The result is more hit than miss, though I still felt after 121 minutes, there were also missed opportunities and maybe we’ll see some of those realized down the line, but this is still good and worth your time.

 

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in 35mm, 16mm and even High Definition video, not even including the archive footage, some of which looks like kinescope or videotape, but none was shot in IMAX, though I forgot this when seeing it in IMAX as Scorsese pushes the 35mm to the limit and 1.33 X 1 block-style limits at that; a frame he associates with the Classical Hollywood Musical.  This looks pretty good here throughout, even with the documentary-style drops in quality, form footage then and now.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD even looks good for low-def, though I still think the Blu is missing some of the better detail I saw in the IMAX print.  Robert Richardson is the main Director of Photography, but had no less than 18 camera operators helping him and Scorsese.

 

Among them are some of the top living cinematographers including Stuart Dryburgh, Robert Elswit, Ellen Kuras, Emmanuel Lubezki and John Toll.  (You can see the whole list at 1:58 on either disc).

 

The Blu-ray has three sound mixes: PCM 2.0 Stereo for some purists, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless and though the DTS is slightly clearer than the TrueHD, none are as impressive as the Sonics-DDP presentation in IMAX with all of its speakers and power.  The DVD only offers good, but not great, Dolby Digital 5.1.  Needless to say though the DVD is good for the format, it is no match for the Blu-ray.

 

Extras include a behind the scenes featurette and four bonus performances: Undercover Of The Night, Paint It Black, Little T&A and I’m Free.  Not bad, but maybe there was room for one more goodie?  Either way, a good, if not great, concert release.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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