Shine a Light (2008)

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Release Date:

4 April 2008 (Brazil)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

A career-spanning documentary on the Rolling Stones, with concert footage from their "A Bigger Bang" tour.

Plot Keywords:

Concert Film | IMAX Version | Archive Footage | Rock Music | Singing

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Mick Jagger	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Keith Richards	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Charlie Watts	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Ron Wood	...	Himself (as Ronnie Wood)
Christina Aguilera	...	Herself
Buddy Guy	...	Himself
Jack White	...	Himself (as Jack White III)
Darryl Jones	...	Himself
Lisa Fischer	...	Herself
Bernard Fowler	...	Himself
Blondie Chaplin	...	Himself
Chuck Leavell	...	Himself
Bobby Keys	...	Himself
Tim Ries	...	Himself
Martin Scorsese	...	Himself
Bill Clinton	...	Himself
Robert Richardson	...	Himself (as Bob Richardson)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Byrdie Bell	...	Herself
Gary Cherkassky	...	Paparazzi (as Igor Cherkassky)
Hillary Rodham Clinton	...	Herself
Aleksander Kwasniewski	...	Himself
Kimberly Magness	...	Herself
Albert Maysles	...	Himself
Rebecca Merle	...	Red Carpet VIP
Michael Ciesla	...	Stagecrew (uncredited)
Michael Gross	...	Fan at concert (uncredited)
Brian Jones	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
Bruce Willis	...	Himself (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
Bill Wyman	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)

Directed by
Martin Scorsese

Produced by
Steve Bing	....	producer
Michael Cohl	....	producer
Mick Jagger	....	executive producer
Victoria Pearman	....	producer
Keith Richards	....	executive producer
Jane Rose	....	co-executive producer
Charlie Watts	....	executive producer
Zane Weiner	....	producer
Ron Wood	....	executive producer (as Ronnie Wood)

Cinematography by
Robert Richardson

Film Editing by
David Tedeschi

Makeup Department
Caroline Clements	....	hair department head
Caroline Clements	....	makeup department head
Bridget O'Neill	....	makeup artist: second unit, New York
Jeffrey Rebelo	....	key hair stylist: New York
Patricia Regan	....	key makeup artist: New York

Production Management
Brad Arensman	....	post-production supervisor
Kelley Cribben	....	post-production supervisor
Carol Cuddy	....	unit production manager
Carla Raij	....	assistant production manager
Paul Springer	....	post-production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Eric Richard Lasko	....	additional second assistant director
Amy Lauritsen	....	second assistant director
Joseph P. Reidy	....	first assistant director
John Silvestri	....	second second assistant director
Peter Thorell	....	second assistant director: second unit
Richard E. White	....	additional assistant director

Art Department
Manuel Plank-Jorge	....	storyboard artist

Sound Department
Marko A. Costanzo	....	foley artist
Chris Fielder	....	assistant sound editor
Tom Fleischman	....	sound re-recording mixer
Bret Johnson	....	sound re-recordist
George A. Lara	....	foley mixer
Danny Michael	....	sound recordist
Fred Rosenberg	....	dialogue editor
Philip Stockton	....	supervising sound editor

