'Shine a Light' about the music

It was, and still is, about the music. That's all, really. Don't make more out of it than that.

"Shine a Light" mostly features a concert given by the Rolling Stones in New York City in 2006.  Filmed and directed by Martin Scorsese, it is a very good movie about a band in a concert. Two concerts actually, each played in 2006 at the Beacon Theater, performances scheduled to film for this movie. 

Of course it was well filmed. It was done by Scorsese, one of the finest directors for the last 40 years.

But the movie is not a documentary. It is not a retrospective. It does not attempt to find "meaning" in Rock and Roll, the Rolling Stones or the era in which they hit international awareness.

It is odd that of all the bands from the '60s, it is the Stones that are still around - that they are still alive for crying out loud - and still making music. The smooth faced boys have suffered the inevitable ravages of testosterone poisoning, and show the effects of cigarettes and growing older and being male for over 40 years. 

But they are in remarkably good shape, outliving so many of their contemporaries and their audiences, despite a reputation for self abuse. Their music is still very compelling. 

We may have always misjudged them. That was a surprise. The realization that they have always been pretty much just about the music, that Watts is quietly and simply straightforward, Jagger is just funny and smart and centered, Richards is a guitarist with a heart and sense of fun, and Wood a straightforward guy. They loved their music.

If we didn't get that, we may have used them to take ourselves too seriously.

Full songs are played in the film, but even with a great number of cameras, (with Mick Jagger worried about how all the cameras would affect the experience of the live audience), Scorsese used restraint. Often in the last few years, overeager film editors have thought they were part of the performance, cutting in camera angles to time with the music, creating a jagged and difficult-to-watch experience for anyone not on drugs.

Scorsese doesn't do this. His cameras capture the Stones giving a great concert in a small theater in New York. He lets the Stones perform, occasionally with wonderful guests, and there isn't really much to add. 

And through the music and a few interviews past and present, the very individual characters of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood come across. 

Richards was a surprise. His frequent smile, his sense of fun and play, his camaraderie with band-mates and other performers, his apparent compassion for fans. 

Jagger remains his androgynous best, not really graceful, but driving the musical experience with his face and his body and the force of personality as much as Watts does with his pounding drums.

Richards and Wood on guitars remain quite powerful. Richards says it best: (As individual guitarists) "we are both pretty lousy, but together we are better than ten of the others."

What can you say about Watts that he hasn't said? He won't, either.

Flashbacks to earlier interviews seem to confirm that it was about the music back in the '60s and '70s, too. Despite suggestive lyrics, the  Stones do not seem in retrospect to be revolutionaries. Their interviews back then are wry, boys on holiday in life and really having a laugh.

Flashbacks do not make this a documentary. They are short, to the point, provide a little context, a few laughs. Like baby-faced Mick Jagger in the 1960s guessing the band would be able to perform for another year. 

Yes, members of the band got busted for drugs. But a lot of people were using drugs back then. They were singing songs with rough lyrics mostly written by Jagger and Richards but songs that had heritage from the Delta Blues and Country and older Rock and Roll, songs about drinking and reefer and heartbreak.

It comes across that they were on stage back then, too, performing, putting on a show, and loving the music they played. That's all. That was enough.

The film probably could have been shorter, by a song or two. There are some distractions at the beginning while Scorsese pretends for a bit it isn't just a film about the Stones and their music and a concert he filmed.

But it is a worthwhile movie for anyone who enjoyed the Stones when the songs were new. It is worthwhile for anyone curious about the compelling nature of the Stones and Rock and Roll. It is worthwhile for anyone just curious.

But don't go if you are not going to enjoy the music. That's what "Shine a Light" is about.