Shine a Light

First off, let me say that I am not a fan of concert movies, even if they are directed by Martin Scorsese. Lee doesn’t agree with me. She has fond memories of The Last Waltz. I saw it, but can’t remember anything about it except that it happened in Winterland, where I saw a few concerts in the ‘60s. The only concert film I can recall really loving is Woodstock, and that’s a lot more than a concert film.

Second off, I’ve never been a big Rolling Stones fan. Sure, they’re iconic, they have some numbers that move me, but I’ll bet I couldn’t assemble two sides of a vinyl LP with the songs that I really love. I’ve never liked rock singers and guitarists that posture, and Mick Jagger is the boss-hog posturer. They say he’s a great dancer, but Lee, who likes him and the Stones a lot more than I do, feels that he just prances. In either case, I really don’t enjoy seeing a man whose appetite for adulation is so … immense. But what the hell. Lee wanted to see it, and the Netflix sleeve said it was only 1 hour and 40 minutes long. I could watch for 100 minutes.

Well, Netflix lied. The film runs 122 minutes. At 100, I checked out. I’d had about all of The Mick I could stand. My god, these guys are so old! If they were Americans, all but one of them could be collecting Social Security. Their turkey necks, the deep ridges in their faces … Keith Richards looks like he’s wearing heavy eye makeup, and I don’t think he is. His face is a WWI battlefield, all trenches and barbed wire. In his favor, he seems to have generously let a family of pack rats move into his hair and bring all their stuff. How long will these dudes keep it up? As long as people keep coming, I guess. Jagger is estimated to be half a billionaire, so it ain’t the money. It might be the joy of making music … but they didn’t convince me. But, as I said, I’m a sourpuss.

(Note) The IMDb says there’s an IMAX version of this. Ohmigod! Just watching it on our 42-inch hi-def screen brought me much, much closer than I wanted to be. I can’t imagine looking up Mick’s nose in IMAX.