Visual Effects by
Ron Ames	....	visual effects producer
Vlad Bina	....	digital set designer
Danny Braet	....	digital effects supervisor
Paola Chavez	....	DMR digital artist: IMAX
Adam Gerstel	....	visual effects editor
Ben Grossmann	....	visual effects supervisor: The Syndicate
Alex Henning	....	lead compositor: The Syndicate
Dragos Jieanu	....	painter
Sam Khorshid	....	visual effects
Stephen Lawes	....	compositor
Stephen Lawes	....	main title designer
Robert Legato	....	consultant
Tracey McLean	....	DMR artist
Alexandru Popescu	....	painter
Madhava Reddy	....	digital intermediate
Shinichi Rembutsu	....	visual effects artist
Mag Sarnowska	....	DMR: IMAX
Jonathan Stone	....	visual effects producer: The Syndicate
Wilson Tang	....	digital restoration
Rainy Venne	....	DMR artist (IMAX version)
Magdalena Wolf	....	visual effects coordinator: The Syndicate
Jesse Klein	....	assistant visual effects editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Mitchell Amundsen	....	camera operator
James W. Apted	....	assistant camera
Hilary Benas	....	camera loader
Kelly Britt	....	electrician
Patrick Capone	....	camera operator
Sean Cassidy	....	dolly grip
Chris Centrella	....	key grip
Howard Davidson	....	dolly grip
David Devlin	....	lighting director
Robert DiGiacomo	....	assistant camera
Stuart Dryburgh	....	camera operator
David M. Dunlap	....	camera operator
Robert Elswit	....	camera operator
Kevin Gilligan	....	dolly grip
Phil Gosiewski	....	film camera technician
John Grillo	....	first assistant camera
Chris Haarhoff	....	steadicam operator
Michael Haertlein	....	camera runner
George Hennah	....	first assistant camera
Barry Idoine	....	supervising first assistant camera
Tony C. Jannelli	....	camera operator
Lukasz Jogalla	....	camera operator
Denny Kortze	....	second assistant camera
John Krause	....	dolly grip
Jeff Kunkel	....	dolly grip
Ellen Kuras	....	camera operator
Andrew Lesnie	....	camera operator
Abby Levine	....	video engineer
Emmanuel Lubezki	....	camera operator
Lindsay Mann	....	camera runner
Anastas N. Michos	....	camera operator
Adam Miller	....	second assistant camera
Zac Nicholson	....	camera production assistant
Christopher Piazza	....	film loader
Declan Quinn	....	camera operator
Leigh Rathner	....	assistant camera
Brad Rea	....	dolly grip
Jim Richards	....	chief lighting technician
Lance Rieck	....	remote head technician
Andrew Rowlands	....	camera operator
Liz Sales	....	assistant camera
Gerard Sava	....	camera operator
Randy Schwartz	....	additional camera loader
Steven Search	....	first assistant camera
Gregor Tavenner	....	additional first assistant camera
John Toll	....	camera operator
Christina Voros	....	camera runner
Harry Zimmerman	....	first assistant camera
Stephanie Zimmer	....	assistant camera

Casting Department
Jennifer Sabel	....	extras casting

Editorial Department
Stephen Nakamura	....	digital film colorist
Devin Sterling	....	digital intermediate producer
Stephen P. Arkle	....	digital intermediate colorist (uncredited)
Mark Sahagun	....	digital intermediate editor (uncredited)
Marc Wielage	....	colorist (uncredited)

Music Department
Bob Clearmountain	....	music mixer
Tass Filipos	....	music editor

Other crew
Ethan Anderson	....	production assistant
Jack Bavaro	....	first assistant production accountant
Peter Brogna	....	film runner
Victoria Carter	....	production secretary
Daniel B. Cone	....	set production assistant
Roberto De Jesus	....	mag runner
Deb Dyer	....	production accountant
Glenn Ferrara	....	production assistant
Jason Fesel	....	set production assistant
Grant Gaughen	....	set production assistant
Chris Gibson	....	key set production assistant
Bill Gula	....	photosonics operator
Alex Horwitz	....	production assistant
Chiemi Karasawa	....	script supervisor
James Klayer	....	key loader
Kip Myers	....	location assistant
Craig Nix	....	techno crane
Matthew Pratt-Hewitt	....	film runner
Morgan Roche	....	additional office production assistant
Nicholas Thomason	....	assistant production coordinator
Mimi Turner	....	location manager
Kim Weiler	....	travel coordinator
Larry Yelen	....	archival clearance

Production Companies

• Concert Promotions International
• Shangri-La Entertainment

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox Australia (2008) (Australia) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Australia (2008) (New Zealand) (theatrical)
• Bazuca Films (2008) (Chile) (theatrical)
• Best Film CO (2008) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Bioscop (2008) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• D Productions (2008) (Turkey) (all media)
• Distribution Company (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Filmes Lusomundo (2008) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Golden Scene (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Golden Village Entertainment (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Imagem Filmes (2008) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Kinowelt Filmverleih (2008) (Germany) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Nashe Kino (2008) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Paramount Vantage (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• RCV Film Distribution (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Tohokushinsha Film (2007) (Japan) (all media)
• Tohokushinsha Film (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Company (2008) (UK) (theatrical)
• Türk Film (2008) (Yugoslavia) (theatrical)
• United King Films (2008) (Israel) (all media)
• United King Films (2008) (Israel) (theatrical)
• Vértigo Films (2008) (Spain) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• ARRI / Camera Service Center  camera equipment provided by
• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Fortissimo Films  international sales
• Interscope Records  soundtrack
• Soundtrack F/T  sound post-production

