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
