Director: Martin Scorsese
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.0
After all the Rolling Stones have done for music, it seems downright disrespectful to speak poorly of this Martin Scorsese-directed concert film of them, but two things are certain: (1.) after playing, say, "Satisfaction" for roughly thirty plus years, you sort of go into auto-pilot and (2.) film is still a mostly inadequate medium for recording concerts (having been to more than a few, there's something to be said for being in a crowd of people, being bumped/shoved into, having your hearing blown and feeling the music vibrating all around you). Scorsese makes it an intimate affair by recording it inside the Beacon - instead of, for example, Madison Square Garden - and having the concert 'mean something' - it's a benefit for environmental awareness (President Clinton and a lot of other white people show up) - but for the Stones, it's automatic and a 'performance' in every sense (little impulsiveness, in other words). Naturally, I have no problem with them continuing to perform in their mid-to-late 60's and even beyond, and their tenacity is proof that rock and roll should never (and hopefully will never) die - unlike so many other bands, I still believe they're in it for the music and less so for the money. But no one can tell me that a 65-year-old can do the same as a 30-year-old. At least it looks shiny and bright: the list of camera operators reads like a who's who of modern cinematography (Richardson, Elswit, Kuras, Lubezki, Maysles, Toll … wow).