Also Known As:

Shine a Light (USA) (working title)
Shine a Light: The IMAX Experience (USA) (IMAX version)
Untitled Rolling Stones Documentary (USA) (working title)
Untitled Stones/Scorsese Film (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking. (edited for re-rating; originally rated R for some language)

Runtime:

Argentina:122 min | USA:122 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) | DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | Australia:M | Germany:o.Al. | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #43785) | Finland:S | Norway:A | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Ireland:12A | Sweden:Btl | Hong Kong:IIA

Filming Locations:

Beacon Theatre, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Concert Promotions International

Trivia:

As Keith Richards sings "You Got the Silver", he wears a trench-coat with a pirate pin on the collar. This is a gift from working on Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).

Quotes:

Keith Richards: Hi, Clinton. I'm "Bushed"!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2008-04-05)" (2008)

aka: 'Some Country for Old Men'

Shine a Light displays, thrillingly and with the bombastic POP of a revisited 'happy place', why many love the Rolling Stones and many love the style of Martin Scorsese. It's mostly a concert movie shot over a period of two mights at the Beacon theater (as if doing a workhorse revival of thirty years ago, while Scorsese was busy shooting New York, New York in 76 and doing the Last Waltz concurrently, this time he shot the concert while finishing up the Departed), with some choice documentary footage interspersed in between some songs. On both fronts, however minor the (all archival) interview footage is, it's a big success, visually and musically, as good old rock and roll performance art (well, almost art, but I like it), and as visual virtuosity made incarnate.

It might be easy to adulate the Stones, as well as Scorsese. They've been around for so long, doing what they do, with each side rumored here and there to quit doing what they do (for the Stones it's every tour, much to their grinning bemusement, and for Scorsese it was a point in the 80s when he thought he'd have to leave Hollywood and make documentaries on saints). They're always acclaimed, usually big money-makers, and they've acquired a kind of nether-region between 'cult' audience and full-blown mainstream mayhem. It's this that is, in a way, the subtext for Shine a Light. While Scorsese stays mostly behind the scenes, the Stones are up and front and in center of a marvelous performance, and showcasing the energy and level of pizazz that quiets the naysayers. They sold out, and it doesn't get to them a single bit.

After some funny early footage of Scorsese (shot usually in black and white DV by Albert Maysles, who also appears here and there) getting into a minor tizzy about what the set-list is going to be, and getting some downtime with Bill Clinton, the show starts up like any good Stones show should- Jumpin' Jack Flash. Then onward come some given numbers (Shattered, Brown Sugar, Tumbling Dice), the masterpieces (Sympathy for the Devil, Loving Cup, featuring an awesome Jack White, and Champagne and Reefer with an equally awesome Buddy Guy), and a lot of unexpected tracks too (Live with Me with showy Aguilera, As Tears go By, some country song, and a kick-ass She Was Hot). For fans it's an amazing mix, and it allows for those who are just casual admirers to get their money's worth, primarily in IMAX. This is not just because of the quality of the music and the performances- which is, at its best, revelatory of what this band can do, at any age- but because of Scorsese's cameras, moving around in epic and roving fashion, edited with efficiency to not go all over the place or too slow, and, chiefly, to make it intimate like how many remember the Last Waltz to be (lots of neatly defined close-ups, lingering on to capture these hardened rockers).

And at the end, what is the point? Is it just another blah-blah Stones concert movie? Not necessarily. It doesn't have the heavy sociological context of Gimme Shelter, however it's not a little sloppy like Let's Spend the Night Together. Shine a Light celebrates its heroes, but it doesn't go completely overboard. Scorsese knows, as he did with Bob Dylan, not to get too cocky with these fogies. It's important to throw in those bits with the Stones getting interviewed, candid and without much overbearing ego present, and by the end you know there's still a place for them, firmly, in the public consciousness. They sold out in the most ironically good way in rock music history, with Scorsese now wonderfully in tow. A+