Review of Shine a Light (2008) by Chads. — 03 Apr 2008

During "Sympathy for the Devil", the filmmaker diverts our attention away from the stage and towards the audience for the first time. The camera cranes over the sweaty humanity, looking for Hell's Angels with knives, perhaps.

The camera acts as faux-surveilance; the sea of New York concertgoers become an unintentional reference point to the hippie revelers who attended Altamont in '69. Or maybe, just maybe, this was the filmmaker's intention, after all.

The connotation of the red lighting might be blood, rather than the flames of hell, or the devil's skin, which you'd initially gauge as the proper interpretation for a song called "Sympathy for the Devil".

If the murders at Altamont are indeed sublimated throughout this song, the filmmaker has found a clever way to indulge in his obsession with graphic violence. When Keith Richards wields that opening lick to "Jumpin' Jack Flash"(used memorably in 1973's "Mean Streets"), "Shine a Light" instantly becomes a New York movie.

With that crucifix hanging around Ron Wood's neck, the Stones' axeman bears a similarity to Johnny Boy(Robert DeNiro). Even though they're both devout Catholics, both men are into drugs("Champagne and Reefer) and skirts(Christina Aguilera).

Pelle Almqvist might've nicked Mick Jagger's moves, but the Glimmer Twin must be a vampire in Brussels, because he seems to have stolen The Hives' frontman's youth. Even though the whit floodlights look like the Stones are bracing themselves for the rapture.

"Shine a Light" sounds like an ELO concert film. They should've called it "Trollin' for Nubiles After All These Years".